La Jolla Cliffs

As I mentioned the other day, my friend made the epic carpe diem move of escaping the frigid temperatures of New York City to come and work from San Diego for the week. He is staying at the Hilton La Jolla, which is located alongside the famous Torrey Pines Golf Course.

In 2004, my family and I were at the Legal Seafoods in Chestnut Hill for a very special Father's Day dinner with my grandfather. When we arrived, I was at annoyed that the Red Sox game (against the San Francisco Giants, interleague) was not on any of the tvs in the bar. Instead they were showing the PGA Tournament, much to the delight of my aunt and uncle. The grass was remarkably green, and the course seemed to glow in the magnificent sun. "Where are they playing?" I asked my uncle rhapsodically. "Torrey Pines." He replied. I filed it away as a storybook place, not a real location. 6 years later, I've been there on multiple occasions, and live about 6 miles up the coast. [On another note, it's cool that they were playing golf over the Red Sox in the bar, the Sox lost that game.]

So yesterday, I went over to the hotel for a change of scenery. After wrapping up some work (done by the pool, have to love wifi!), I said we should walk down to the beach, which was only a couple hundred yards in the distance. "Sure thing," said my friend, "but, it's a commitment." "Yeah, yeah," I replied, figuring I had no problem with a steep slope.

10 minutes later, I was confused as to why we were walking along one of the main roads running parallel to the hotel and other commercial operations of northern La Jolla.

"We're heading to the trail," my friend told me.
"Why are we going north?"
"We can't cross the golf course."

So on we went, 20 minutes parallel to the coast, because no architect (or zoning commissioner, or overseeing boardmember) thought to make a direct route from the hotel to the shore. And then once we made it to the trail, we began the arduous, winding trek downward to the cliffs. This was a huge pain in the ass. But, "it's worth it," my friend kept advising me.

This is what we found at the end of the trail. Amazing. It looked like the final scene of Planet of the Apes. Just beautiful. We watched the sun set and the moon rise. This really is a beautiful part of the world. But the Torrey Pines Golf Course now has a chink in its armor from my view!