Day 3: Adventures with Ruby.
Always a light schedule for me on Fridays, after all I work close to 70 hours a week including weekends and Friday is a great day to just hang out at the beach and have a little fun. Seriously, it’s San Diego and Friday is when I cash in my sunshine dollars.
Ruby (my mom) decided that she wanted to go check out Coronado and see what the fuss was about that all of the “foreigners” like to vacation there. So we packed up and headed out to let her visit some of the local shops and then we were off to the beach. Our first stop was at the Ferry Landing, and Ruby was pleased with the volume of trinket shops that she could scour for crap she doesn’t need. I was pleased with Spiro’s Gyro’s and opted for Greek lunch.
After finishing my lunch, the ferry loading dock was our next stop. I was stopped by two men of Middle Eastern descent and was handed a Canon 7D and asked if I would get a few shots of them with the city in the background. It was no problem, and being courteous I asked them where they were visiting from. One gentleman replied Kentucky, the other Laguna Beach. No big deal right, but then Ruby asked them, “Where are you reallllly from?”. I have said it before and I meant it, Ruby means no harm, she just has a bad delivery. My jaw dropped, both of their jaws dropped, and they looked at me, then looked at Ruby and answered, “Palestine” and “Cyprus”. As if that wasn’t enough, Ruby then went on to tell the two gentleman about her Bosnian neighbors and her friends that are Russian. I gave them the apologetic nod and they thanked me for the photo, and I knew that today was going to be a winner.
Then I caught Kailey enjoying the city.
It became apparent that Ruby and Kailey were hungry so we started making our way back to the shopping area. This is where we met Boomer. Boomer is from a good home, his previous owner developed severe allergies, and now Boomer is currently residing short term at the Coronado animal shelter. If you are local to San Diego and looking for an awesome pup, Boomer is available for adoption and is looking for a great home.
On the way to Kailey’s choice of Burger King for lunch, Ruby and Kailey decided to hit a few shops and touch every item in each store.
Then Kailey roped her Grandmother into an $8 candy apple from an upscale chocolate store, and before lunch no less. I wish I was ballin’ like that.
Finally making our way to Burger King, I ask Ruby to buy me a drink. When she arrives at the table, no drink, she forgot. More on forgetting in a minute. Let me explain this, Ruby assumes that every city or town is the same and has a hard time adapting to change. The ladies pull out their food and immediately I see a french fry fly by in my peripheral vision. Keep in mind, we have signs everywhere in San Diego to not feed the birds and disrupt the ecological cycle. Especially in Coronado, where feeding birds is illegal and punishable by heavy fine. So the fry flies by my head and my initial is reaction is “What the hell are you doing?” Ruby’s carefree response, “Feeding the birds.” I point at the sign directly in front of her and explain the severity of doing that and getting caught as pigeons began landing on our table. Her reaction was priceless.
I think we better get out of the area as the birds have now found the one person in San Diego willing to feed them fries, however, Ruby wants to make another stop at a trinket store. In this trinket store, Ruby removed her sunglasses to view a price tag evidently and then walked away so we could leave. Within three steps of the door she feels her head for her glasses, but they are not there. At this point it’s pretty simple, you were wearing them when we ate and then we made one stop and now you don’t have them. Ruby had a different plan, she ran back to the table we were sitting at in the BK dining area and yelled at the people who had replaced us in the seats. They had no idea where her sunglasses were, my attempts to calm her were ineffective, and the people actually seemed scared. I corralled my mother and veered her away, explaining that the table was empty when we left the area. Still convinced that the people at the table had stolen her prescription sunglasses we made our way back to the store she had taken them off in, and low and behold if they weren’t sitting right in front of the shirt she had been looking at. It’s definitely time to go.
We headed West to the ocean side of Coronado for a visit to the beach.
Kailey and Ruby had found a hot spot for sand dollars and Kailey rounded up about 20 still alive, and then decided she could bring them back to our neighborhood and sell them for a dollar each. I was cool with that.
As we made our way back to the car, I was approached by a beautiful young lady holding a point and shoot camera who asked me if I knew C. Withers Media, as I was wearing my shirt. She had a heavy accent and I responded politely, “I am C. Withers Media.” It turns out that Elena from Spain was already aware of the work and recognized the name on my t-shirt and asked if I could take some shots of her with her camera. I agreed and got a couple of cute shots of her, then I asked if I could get one with my camera and gave her my business card. I am not sure if Elena knew of us before she arrived from Spain, or if she heard of us while she has been in San Diego, but it was really one of those humbling moments when you start to realize the scope of your reach.
We made our way back to the car safely and did not have any more crazy encounters thankfully, but at least I can rest easy knowing what I will be like in the future. Ruby is a blast to hang out with, and there is never a dull moment. Thanks Mom for an incredibly fun and funny day.
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