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August 26, 2005

My Vacation Part I

I had never been to San Diego and really wanted to go there. John had been there once, probably 15 years ago. Well, John had a chance to take a one-day class there, so we decided to build our vacation around that fact that his airfare and two nights of hotel would be paid for....

So last Friday, after I finished putting together the Carnival of the Recipes, John and I headed off to the airport to catch our Southwest flight to San Diego.

After the somewhat interesting landing at the San Diego Airport (I'm told that it was a 'normal' landing for that airport), we found our luggage and our rental car. Eventually we made our way to the Embassy Suites in La Jolla (I forgot to bring directions and the map that Avis gave us showed a route that did not exist) and got settled in.

DaGoddess picked us up and we all went out to eat at Trophy's - nice place. We talked and talked and talked.

On Saturday, Joanie called early and gave us directions to her house so we could pick her up on the way to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. We parked and I immediately started taking pictures of the unfamiliar flora.

This tree, for example, has a very yellow color - and doesn't seem to really have any bark, or at least what we in the Great Flyover states consider as bark, but it does have thorns!

Mind you, that was in the parking lot. Fortunately, we have a 1 GB memory card in the camera, so I could take a lot of pictures - many more to go, folks.

Joanie got us in free because she gets a yearly pass. Thank you Joanie!!!!
First we went to see some birds:

This guy makes me think of James Brown when they throw that cape over his shoulders and he rises ...


There were a lot of other birds, as well:

DaGoddess just loves Dragonflies. She is really an expert at taking pictures of dragonflies and other tiny things - this was my attempt:


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Posted by Beth at August 26, 2005 11:13 AM

Comments

Great pictures! :)

Arthur visits SD roughly 4 times a year; I need to go with him at least once...

Posted by: pam at August 26, 2005 9:29 AM

I had no idea there were so many things to do and see there, Pam! And the weather is gorgeous.

Posted by: beth at August 26, 2005 9:32 AM

I'm glad you had fun - I enjoyed living there, until the traffic got yucky (left in 1997). The sameness of the climate gets boring after a while, though.

Great pics - more to come??

Posted by: Barb at August 26, 2005 10:18 AM

Yes, lots of pictures to come - in between working, anyway!

Posted by: beth at August 26, 2005 10:21 AM

I lived in San Diego for 12 years, left in 2001 after the death of my father. A couple reactions:

1. Yeah, flying into Lindbergh Field is a ride, since you come in over a mountain range and then drop like a rock, with the last few hundred yards being right through (not over) downtown. Pilots, I'm told, hate it.

2. The annual pass to the Zoo/WAP ROCKS! We would go at least once a month, and focus our visit on one section of the zoo -- no rush to see it all at once.

3. Barb's right. The traffic and the climate (surprisingly enough) drove us away, along with cost of living. When an 1100 sq. foot house in our neighborhood (Kensington) went for $510K, we knew it was time to either win the Lottery or leave SoCal.

Posted by: Brian B at August 26, 2005 12:02 PM

Heh. I too had an interesting landing last trip to SD. It's kind of amusing once you realize everything is actually ok....

I love Southwest.

Posted by: caltechgirl at August 26, 2005 12:22 PM

I used to hate Southwest, until I learned that during the 60's and 70's, they had a policy of actively favoring Vietnam vets for jobs.

Posted by: Brian B at August 26, 2005 12:52 PM

Of course, the *coolest* birds were the ones I was with!

And I think the "James Brown" bird looks more like Skeletor!

Posted by: John of Argghhh! at August 26, 2005 3:28 PM

So glad you had good times and great weather.

Posted by: cin at August 26, 2005 4:00 PM

I think this was the best short vacation John and I have ever had - we got to meet people in person, see things we've never seen, and enjoy the weather - which feels pretty good in comparison to a Leavenworth, Kansas summer (100 degrees, 90% humidity!)

But I could not move there - we could never afford a house there, we could not have all of our guns there and I do love 4 seasons - Autumn and Spring are my favorites.

Posted by: beth at August 26, 2005 6:48 PM