By Jacob Kamaras
LA JOLLA, California — When it came to planning my family’s summer vacation this year, the process could be summed up by a Yiddish proverb: Der mentsh trakht un Got lakht. Man plans and God laughs.
Initially scheduled to depart for Hawaii on August 24, we later realized that we booked that trip during my son’s first week of school. After pivoting to a July 26-August 2 trip to Glacier National Park in Montana, we cancelled it a day before the flight due to concern over wildfires in the area.
Determined to use the time we already blocked off last week for its intended purpose, we opted for a road trip instead and prayed that the third time would be the charm. With just one day to plan, the logistically feasible yet still exciting option was driving from California to Baja California, the Mexican state adjacent to San Diego.
There’s much to discuss about the six-day journey — from the fresh and authentic Ensenada fish tacos, to the vineyards of Valle de Guadalupe, to the intensely touristy experience at La Bufadora (the world’s second-largest blowhole), to the excruciating (an understatement) three-and-a-half-hour wait at the San Ysidro Border Crossing on our way home last Sunday. But for the readership here at the San Diego Jewish World, I find it most appropriate to focus on the Shabbat my family spent in Ensenada.
As Shabbat observers, our natural first question is: What are we going to eat? Advance planning is essential. Yet following the stop at La Bufadora, it was clear that we wouldn’t find any grocery stores between that landmark and our accommodation, which was situated high in the mountains and could only be reached via a long and windy dirt road. Fortunately, Friday night was taken care of, as we hired a private chef and paid for the meal before Shabbat. The menu: grilled fish with vegetables, green salad, guacamole, tortillas, rice and beans, salsa, and horchata for the beverage. It was all freshly prepared onsite. YUM! For lunch and the rest of Shabbat, we ad-libbed by “catering” through buying bread, cheese, and tamales at different stands on the side of the road before arriving. That hastily cobbled-together plan ended up working out quite nicely.
The view from our vacation rental was the absolute key to Shabbat. It’s best described by the Airbnb listing itself (which can be found here): “Jaw-dropping views of a secret beach in the bay below. Its unique location on a mini-peninsula will give you sweeping panoramas of the sparkling Pacific Ocean from all sides of the home… and from each of the home’s two stories.” If you’re going to spend 25 hours of Shabbat in a remote area, you definitely want something you can keep looking at (literally) all day — and this view fit the bill, resoundingly.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned “secret beach” provided a beautiful, yet vulnerable experience on Saturday morning. We began the walk down to the beach with my 11-month-old daughter Aurora in my hiker backpack, and my 3-year-old son Elliott trying to walk himself while holding my wife Megan’s hand. But the terrain proved too rugged for Elliott, who kept either falling down or dragging Megan. At that point I decided to lift Elliott as well — and carrying both kids myself proved to be surprisingly manageable. Then again, the hike back up with them was significantly more difficult, and let’s just say I was glad when we finished the trek so that I could resume staring at the gorgeous view from the deck.
The rest of the day unfolded much like any lengthy summer Shabbat with young children — eating, relaxing (or trying to relax), playing, and repeating that cycle until the kids fall asleep and Shabbat will soon end.
I highly recommend that San Diegans try out a trip to Baja, which provides an appealing mix of accessibility, affordability, novelty, and adventure. Just keep one pro tip in mind: Don’t travel home on a Sunday, unless you have a SENTRI pass to expedite your crossing of the U.S. border. While our wait was three and a half hours, it felt longer than 25 hours of Shabbat.
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Jacob Kamaras is Managing Editor of the San Diego Jewish World.