Beach Reunion

20+ years ago, when I was a little rugrat running around good ol' Blacksburg, VA, I had a really good friend named Krishna. Alongside our partners in crime, Christopher (later Chris) and David (later Nathaniel), we bounced happily between the athletic fields and courts of the town (where epic battles were staged), the Piedmont Pool (where lifeguards were tormented), the playgrounds of Margaret Beeks Elementary (where Top Gun was recreated, ad nauseum), and the gnarly, snowcovered hills of Shelor and Gardenspring (where we invented snowboarding). Somehow we managed to squeeze in being the class nerds. Here's a typical period snapshot:

Piedmont Pool, circa 1990

Shortly after this photo was taken, my family relocated to the west coast, and Krishna and I lost contact for some years. In parallel, we independently pursued promising athletic careers, went through horrendous health sagas in 1999-2000, emerged with new perspective on life, embraced a love for nature, and found our way to graduate school. After reconnecting in 2006, we vowed to find a way to meet up again, and finally this past weekend managed to pull it off.

Krishna and his wife Lara (both wildlife biologists) were in San Diego for a conference, and wanted to check out the beach. As luck would have it, once upon a time I lived in the San Diego area, where I spent the better part of 3 years hanging out on the beach. As evidence, here's a photo of the time I turned a seashell into an eating utensil:

Oceanside, 2005

Another typical period shot:

Encinitas, 2005

So I volunteered to play tour guide. We started at San Elijo Lagoon, where we enjoyed an easy little hike, checked out some birds and lizards, and caught up on old times:

San Elijo Lagoon (photo credit Lara P)

Afterward, we grabbed some tasty lunch at Swami's, and enjoyed the view over the famous surf break of the same name:

Swami's lunch (photo credit Lara P)

Next, we cruised up to Moonlight and Stone Steps for a little stroll on the beach:

Beach Studs (photo credit Lara P)

The low-tide, high-cloud scenery was pretty good:

Cloud reflections are cool

Finally, after cruising around town for a bit, we caught the sunset at Seaside in Cardiff. It was a nice one, made better by the company:

Group photo, taken using Shawn's thingee

Seaside sunset

Capping the night off with dinner in Little Italy, I was really struck by what great people Krishna and Lara are, how much we had to talk about after all that time (remarkably we both independently developed an affinity for statistics...weird), and how influential those early childhood years can be in forming bonds and common ground between people. I was also really happy to know that such capable and well-intentioned people are working with wildlife (though sometimes remotely, right Krish?)

One of the year's best days in the outdoors, for sure! Aloha.