Oh man I love Ocean Beach, CA. Not the one
near San Francisco (too cold), the one in San Diego. The affectionately dubbed,
“Berkley at the Beach”, Ocean Beach.
Yeah it’s a beach town with several of its
streets ending at stair cases/maneuverable cliffs that lead down to little
pockets of paradise. There is a dog beach, a great surf break, a pier for
fishing, and numerous bars and restaurants. All of this is super cool, obviously.
But what makes OB my favorite little beach town is the attitude. It’s lazy,
happy, easy going and perhaps not the cleanest of beach towns. It’s main street
hostel and laid back environment make it a hot spot for homeless youth. There
is a lot of curious smoking action going on along its famous Sunset Cliffs. I’m
not really selling it, am I?
Good.
Ocean Beach is not nearly as crowded with
tourists, drunk ass spring breakers, or many inland San Diegans because of its
“hippy” feel…and the fact that there is really only one way in and out. Sure,
there are multi-million dollar homes, some gentrification and yuppie presence,
but there are way more happy, content,
surf babies of all ages.
In my tenure in San Diego, OB is where I ended
my stay, and also where I wish I had spent more of my time. This past weekend I
went back to OB to (finally) witness its annual Christmas Parade. It was
glorious.
The “floats” were flatbed trucks or gardener
trucks jam packed with very happy folks.
There were clear winners such as the Big Lebowski float or the decked
out fire engines.
But there were way more OB style floats that just made me so happy I could cry (and that may have been Adrienne’s sherbet punch at work). There was a brigade of old VW bugs all lit up, a tween band playing Bob Marley in the back of some dad’s truck, a double decker bus that simply said, “we just wanted to be in the parade”, and a samba dance line all decked out in sexy Santa costumes.
Kids in their pajamas, dogs with antlers, parents with red cups. It was just so stinking joyous.
