Silverstrand State Beach (#18)

June 24, 2010- Situation: Camping at the Silver Strand State Beach nestled on the shore between Imperial Beach and Coronado. Interest: Going for a walk. Option: North to Coronado or South to I.B. Decision: Are you kidding me?! I.B., of course! So I go off on my merry way, barefoot on the beach strolling south from in front of the campground. I pass the lifeguard tower to my left and look out over the ocean to take in a view of the Coronado Islands. It was a fantastically beautiful day - sunny, blue water, blue sky, warmish water and sandy sand. Don't get much better than that! I'm thinking about my plan to walk down all the way to the radio station when what do I see but these big beautiful kites. BIG kites! Looked like parachutes or something. Then do you know what I saw? A guy hanging onto one of those kites was actually surfing! Geez; who says guys can't multi-task? Speaking for myself, when I was a kid, I laid down on my board, paddled out, and let the waves provide the power. Guess I'm getting old. On another note, do you remember the ship that was about to crash into the Coronado Bridge when I was walking the Spanish Landing? Well I guess it didn't collide after all because there it was just chugging along. You can tell its the same one because of its unique hull and cone shaped towers. Anyway, I walked and walked and walked for quite some time before I finally reached the radar post surrounded by the very high circular fence. Its been there longer than the 34 years that I have been in this neck of the woods. Did I mention that walking long distances bare foot is not really a great idea? Well, it's not. I could have, and probably should have, turned around right there but I.B. was so close I couldn't help myself. I continued on with a new goal: the north jetty. Needless to say, I made it. That's the good thing. Bad news, as I turn and look back north from whence I came, my feet were freaking killing me and I still had the 3 1/2 mile return trip to manage. Brilliant! I survived though, thank you very much. And when I returned I found this interesting little cave. A black hole if you will. All of a sudden I felt drawn to it, as if by some magnetic force and...