California blues....

Sometimes I really miss California. I miss the variety of people from all different cultures and backgrounds. I grew up in Long Beach, California. A beach city that is bursting with different nationalities and cultures. Although there have been racial tensions amongst groups of local gangs in the past, Long Beach is basically one big blended family. For example, my Godfather is Latino, his wife?Caucasian. My childhood best friends were: Japanese, Samoan, African American and Filipino. All of the schools that I attended in Long Beach included people from many different parts of the globe.
I miss being able to drive to Las Vegas for the weekend. Its only a 4 hour drive.
I miss seeing the fog roll off the ocean just about every morning. I miss being able to ride my bike down to the shore. By the way...the shore is the Pacific Ocean. I miss camping out at the beach all nite beside a bonfire...(sigh)
I really miss hanging out at the beach at night beside a bonfire while waiting for the grunions to run!A summer evening is a perfect time to have a SoCal experience. If there is anything that is uniquely Southern Californian, then this phenomenon just might personify it. Picture yourself on one of Cali's beaches - at night - with a few dozen other people. The tide is high and the waves are rolling pretty far up the sand line. Suddenlly, as a wave recedes, you spot hundreds of silvery things, wiggling on the sand. Then, just as quickly, the next wave rolls in, then out, and with it the silvery spectres. Yep, you are witnessing a famous California grunion run. from March through September, one of the most remarkable life cycles in the sea is completed when the California grunion comes ashore to spawn.
According to the California Department of Fish and Game, as if this behavior were not strange enough, grunion make these excursions only on particular nights, and with such regularity that the time of their arrival on the beach can be predicted a year in advance. This phenomenon can be seen on many beaches in southern California. Shortly after high tide, on certain nights, sections of these beaches sometimes are covered with thousands of grunion depositing their eggs in the sand. Hence, the popularity of both grunion watching and grunion hunting.
I miss the stores, restaurants and other attractions that stay open all night. Here most of the places close around nine or ten. I recall the many times my brother and I would sneak out the house for a quick run to the AM/PM mini market. A 24 hour store that was stocked with all sorts of foods to curve any appetite. According to their website, they've sold over 18,000,000 hot dogs...That’s more than enough hot dogs to build a railroad through the state of Washington. Over 1,000 tons of hamburgers were sold, which is enough meat to feed a small country somewhere.
But, the South is not all that unbearable or I otherwise would've moved back to Cali years ago. I have lived here for sixteen years now and have only been back to LB once. Maybe its time to visit family & friends?