Day 11 - The Midpoint

Hey folks, here we are in San Diego. First thing we did today was make the drive down to Redondo Beach to see where Eve grew up. We parked at the Redondo Beach Pier where she used to hang out. What a cool place! We walked around and ended up wandering into the Arcade. Eve got us a roll of quarters and we hit the games. Air hockey, Ski-ball, Wedges and Ledges, those machines with stuffed animals and a crane (I finally got one! - first try too!). After killing some time there we drove off to Captain Kidd's a seafood market and restaurant that she used to visit as a kid. Miles enjoyed some shrimp cocktail (his second serving of the trip), Eve and Emma split the fish and chips and I had two fish tacos. Eve and I also shared a large draft of Fat Tire. By then it was time to make the hour and forty five minute drive to San Diego. It only took us about 3 hours. Thank god we got out when we did. We hit delays both in L.A. and in San Diego. We arrived here at 5pm and man was I exhausted from that drive. We are staying on Mission Blvd in Pacific Beach. Pacific Beach is known the "party beach" in San Diego and I have no problem believing that. It's a very lively atmosphere, not necessarily family-oriented. But I think we'll be just fine. We walked down the street and got some ultra thin slices of NY style pizza and then hit the beach. The kids were just thrilled to get there. Despite the 61 degree temperatures this evening they stripped down to there suits and walked out into the waves and had an absolute blast. Not to suprising since they did the same thing in Pacifica where the water was much colder and rougher. We are so looking forward to spending 4 nights here, 3 whole days sun to sun.
Midday today was also the midpoint in our trip as far as number of days are concerned. One big difference is that we have 3 entire non driving days on the second half as opposed to just one during the first half. And on that one non-driving day in the first half we drove the 142 mile loop around Yellowstone. Seems like ages ago. Gas prices have been painful but not much worse than expected before we left. We did see a full serve on the PCH that was $4.99 a gallon. I pulled up to the pump, checked the price and promptly pulled away from the pump. Geez! Down the road in Cambria we ended up paying $3.79, the highest of the trip. Prices seem to be around $3.49 most places in CA though we have seen $3.29. Our first gas stop in CA was somewhere between Truckee and Sacremento at a Chevron station. It was the first station we'd seen in a while and we pulled in. It was 'Members Only' no cash, no credit. I was beside myself. What the heck is up with that? Needless to say we got back on the freeway and hit the next exit. Haven't seen anymore of those.
Miles adds: The waves today were pretty big. I almost fell over, flat on my back into the water. But it was fun anyway.