I had spent about 15 years searching for that perfect place to relax and be myself. As soon as I had been there for a couple hours I knew it was the place that I had been looking for. That place is San Elijo Campgrounds in Encinitas. It is the place that I always wish where I could be and while I am there I never want to leave. San Elijo combines all of my favorite things into one place.


In the morning my friends and I can wake up around 8:00 and we start to realize that we have almost complete freedom for the next three days since we have no adults there. We make our own some joking around we get our wet suits on to go get in a morning surf session before the crowds come.


We stroll down the campground to the stairs, where we get our first view of the beautiful, glassy waves. Once we get down to the beach we paddle out into the line up where there are only a few locales. That is when we really start to relax. We wait for sets to come in and when they do when enjoy ourselves while catching the waves. We have not a care in the world.


After surfing we start to cook whatever we feel like for lunch while doing whatever else we want to do. After lunch we take a leisurely nap to catch up the lack of sleep from the previous night and relax. By the time we wake up from our rejuvenating nap it is around 3:00 and hopefully high tide. Then we venture down to the bridge for some exhilarating bridge jumping. For some reason the adrenaline from that tends to relax us even more. By this time we have completely forgotten about the outside world and any problems that we had before the trip. Then we head back up to the camp, cracking jokes the whole way, to go to the bathroom where we can charge our phones and make some new friends.


By this time it is getting dark and my girlfriend is showing up. We cook steaks for dinner and sit around the fire eating them with our bare hands. We don’t care about being messy. After dinner my girlfriend and I walk down to the beach to go lie in the sand and look at the stars. Just lying there with her in this perfect place relaxes me more than anything else. After a while it is time for her to go so I walk with her back up to camp and to her car. After she leaves we sit around the fire and make s’mores for the rest of the night. Then we go to bed so that we can have energy for another perfect relaxing day at San Elijo to cleanse our mind body and spirit.