A Summer in California

At some point last summer I ended up in California with a crew of friends and basically tried to do the entire state in one go, and looking back it might be the most fun I've ever packed into a single stretch of weeks.

Theme park day

We hit Universal, which meant I got to stand under the giant Krusty the Clown face at the entrance to Krustyland feeling like I'd walked straight into the TV, and then spend the rest of the day getting whipped around on rides until my stomach filed a formal complaint. There's something about a theme park with your friends where everyone instantly reverts to being about nine years old, and honestly I am fully in support of that. We ran from ride to ride, ate things we definitely shouldn't have, and took the dumbest photos imaginable.

Catalina

The part that really stuck with me, though, was Catalina Island. We took a boat out across this impossibly blue water with the little harbor town tucked into the hills, the sun absolutely blasting off the surface, and I just remember sitting on the deck thinking that I genuinely could not believe this was a real place that real people get to go to. It's the kind of view that makes your phone camera feel personally insulted, because no photo gets anywhere close to it.

The part where I left the ground

And then, because apparently sightseeing wasn't enough for us, we went parasailing, which is how I found myself strapped into a harness, lifted up underneath a giant purple and yellow parachute, and slowly reeled out over the open ocean with one of my friends dangling right next to me. There's this one moment right when the boat speeds up and the rope snaps tight and your feet lift off the deck, where your brain very politely asks what exactly you think you're doing, and then you're just up there, quiet, floating, watching the whole coastline shrink underneath you and grinning like a maniac.

A summer like that is the kind you spend the rest of the year being grateful for.