I started the day with a trip to the airport. Me and Gwen dropped Kelly off. Early.
After we dropped her off, half hour to sunup, we went to Hospitality Point.
It’s a bit tricky to get there. You can boat from there but I couldn’t (or rather wouldn’t) begin a swim from there. It’s kind of a lesser spot. It might be a nice place to watch fireworks from. It’s tipped by a jetty that points at the Mighty Pacific. It separates the San Diego River from Mission Bay. We watched the sun rise and light up the overcast.
The San Diego River is not what anyone from the Louisiana Purchase would recognize as a river. There’s a shopping mall parking lot in the river bottom which is designed to be filled with water when necessary. Usually it doesn’t need to be wet. But the river has ducks and terns and raccoons and reeds and marsh and eddies. It’s a gentle enough river that mostly you can live in it, if you’re, say, houseless. If you are stuck there during weather, it’s treacherous. Our lifeguard services are trained and get regular practice helping people out of it.
Mission Bay is a recreation area. The Spaniards who named the land of my birth “New Spain” several hundred years ago called it Bahia Falsa. False Bay. It’s only false in that if you were hoping to use the waters to anchor your boat. Sorry, tall shipped conquistadors: choose another spot to park. Attempt your landings south of Point Loma. And they did. And I have both Spanish and indigenous blood in me because of that.
In the 1940s the powers that be–the United States–started dredging it to create the water park it is now. Oh, sorry, I skipped over several hundred years of history, but that’s for another day. If you’ve been to San Diego and visited Sea World you’ve been to Mission Bay. If you’ve flown out of the San Diego airport you flew over Hospitality Point. Unless the weather was really really bad. Bad weather is famously unusual.
Mission Bay is as artificial as a green lawn. It can be thought of as the result of environmental violence. I am in favor of efforts to re-wild parts of the Bay. They continue good work to make the place a bit more “natural.” They don’t plan to return it to nature, that won’t happen. I suppose in 150 years all of it may be the intertidal zone as the seas rise. But for now it’s a haven open to all.
Rocket: “Of course I care about the planets, and the buildings, and all of the animals on the planets.”
Star-Lord: “And the people.”
Rocket: “Meh.”
I’m glad this artificial thing exists. I’m glad I can visit it with Gwen after going to the airport. I’m glad it’s fit for human habitation and enjoyment.
Afterwards I came home and participated in a Zoom call. It’s called Zoom Zoom Drawing Club. One of the drawing inspirations presented was Moo Deng. Moo Deng is easily the most popular Hippopotamus amphibius I can think of. Today.
It was awfully nice to just sit and draw on a Zoom call. Long time since I’ve done that. I like a Zoom where one just hangs out. It’s hosted by MRSHAWNLIU and was put on under the aegis of Creative Mornings. One of their Field Trips.
I’ll leave you with the jam that I woke up thinking about. Lana Del Rey’s cover of Sublime’s Summertime. Her version is called Doin’ Time
Outbound links for the day:
Thanks for reading.
