"Beautiful" Beach

So this past weekend my aunt, uncle & cousin were in town visiting us.  We had so much fun.  I always love when they visit because they are the best.  My cousin is a "tween" now (she's 13) so I was getting the scoop on middle school drama - very informative.  She was telling me things I definately need to look out for when I have middle schoolers.  Yikes! 

They stayed at a hotel in the cliffs of La Jolla so the first day we hiked down to the beach from there.  It was a really long hike and so hot last weekend so the next day we decided to head over to the Glider Port and hike down from there because it was a shorter hike.  My aunt & cousin and I started the trek and about halfway down my cousin goes "it looks like that guy's not wearing a swimsuit".... now, the previous day we had talked about how there was a nude beach nearby (Black's Beach) and so I figured she was just stuck on that.  My aunt & I both reassured her that he looked clothed to us.  So we hiked on.  The images on the beach below started to get a little clearer and now even I was starting to question myself... so I asked this old man in front of us, "Excuse me, have you been to this beach before?", to which he answered in a thick Italian accent, "Every day for 25 years!".  I proceded, "is this Black's Beach?" and he answered "this is beautiful beach!!".  Aware of his avoidance of the question, I asked again if it was Black's Beach.  To my horror, he answered, "Yes, yes, everybody is nude. When I get to the bottom, this is coming off and then nothing!!". 

I can't remember if I answered him because that moment of realization was a little foggy.  It would have been one thing to have made this mistake on my own or even with Jon but with my aunt & 13 year-old cousin visiting from Minnesota?!!  Oh man, I felt like such an idiot!  Luckily, a non-nudist behind us overheard the whole conversation and told us that if we took an immediate left at the bottom and went past the cones, we'd be out of the "nude zone".  We were drenched in sweat at this point so they still wanted to go so we hiked on.  However, sure enough, when we got to the bottom of the cliff, the old Italian man turned around to face us (are you kidding me?!!!) with a big goofy grin on his face and dropped trou' right there!!  I could not believe it.  I totally corrupted my little cousin with my pure obliviousness to the location of Black's Beach.  And she thought middle school was hard core.... Why did I not do some research before going on this unknown venture? 

Needless to say, my cousin got some education that day, mostly on the male anatomy.  We cleared the nude zone, but not without seeing at least a half dozen packages!  I mean, one guy was jogging for crying out loud!!  I think my aunt could tell that I felt awful so she made jokes to make me feel better.  She was actually very cool about it all.  My cousin giggled and we all made comments about the uncomfort of sand in unwanted places and scratchy boogie boards on your business... it was actually pretty funny.  We had a good time swimming in the safe zone and then kept our heads down on the way back.  When we got back to the hotel, my uncle gave me a hard time about taking his teenage daughter to a nude beach (he couldn't stop laughing).  One thing's for sure - she will have a good story to tell her friends back home.

Also - as to avoid any future awkward mishaps, I now know EXACTLY where Black's Beach is...