Tourist Season

San Diego looks different with tourists splattering its beaches and highways like bugs on the windshield of a cross country road trip. Maine lobsters bake in the sun intent on going home with the cherished California tan. Kids splash about on rented surfboards wearing life jackets and floppy hats and water shoes while enamored parents snap photos with digital cameras. They stroll through souvenir shops buying shell necklaces, t-shirts and henna tattoos in hopes of permanently marking themselves with San Diego as if to say "I was there, I have carnal knowledge of the California sun". Umbrellas dot the sand with multi-colored stripes and polka dots and the occasional tropical-hut fringe while little blond girls bury each other in the sand in front of rented beach houses. Lifeguard towers mysteriously multiply and put up yellow and black checkered flags to separate the swimmers from the surfers. Red shorts and straw hats keep a watchful eye until all the pasty whites go home lobster red with shells and beach balls that will collect dust in their attics during the snowy winter.