I Hope You Don’t Know Him

Standing the the sunshine watching birds soar overhead is delightful. Standing in the sunshine atop a crumbling cliff with a rainbow of hang gliders and parasailors floating overhead is downright glorious. My folks brought me here last October after showing me around UCSD across the street—I like seeing their old haunts. Chris had never been here.So we pulled up and trotted down to the cliffs. A weather-beaten, middle-aged guy was camped out along the cliff kneeling on a towel, eyes shaded with a sun-bleached hat, high-powered binoculars in hand. Then we noticed them all along the cliff. Pot-bellied middle-aged men of all races had impressive binoculars trained on the beach. Huh? Oh right, that’s Black Beach—a nude beach. And there’s a game of volleyball going on. Ha ha ha! …gross! The guy closest to us at least had the decency to look a little chagrined. Eventually he wandered back to the cab of his truck and reemerged only after we left. But the other three or four guys dotting the cliffs ignored us. Why didn’t they just go down to the beach, right? Turns out the beach is difficult to get to, plus, my mom pointed out, then people could see them gawking. It’s safer and more secret up here. Or it was until I took their pictures! ha ha. Down below a clothed man heading south passed a naked couple walking north. As soon as he passed them he whipped around and stared incredulously, or maybe voyeuristically. How funny would it be if he didn’t know it was a nude beach, then all of a sudden saw more and more skin? But he stared a little too long for that to seem likely. The nude man eventually turned around and told him off or something. Then a hang glider swooped down to buzz Mum, Daddy and Chris, coming within inches of their heads and laughing as he lifted higher again. Who knew the Torrey Pines Gliderport was so interesting when you aren’t even taking off?