A Week In SoCal
You know you’re locked in when meet up with your friends and you feel like you haven’t missed a beat. Smiles. Laughs. Jokes. Stories. Reminiscing on old times. Catching up on what’s new. That’s what this past weekend was in San Diego.
Part of this adult thing is everybody spreading out. Meeting up for a weekend means cross-country flights. Shit, even international flights too actually. Socal, Denver, Guyana, Jersey—a little far apart for sure, but easily worth the trek to catch up with my friends.
The weekend started early for me. I flew out to LA and stayed at Fernando’s place. Couch was super comfy and the living room had a view and big windows to wake up with the sun. I’ve slept on a lot of couches this year and Fern’s was up there for sure.
The day I arrived, I got to watch Fern’s soccer team get worked by some people who clearly practice together a few times a week. One of the girls on the other team got a header off a corner. FIFA shit. A guy on the other team almost scored on a bicycle kick and on another play he ran down the ball from like 15 yards behind the person on Fern’s team running for it. Like really really gunning it. Like a pudgy white Tyreek Hill. The level of skill and athleticism was insane. I was a on the sideline geeked, it was fun to watch.
Later we went back, and I got to meet Fern’s roommates, DJ and Joey. Great guys. If yall ever read this I couldn’t be more appreciative of how hospitable you were. DJ, thank you so much for those breakfast tacos and for the ride to the store and the bus stop. Thanks for the great convos too! I really felt like I had known yall longer than a couple of days.
On Thursday, Raheida got off work early, so we headed down to San Diego to beat the traffic (thank you so much for the driving!). There was some fog, so we didn’t get to take in the full beauty of the PCH that day, but we did get plenty of time to catch up on the drive down. Once we got to SD, we met up with one of Raheida’s friends for boba and checked out a bookstore. While I was walking around, I saw “For the Culture” on the shelves. It was surreal to see it as the book was written by Marcus Collins, the best teacher and public speaker I’ve ever had the privilege of seeing. To see his book next to Atomic Habits after having class with him is nuts.
Everyone else arrived that evening. We grabbed some wine, and all caught up. We started by gassing each other up. Rightfully so because everyone is really doing their thing. The stories and laughs we shared were amazing and I’m glad I got to experience them.
The next morning we hit the café right next to our BNB. They said they had a 15-minute wait while 3-quarters of the restaurant was empty—service wasn’t their strong suit. The food was good though. We got a bunch of dishes and shared them family-style so I got to try some breakfast sushi, fig-jam French toast, a breakfast burrito, and an omelet.
We went thrifting after that. Kathie pulled me halfway there in a beach cart until the wheel broke. Probably not the best idea, but it was mad fun to be chauffeured around and mad funny to see people’s faces as we went by. We were acting like some big children. Which I feel like more people should tap into. It’s fun.
After we got back, we chilled at the BNB for a little while then hit the beach for the sunset. Andrew and Jet brought their surfboards and “shred the gnarrrrr” a little bit with the remaining daylight. The rest of us went into the water for a quick refresher and enjoyed the views. Threw the football around too, but the wet and sandy ball coupled with us not having the best hands to begin with meant a lot of dropped passes. Mad fun though nonetheless.
After that, we grabbed some seafood tacos, got some more wine, and played some card games. Super wholesome vibes. My team came back from an 0-2 deficit in code-names to win 3-2. 2016 Cavs vibes.
The next day we hit a café 2 doors down. The spot was solid but the acai bowl was tiny and overpriced. That’s Cali I guess. We left the café and drove over to the Ho Chi Minh trail in La Jolla. It’s an incredible rock-scramble-type trail from a neighborhood up in the hills of La Jolla down to Blacks Beach. The views and rock formations on the trail are dope and even though it’s less than a mile it ends up being pretty challenging. Andrew even did it with a surfboard on his back. Not just a surfboard. A folding foamy. The NIMBL. The first of it’s kind. That he and Jet built. More on that later though, it deserves its own post.
A few of us had some portobellos as a snack at the beginning of the hike down. Just something to give us a little energy for the trip ;). We couldn’t have got a better day for it. The sun was beaming down and it was somewhere in the high 70s/ low 80s. Perfect weather to chill on the beach. We got in the ocean a few times. Bummed out on the beach. Enjoyed the vibes. Cracked jokes. Literally laughing for hours. Tried out the NIMBL. Threw the football around. Baked in the sun. Took in the views.
Sublime.
After we trekked back to the car, we stopped to grab some more $20 acai bowls and then we headed to Kate Sessions Park. If you’re going to San Diego do yourself a favor and catch a sunset there. You don’t get to see the sun itself go down, but you get amazing views of the whole city, a ton of colors in the sky, and a dope view. We people-watched and cracked some more jokes. There were a ton of couples picnicking, so we made a game out of guessing their back stories. Shoutout to the couple playing “We’re not really strangers” for the laughs you unknowingly gave us. We’ll never know, but I stand by yall being on your third date.
Capped the night off with a couple pizzas and some card games. I went back-to-back the first couple of games in Coup. 90s Jordan vibes. Just goat things. After that, my team won in codenames. Don’t mean to brag… but you see the trend. Overall, an incredible day and a great cap to an amazing weekend.
The next day we cleaned up and said bye to Andrew and Jet. They were staying in SD to go lobster fishing later that day. How many people do you know that eat lobster they hand-picked from the Ocean? They’re elite.
After that, we headed back to LA. After a quick stop in Laguna Beach, we made it back and dropped Diante at the airport. I somehow end up seeing Diante every month or 2 so that bye never feels as climactic. Raheida dropped me off at Venice beach and I said bye to Kathie before meeting up with Fern, his roommates, and some of their friends for tacos and tableside Margs.
From there I head to Santa Monica and met up with Marc, Dala, and Trev. Catching up with them and listening to what they’ve been up to gave me so much energy. Like hearing about Marc feeding his creativity and getting into improv while keeping up with hooping a few times a week (even though he still can’t check me). Or hearing about how Dala is now full-time focused on his start-up Kozen. Or seeing how Trev lost 50 lbs and has a whole new swag to him. Everybody’s leveling up and it’s beautiful to see.
The next 2 days we’re pretty chill. Got some work done at a café, walked the pier at the beach, a couple of class pass sessions including a core power class me and Raheida went to (those classes are no joke), a poker night with Fern and his friends, and a bachata and salsa class. I feel like I got as much as I could out of the trip. I just wish I had a few more days to catch up with a few more friends in the area. But it’s all good, I’ll be back.
The day I was supposed to head out to Mexico City (where I’m writing this from), I realized at the airport that I didn’t have my passport. FedEx overnight and a convoluted journey to the Tijuana airport got me here yesterday/today (red-eye flight). Looking forward to this next adventure.
P.S. Time is a crazy thing. I met Diante, Fern, and Raheida in MSTEM and Andrew shortly after during my first week of freshman year. That was in 2016. We’ve been friends longer than 7 years already. Really locked in. I met Kathie senior year and Jet a couple years ago, but I feel like I’ve known them that long too. Here’s to time only bringing us closer. I love yall and can’t wait for the next link-up. I heard Brazil is nice 👀.
