Let's Go to the Beach, Each!

One thing I didn't take enough advantage of growing up in California was the beach. Actually back in high school, I hated the beach. I found the sand annoying and my grumpy self proclaimed them stupid and unappealing. This was actually part of my reasoning for choosing Colgate over UCSD, a choice my parents didn't understand since UCSD is located a short walk from the beautiful La Jolla beaches. 

Since going to college in the rural farm lands of Upstate New York, my opinion of the beach has definitely changed. Now, I just dream of going to the beach, feeling the sun on my skin, and of course getting a little color. For my spring break freshman year, I went on that stereotypical Spring Break trip to Miami. And that summer I went on a whole beach hopping adventure from the beaches in Tel Aviv, to Santa Barbara and then finishing off the summer on the Cape. 

My semester abroad was rather dreary with a long cold and grey winter. So the whole semester, I tried to come up with some way to the beach. Ultimately, I never made it. My dreams of going to Greece were shattered and even my plans to go to southern France just didn't work out. So this week, I decided I just had to go to the beach before I headed back east for my internship. 

So this past Saturday, I headed over to Stinson Beach in Marin with my friends Mattie and Camille as well as my friend Albert from Colgate who is interning at WeHeartIt in San Francisco this summer. 

Beyond being just a trip to the beach, this trip was also a great lesson in Bay Area microclimates. Microclimates are when the weather can change from  this phenomenon that apparently only occurs in the Bay Area. I think it happens because we have the ocean, bay, and so many hills all smushed together.

As we headed over the bridge, we were completely engulfed in fog. But Camille, our new marinite, assured us that it would clear. And did it clear, as we reached the final tower of the bridge, suddenly the fog lifted and we saw the sun shining on the beautiful hills and water of Marin. 

Unfortunately, as we continued on the windy road to Stinson beach, the fog reappeared with a fury. In fact, the entire coast was just covered with fog that just got thicker and thicker. At this point, I was pretty nervous. We almost turned back to the city to just hang out in the dolores park, but decided we should make the whole trek since we had already spent an hour to get there. 

When we finally reached the beach, the fog was thin enough to have some sun shine through. Despite the layer of fog, the beach was pretty crowded. Throughout our time there, the fog fluctuated, coming and going. In fact, I got a slight sun burn--my first burn since third grade. Honestly, fog might be more dangerous than pure sun.

Let's go to the beach, each 

Let's go get away 

They say, what they gonna say? 

Have a drink, clink, found the bud light 

Bad b-tches like me, is hard to come by

-Nicki Minaj, Starships