How I Spent My Birthday

I've mentioned before, back when I started at my job they used to give you your birthday off, or a day near it. It was only a few years in that they did away with that, but gave us an extra day off. I've kept the tradition!!!

One of my favorite things to do, that I don't actually do very often, is to go to the beach. My younger as well enjoys it, and recently he's gone with some of his friends.

Here's a place that I've known of for just about most of my life, the beaches of Alamitos Bay in Long Beach. My dad would take his boats down there and launch them near Marine Stadium for whatever excursion we embarked upon, and I had an Aqua Cat catamaran that we would put in the back of my parents' station wagon or truck, disassembled, and set up on the shore of the beaches nearest the isthmus between it and the beach of Long Beach harbor. Also had been to Mother's Beach, just down from Marine Stadium, a few times.

I generally prefer an actual ocean facing beach with surf. This area is blocked by the breakwater of Long Beach harbor, and is even further back than that, so there's nearly no surf. The area his friend likes is called Horny Corner. I've heard that it was originally Hornay Corner, after Belmont Shores developer Thomas Hornay. Who knows, but you know a name like that is going to stick!!!

Another thing I'm not a fan of is the parking situation in the area. Belmont Shores is notoriously bad for parking, but on a weekday we were able to find street parking with no problem. We set up on the beach, then mostly soaked in the water for most of the time we were there!!! When we were getting ready to depart, we discussed how we were going to do it. The boy was thinking he could stay with the stuff, and we could take turns going to the showers a short way down and changing in the restrooms. I said we could just take the whole bag and both change, then get our beach chairs on the way back. We changed, then headed back on the sidewalk to keep from sanding up our shoes, made it most of the way back to the car, and remembered we'd forgotten to get the chairs!!! For the record, I saw nothing that made me especially horny at Horny Corner.

Afterwards we got some lunch at Taco Bell, where I had just heard they have a $7 Luxe Cravings box with a chalupa, double decker taco supreme, and 7-layer beefy burrito, plus chips and cheese and a drink. A lot of food for a little money!!!

In addition to all that, a few days previous we got together for a celebration at my mom's house. My sister's birthday and mine are only a couple weeks apart, so we nearly always anymore observe them both on the same day. Sometimes barbecue, sometimes out to eat, this time pizzas and sides, as well as some soak time in her pool. I had mentioned German Black Forest cake, and my wife found a recipe for Black Forest brownies!!! They were a big hit!!!