A Holiday in SoCal

It's a safe bet that San Diego has the world's highest per capita concentration of super-sized SUVs and monster trucks. It's also a place where one of the more common selling points in real-estate ads is "RV parking spot." On Labor Day, the Fourth of July, and Memorial Day, well-heeled suburbanites all over the county get up in the dark and drive their behemoths from the suburbs to the beach to get in position for all-day barbecues and surf sessions. By dawn, the curbside parking lanes along the Coast Highway are packed, bumper to bumper, with bus-sized motor homes.

As soon as the fire evacuation calls started, San Diego RV owners packed up their photo albums and laptops and headed for the beach. While working-class families slept in tents on the artificial turf of Qualcomm Stadium, the Gulf Stream set mixed cocktails and watched DVDs in their pop-out sitting rooms. When the beaches filled up, impromptu RV rallies gathered in mall parking lots. Inside, people roamed the stores and food courts, getting an early start on their holiday shopping.