Brian and I have been out in California visiting Sam this weekend. We left early Friday morning and he and I had all that day together to sight see and enjoy each other's company since we couldn't see Sam till Saturday. We drove around San Diego a bit. I'm feeling a lot more familiar with it after our trip here in December and all the driving we did that week as well as the running and walking Brian and I did. That trip we stayed in Ocean Breach but this time we're staying up north in Solana Beach, a quiet little town on the coast with lots of art galleries and expensive boutiques. We're in a small, older hotel on the main street through town.
Friday night we walked on the beach and then went to dinner at an Italian restaurant and shared a pizza and wine. We got up early Saturday morning and decided to go for a walk instead of running before heading down to Oceanside to meet up with Sam.
We got to Oceanside a little before he did and looked around a few shops. The Camp Pendelton shuttle drops the boys off in front of a movie theater in the middle of town. We saw a guy sitting out front wearing an army green t shirt, Raybans, and black cowboy boots and thought it must be him. When he greeted us with a loud Evans family "How y'all doin'?" there was no doubt in our mind. We walked out to the pier and then got some lunch at a fish stand on the beach. Sam was hobbling around because of blisters from his 20K hike during the week so we kept our walking to a minimum. We decided to drive up the coast to L.A. He wanted to meet a friend at a guitar store in Forest Lake to play and sing a bit, so we did that. After that we made our way back down the coast at a leisurely pace and were mesmerized by the natural beauty as well as the lovely towns all up and down the Pacific. We stopped in Carlsbad and explored the town a bit before having dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Sam didn't have to check back in until 10 pm., but he said he should probably get back by 9. We made the drove back up to Camp Pedelton North and actually got to go on base which was pretty neat. We took him to the School of Infantry area and sat in the car visiting for a while longer. The base is huge and seems so dark at night because it doesn't have highway lights and it's in the mountains. Sam seemed sad to leave but he's also so good natured that he doesn't let his circumstances weight him down for too long. He knows he's committed to the Marines and will give it his all until the day he is discharged.
Brian and I came back to the hotel in Solana Beach and enjoyed some drinks while reading about the towns we had traveled through that day. We fell asleep in our clothes with the light, still exhausted from the previous day, which was very long.
We're going to pick up Sam again today and spend some time with him before we have to leave. We don't know when we'll see him next. He'll find out his orders this week. Hawaii, Japan, California, or deployment? He is sort of hoping for deployment because of the excitement of it all and the rise in status that accompanies it though he knows it will mean he won't get to join us on any of our summer trips we have planned.
Margaret says that William borrow the car again the other night and went somewhere. What will we do about that boy?!