column on vacation to san diego

A while ago, I decided to flee winter for a bit, and I did so this past week. I thought of going on a cruise, but as cheap as they are, they were not at the bargain basement level I desired. Our lovely youngest daughter told me that at my advanced age, I need to start checking things off the bucket list, so I thought of going to the Florida Keys, but I again balked at the price. The, I heard the siren call of San Diego, and off I went.

I love going to new places, but dislike getting there. I am constantly amazed at the surliness and disrespect of the TSA folks in a service field. I remember when flying was considered to be glamorous, but now it seems as if we are herding cattle on to the well-named air bus. On our airline, they first boarded passengers form their peak list. Those of us who flew coach seemed to be in steerage, or the nadir and descent level. On the other hand, I was so grateful that the planes were on time, especially, as I had to change planes to arrive.

On Monday, we went whale watching. Not only did we encounter three grey whales, but we witnessed what the biologist assured us was mating behavior. I wondered if whales had trouble with aging, and if they had to consider Valentine’s Day presents. An unexpected bonus was a huge school of dolphin, (the biologist called them a pod) where we saw hundreds of them, young and old, filling the sea around us. We saw sea lions lazing on buoys, and saw pelicans and al sorts of aquatic birds skimming the water and floating on the currents. As a minister, I often see things through a religious lens, and these wonders of creation needed little help from that reference point.

I laughed as the local weather was bemoaning that we would have some drizzle and htat temperatures would be below 60. They were demonstrating the type of warm clothes children would need to wear if the evening temperature would dip below forty. I changed my plan to go kayaking along the seashore, as the thought of me in a wetsuit was appalling. So, I shifted plans and went to Balboa Park, so I could duck into one of its many museums if it rained a bit harder.  What a wonder it is, as it uses some of the natural environment but human skill makes a variety of gardens to decorate its landscape.

One day I marveled at natural creation in the open water, but the next day I marveled at the parade of human creativity that could build such a modern Eden that honored everything from the arts to air travel. I was at the perfect age to fall in love with space travel, as I was just starting school during the mercury program and followed it fairly closely until the first moon landing. Even at 15, I was amazed at how quickly the bloom was off in time for the second moon landing. To see the tiny Mercury capsule and the small biplanes that started the era was thrilling. We got to see the heat-scarred Apollo 9 craft, so tiny to be designed for a lunar flight. The smart phones we carry have more computing capacity than that capsule.

Then I looked above and saw a model of a predator drone. It does seem part of our condition that we turn blessings into curses with startling immediacy. Vacations take us away form the everyday, but we carry our perspectives with us in new places. Yet, vacations blast us out of the rut of the walls closing in and let us walk in a wider world.