Like a siren it calls to us. And so we go. Each and every morning, be it high tide or low, sunny or socked in, rain or shine we pack up and drive all of 3.8 miles to 29th Street Beach in Del Mar.
For there the magic manifests every morning. There is the special space, amidst the bewitching beauty of the gently rugged coast, where dogs can run free of leashes and restraints. Romping and greeting one another – each new dawn promising the possibility of — just this once — actually catching the sea gull or pelican who gracefully glides in utter safety just above the water.
Oh yes, and then there are throngs of lime green tennis balls winging this way and that. And guess what? With precious few exceptions, each dog respects the other’s special ball, although I have no idea how they tell them apart — the tennis balls I mean! And we, their lucky, loving caretakers are just as free to laugh, stroll in the sand, always fulfilling our job to fling tennis balls with the long “ball flingy-thing” that I dearly wish I had invented!
It enchants me how day in and day out as we momentary beachcombers bid each other “good morning” no one ever cares about one another’s party affiliation, religion or net worth. There is an unspoken, unwritten and “unbarked” code that if you are in that hallowed stretch of sand that everyone is welcome and everyone “plays nice”. We are just glad the sirens chose to lure us to our peaceful paradise once again.