Malibu to San Diego via Highway 1

I awoke in Malibu to yet another rainy day. Time to be grateful for the small things: 1) A ceramic coffee cup B gave me as a birthday/bon voyage present. Coffee tastes so much better in a ceramic mug. And this one has a map of the U.S., along with colored pens to fill in each state after I visit it. 2) A hotel room with overhead lights! A rarity indeed, and it makes a huge difference! 3) Figuring out that I should stack my plastic containers in the truck vertically instead of horizontally. That way I don’t need to remove the top three to get at the one on the bottom. Brilliant.

I had hoped to walk on the beach - this is Malibu after all. But with the coming storm exacerbating high tide, the surf was already licking the pilings. A gentleman on the beach - turned out he was a boat captain - looked up the tide table for me. It was still coming in. My walk was completed on the sidewalk to the Malibu pier.

An unanticipated sight was a Chabad center, sharing a wall with a surf club, just across the street from the pier.

My drive down to San Diego started out in the pouring rain. I also discovered that parts of Hwy 1 are not particularly scenic. In particular, the stretch between Malibu and Long Beach is populated with the largest assortment of drugstores, grocery stores, and gas stations I think I have ever seen. Not a coastal view in sight. The sun peeked out in the afternoon and I was able to stop at Crystal Cove State Beach in Laguna for a nice break before continuing on to San Diego.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time in San Diego, but mostly commuting from the airport to the San Diego Sheriff’s laboratory when I worked with them in the early 2000s. So it will be nice to explore downtown.

This evening, I met with three attorney friends, K, A and A, all of who I know through innocence work, for a really fun dinner. I so appreciate all of them taking time on a weeknight to meet with me.