Random Burst of Reminiscence

Saw this picture [Update: Picture on left is not the original picture for this post] on my friend's Tumblr (and if that person happens to be reading this... *raughs*) and I had a sudden random rush of nostalgia... ever since elementary school I've always wanted to go to a place like this and sit cross-legged by the water. Alone, facing the ocean, letting the waves brush against my legs (assuming a tsunami doesn't start coming my way). I wrote a bunch of extremely amateur fanfictions based on this ocean concept before...

I guess the whole fantasy of it appealed to me because of its peacefulness. I mean, look at it. Let's say it's three in the afternoon, and there's no one but yourself standing on that boardwalk, the wind blowing against your body, the air slightly damp and smelling of ocean water. Dunno know about you, but I could stay there forever.

I actually was really close to experiencing something like this in sixth grade, when my class went on a trip to San Diego to a beachside camp called Camp Surf. Well, I didn't exactly get to sit by the ocean water by myself and contemplate life.. there were too many gnats... and people running around in circles But it was close!!?? We stayed there for about three or four days, I think. The camp was the greatest thing I've ever experienced... totally beat the previous year's trip to some camp in the mountains called Blue Sky Meadow.. froze my ass off for five days, bro.

Anyway, Camp Surf was really fun. Camp supervisors were cool as fuq, I could friggin' hear the beach waves in my cabin (I slept next to a window, hahah) and it was the first time I ever went to an overnight trip without my mom, so I was pretty hyped up... the weather was also perfect (except for the day that we actually went to the beach.. it was kinda sprinkling and damp. Damn it, Mother Nature... why...) Omg, and I remember I lost 20 dollars on that beach. So stupid to bring it in the first place though.. 

Also, the food was pretty good.. and the cafeteria was literally right next to the beach. I remember seeing the sunset as I ate my dinner. (There actually was a little tarp thing on the railing so people wouldn't try to climb over it, I'm assuming.. but you could still see the sun pretty clearly.)

I remember during the last day (or so) at the camp, everyone had free time to do whatever they wanted; we could play volleyball (there was a pretty big sandpit...), basketball, run around, or whatever. The ocean water was close to where everyone played, practically next to us; the beach was only separated by a wire gate fence.. and I remember I saw a random log sitting next to the volleyball sandpit that faced the wire gate and the ocean and how I really wanted to sit on it and act modelesque for once in my life. It was all as if part of my fantasy of being by the ocean came true. Although I wasn't exactly by myself like how I dreamed it, it still made me happy... I didn't want to leave :(

Oh God, I miss that place.