I am the luckiest mommy in the world. My husband has a business trip in La Jolla, and my in-laws came to stay at our place with the baby. All of which means I get an adult vacation. Yay! (And I don't miss the little guy at all, not even a little bit, nope, nope, nope. Except when I see other families with babies. And when I think of his cute little face and his cute little smile, and...but aside from all that, not a bit.)

Just having the plane ride free to read and get school work done was great. I spent most of it compiling and analyzing the data from my science fiction vocabulary survey, in preparation for writing the paper due at the end of this month (eek, that's how many days away??).

But then I landed and began my actual vacation. One really nifty thing was getting to meet frausensei in person for the first time. She picked me up at the hotel and took me to La Jolla cove to see the sea caves and go swimming. The water was COLD, and the beach was very rocky, not at all what I'm used to. It was neat, though a little scary, hopping from rock to rock under the water. La Jolla beaches are a nature preserve, so there were actual fish swimming around with us!

Most of the caves are only accessible from the water, but one has a landward entrance, so we paid $4 to walk down a steep flight of slimy, wet stairs, and go see the cave. Then we had to walk back UP the slimy, wet stairs, which was a lot less fun, but at least did not cost any more money.

We decided to come back the next day, since Aaron was still in meetings, and--get this--I got talked into sea kayaking. Admittedly, she didn't have to talk very fast--at first I was dubious, but the more I thought about it, the more the idea of doing something adventurous and that far outside my comfort zone really appealed to me. Even more amazing, the words, "sure, let's go kayaking tomorrow morning" were actually uttered by me. Since frausensei had a doctor appointment this afternoon, we had to go pretty early--to wit, she picked me up at 9:30. Yes, that's a.m.

It was fantastic. Sitting down in the kayak and paddling it out beyond the (very mild) surf was a little scary, until I got used the the idea that the waves would not knock us down and turn us over. The water was just as COLD as yesterday, but the paddling made us warm enough that we didn't really mind. It was a lot of work, but once I got used to it, I really enjoyed it. We still couldn't go into the caves, since they only let you do that with a tour guide, but we saw sea lions! And more little orange fish! And--creepy--cruising leopard sharks, which the brochures assured us were harmless, but I was just as glad not to be snorkeling.

Aaron met me for dinner after his meetings, and we found a seafood restaurant for dinner. And tomorrow his vacation begins. We've got all kinds of fun things planned. It's so nice to have a grownup vacation with my husband--and we don't miss our little guy at all. Not even a little bit.

(Did I mention Z is walking? And that he's cute? And wonderful?)

After the dolphins, we stopped to pick up some beach snacks, and then found a likely beach spot. It was 6pm by then, and beautifully cool and breezy--the ideal time of day to be at the beach. Despite the diminished height of the sun, I slathered on the spf 30 (better safe than sorry, with my pale skin), and headed straight into the surf.

It was a very strong current, and it was all I could do to maintain my balance as the waves came crashing in. Eventually I got out beyond the biggest of the breakers, and was able to jump to meet each arriving wave, floating over the top, or getting smacked in the head if I misjudged. It was utterly exhilarating, and utterly exhausting; I dropped back into my chair feeling wonderful and completely unable to move. Well, except for a snack. And some reading. And then some shell collecting. And then more wave-wrestling.

Oh, it was good. I want more beach!