Dawn colors the soft turquoise waves flowing up onto Pacific Beach in San Diego, California, and lights up the edge of Crystal Pier.

We spent the end of 2013 traveling down the scenic California coast, eventually ending our journey south in San Diego. I hadn’t been there since childhood, and we spent a lot of time simply orienting ourselves and visiting popular tourist destinations (including several trips to the beautiful and amazing Balboa Park). We ended up staying at a somewhat iffy hotel just steps from Pacific Beach. What the hotel lacked in quality, it certainly made up for in location. While the drunken partying of our neighbors kept us up long into the night, we were able to peek outside at the beach bright and early each morning, judging when to grab our gear and head down onto the sand.

The weather was cool and Pacific Beach was mostly…