California.

I wanted so badly for you to stop.  Be truly in the moment.  I felt I was always making you come back.  There was one place I never had to do that.  When my feel touched the purest sand, we walked so far away from the boardwalk.  I will never forget the sound of souls trying to make it.  I will never forget the warmth of the sun and the way the ocean got louder.  It felt like quicksand, each toe grasping for earth.  The wind made it feel like you were in the deep desert and the ocean was merely a figment of your imagination. But it was worth believing in.  It was the first time I ever saw you happy.

I saw the intense love.  I couldn't move you, you were already moved. It was the time I saw you calm.  Really relishing in what it felt like to be free, if not only for a moment.  It was as if you saw her for the first time.

On this day we took it to the edge, dipping our feet in and running as it was a bucket of ice. Yet we still were tempted by it.  Each wave coming close enough.  It felt like dancing.  We walked beyond the noise of the boardwalk, followed the sun.  I collected shells,  you gazed.  Hills to the right, strangers never too close.  The purest of sand below our feet.  Its the only time I love to hear the seagulls sing, every so often answering to the mighty ocean. We ate breakfast here.  I made mashed potatoes with a fork.  That ice cream cone in front of Jim Morrison's house though, that's when I saw you.  Like really saw you, the golden sunset and the dancing welcomers to the darkness.  Under a blanket we looked up at the stars we never see in New York and much like with the ocean, fell in love all over again.

We heard skateboards. You played The Doors. It was the last time I heard the ocean.