San Diego Vacation

Autumn and I took a trip to San Diego for about ten days, and we were able to squeeze one weekend of that time into a fast expedition to Ensenada, Mexico. Our journey began in the east bay. There's a BART station very close to Autumn's apartment so we walked there in the morning and caught a train to the Oakland airport. BART doesn't actually go to the airport itself, you have to grab a shuttle bus from BART at the station closest to the airport which is no big deal. My glasses broke while we were riding on the shuttle bus. One of the two screws holding the frame together completely backed off allowing a lens to pop out and bounce off the floor. I was sad.

We were flying on Southwest Airlines. I hate flying. Makes me nervous to be trapped inside an aluminum sausage along with a hundred strangers and their pointless conversations. During a flight my mind always wanders to the what-ifs of destruction no matter how hard I try not to think about it. You know, like what if there's a malfunction of some sort in the airplane. What if a wing falls off at ten thousand feet? What if the pilot just huffed a bunch of gasoline fumes and decides to flip out? That kinda crap.

Fortunately for me the flight to San Diego was quick and dirty. As soon as we were back on the ground I was happy to be under the power of my own two feet. We were supposed to be meeting Autumn's father, Q, somewhere in the terminal but we weren't sure where exactly. It's those little details that seem to fall through the cracks when dealing with Q. So the first priority was to get our luggage. Autumn led the way like a hound hot on the trail of a fox. She had already been here on a few previous trips to see her Dad so she knew the layout of the terminal well enough. When my intrepid airport terminal guide discovered the baggage pickup I kept a close eye on the conveyor belts coughing up people's suitcases and sacks looking for something that resembled items that might belong to us. Autumn ran off to look for a human that resembled her father.

Just about the same moment I snagged our bags from the shiny merry-go-round Autumn was captured by her Dad. Q was wearing an obnoxiously overbright colored hawaiian shirt. I mean, that shirt was so loud you could hear it coming down the block. Damn. It was like something you'd see on an American tourist who mistakenly was trying too hard to blend in with the locals at some tropical destination. He also wore a straw hat, white pants, and sandals. One of his ears was pierced with a gold post and a diamond. His manner was soft spoken and limp-wristed. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was that made me feel a little uncomfortable about him. I was just along for the ride on this trip anyway so I decided to hang back and lay low. Autumn was supposed to be spending quality time with her family here and I was a third wheel.