Valentine's Day at the beach...

After working out today, I decided to head down to the beach and people watch. I stumbled down the hill, crossed the highway a couple of times, and found my way to the sand. I'd walked along the beach before, but never on the weekend. It was packed!

I've decided that I'm going to try and walk the beach once a week, because you can learn so much about a culture, in my humble opinion, by watching people at the beach.

My insights:

• People here are a lot like the story from Goldilocks: not too fat, not too thin, just right. It's funny, because there wasn't a lot of extremes at the beach. In the US, I feel like you see some huge people, some really fit people, and then some average people. Here, it seemed, people had an average build. Which, to me, means they don't worship their bodies, but at the same time they're taking care of themselves, nice moderation.


• There were so many people in the water and playing. I'm not just talking children here, but parents too. It was so nice to see parents running around with their children, playing, and enjoying themselves. It gave me a lot of hope for the sake of families. This told me that they know where their priorities are, they can relax, have fun, and not be stressed about work, or annoyed with their children for being children.


• If you want to earn some money on the weekend, go to the beach. Yes, we've all been to Mexico and seen the people that sell stuff on the beach, but these people, I think, were more creative. There were about 5-8 boats, and I'm talking like wooden 18 foot boats here, that were giving people rides, think manual oars here, in the ocean. It was kind of funny seeing people climb up into these boats, but also very impressive because these little guys had to be in great shape!


• The beach is also the place to wash your car. Forget about the car wash, that takes too much time, and you can only look at the funny birthday cards while waiting so many times. Just drive to the beach and pay somebody to wash your car for you.


• Hungry? Don't worry, the beach acts like a restaurant too. Just sit back, relax, and somebody will come by to take your order.


• Finally, don't take your shirt off if you're a gringo. You can get by without stares with a shirt, but once that bad boy comes off and you show the world the whiteness that is your chest (which hasn't seen the sun in 6 months) people will stare. You will also be charged 50% more than usually because people will need to put their sunglasses on in order to look at you...

That's all I got...Happy Valentine's Day!