Peregrine

This morning, I flew from Salt Lake City (SLC) to Los Angeles (LAX). I arrived before 9am PDT and was driving off in my rental car by 9:30. It only took me about 12 minutes to drive to my hotel in Manhattan Beach, California. Unfortunately, 9:45am is a little early for checking in (officially, this hotel’s check-in time is 3pm). They didn’t have any rooms cleaned, yet.

I knew that I was very close to the beaches and the ocean, though I hadn’t seen them on the flight in (I was sleeping until just before we pulled into our gate) or during my drive to the hotel. But, hey, all I had to do was head west, right? So, I did.

At about 11:45am I finally found a parking place. It turns out that there are two local events going on at Manhattan Beach this weekend, so all the street parking was full. I simply slipped off my Mephisto sandals, walked 1 block west and I was on the sand. By the way, for those of you reading this from Utah, that’s not 1 Utah block (6-8/mile), it’s 1 block like most of the rest of world has them (12-13/mile).

I walked slowly north along the water’s edge, letting the inbound tide lap over my feet & around my ankles, listening to the sounds of the surf and wind. It was only about 73 degrees Faranheit (approximately 22 degrees Centigrade) with a lightly filtered Sun playing it’s light over the land and sea. The water felt as though it were only 5 or 6 degrees cooler. There were very few people among the sands in this direction, affording a peaceful, easy stroll with little distraction.

After about a mile of almost pristine beach, I turned back south, retracing my already vanished footprints. The tide continued to lull it’s way in, a little further with every other attempt. I walked a little faster on the return trip, as I had no sunscreen on and I do not wish to inflict a lobster impression on my students this week. The whole walk took merely 45 well-spent minutes. It was really quite relaxing.

I drove off to head back to the hotel and see if I could check-in, yet. However, a Fry’s Electronics caught me, instead. I spent about an hour perusing through all the wonderful treasures (and even more stuff I don’t really want). This has to be the smallest Fry’s there is. From there, I made it to the hotel, got into my room, unpacked my suitcase for the week and this notebook. A moment before I began writing this post, I awoke from a quick nap. This room is basically a studio apartment, with a full kitchen. I think I’ll have to do a little grocery shopping and cook all (well, at least most of) my meals for the week.

Though it occasionally happens, ’tis not often I have time for relaxation in my business travels.

Ah … lazy days.