Tag: San Diego

San Diego, the Sleeping Beauty.

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Over the break, I headed to one of the most beautiful places – San Diego for a week.
I’ve heard of how attractive and magical the city is so I finally had a chance to discover this “dream place.”

Before we launched out journey, my dear friend Emmy made a three-page list including all the “must-go places” and “must-do things” in San Diego. She said, “you would never get bored in that city. There’s always so much things to do.” After all, I would say that she was completely correct.

We followed Emmy’s list to plan our schedules and each day we discovered something new about San Diego. We went to the USS Midway Museum to explore the history of Aircraft Carriers and got a chance to see the famous “Kissing Statue.” We went to the Coronado Island by the water taxi and visited the famous Hotel Del Coronado.

We also went to the strawberry lands to pick up our own strawberries. They were huge and super sweet strawberries and honestly I’ve never tasted that fresh strawberries! They were just amazing.

The next day we went to Balboa Park, where numerous museums are located. It was extremely sunny and warm. We walked around the park and visited some Spanish historical galleries.

Later in the afternoon we headed to the Old Town, which became my favorite site in San Diego. Old Town is like a small community full of culture and history. It is considered as the birthplace of California, where the first Europeans settled. The whole little town was filled with laughter and music. There were lots of stores and museums as well and mostly about the old European or Indian things.

We walked along the road and forget the time till we met the sunset.
The golden sunshine poured on the street and I believe I just saw one of the most gorgeous moments in the world. Then the lights became alive. I picked up my camera and saved the natural beauty. By the way, Old Town has the best Mexican food in the world.

Anyways, eight days are obviously not enough so I need to go to San Diego again to finish Emmy’s list.

I would describe San Diego as the sleeping beauty. She lies there, quiet but charming.

It is nearly impossible to not fall in love with her because once you awaken her, she would invade your heart gently and never leave again.

Petrichor

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“It means the smell of dust after rain.”

In freshman English, our teacher had us memorize a list of the “Hundred Most Beautiful Words in the English Language.”

I still use a lot of the words I learned from that list, in my writing.  But one word stuck with me more than the rest, and that is: petrichor.

In that list, it was defined as “the smell of earth after rain.”

Isn’t that just lovely?

Last weekend, I went home to San Diego for just over fifteen hours.  It was the shortest visit I’ve ever had, but it was beautiful.

It was drizzling when we hit Genesee Avenue, and raining when we got to Point Loma.  I stayed at my friends’ house and I could hear the rain pouring outside.

At about 12:30 am, I walked out into the warm, San Diego rain.

It was foggy, so the city lights turned the cloud layer soft sherbet orange.

It was so peaceful.  I just stood there and let the warm droplets collect on my eyelashes and make them heavy with rain.  The world looked gilded, as if embellished in tiny bluish crystals, tremulous and glittering.

Molly Malone

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I love Irish music.

Even when it’s sad, which it often is, there is something lovely and haunting about it.

Anyway, when I was little, we still used tape players.

Oh yes, those ancient things, tapes.  Not CDs (which are fast becoming antiques), not iPods, cassette tapes.

I lived in San Diego, so my parents did a lot of driving with me in the car, and I listened to books and music on tape.

My mom used to play these “We Sing” tapes.

Which were, in their essence, recordings of overly enthusiastic kids singing loud classic children’s songs.  I used to sing along, but there were only three songs I really liked.

My favorite song was about a sweet Irish fishmonger who died.  I know.  Sad right?

I never knew the song title, and the tape got lost so I soon forgot about it.

But yesterday, after nearly 13 years, I heard that sad, Irish song again.

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A Sun Diego Day

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I don’t think I’ve worn shorts and a tank top since October.

But it was sunny today on my vacation in San Diego so I broke out the summer wear and it was amazing.

I bought some rosemary and olive oil bread from a little place called Rustic Breads and it was absolutely marvelous.

There was a lot of glare so I couldn’t take a picture of it but this was the next thing in the display case and it looked just as delicious:

Then by the power of Ross Turner himself, I got to see my friend, Rose Hart, from CIMI!!!

She happened to be singing with her choir group on the U.S.S. Midway, fifteen minutes from my hotel.

I pulled into the parking lot and walked straight into her choir group (purely by chance) about a minute and a half before her tour started and she got onboard.

Rose Hart

After our extremely loud reunion, I walked around Downtown San Diego with my sisters and dress shopped for their graduation.

We headed down to La Jolla Shores to eat lunch at my favorite store in the world, the Cheese Shop.

I think we bought up half the stuff in there…seriously.

Then we walked down onto the beach and we saw a bunch of sea roses tangled up in the sand.

They still smelled sweet, mixed with salt and fresh sea breeze.

As we walked down further I saw three guys flying 200-foot-long kites.

Good thing it was windy…

I was very confused as to how these massive kites got into the air and I was lucky enough to see a guy launching his:

It was a very good day.

Add that to the fact that I got to see Ursula and Greg, two of my best friends ever, it was fantastic.

I love San Diego!!!

Sea World!!!

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This weekend I had the chance to be the FIRST person to take my awesome girlfriend Joanna to Sea World in San Diego California. Since she had already been to Disneyland I figured that it would be great to take her to experience something new, and great it was.

It was SO much fun! We went to see a couple of the shows like the Shamu show and Pets Rule! which is a show that has nothing to do with the sea by the way, but regardless it is beyond impressive when the viewers find out that all the animals in the show were dogs adopted from the San Diego Humane Society.


Sea World to me is a place where those who wish to see majestic animals can do so in one location, animals that would otherwise be found in the wild and could be unreachable by people with monetary limitations. I know that it sounds horrible that these animals are kept in captivity and will never get to see the open ocean, yes i agree that is really sad but look at the kids who see these animals and are in complete awe and happiness.. to me that is a nice thing to see.

So that’s what I think is great about Sea World.
Do you like it there?

Washington D.C. 2009

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Check out the links.  I promise they’re not standard Wiki pages!

My best friend (yes, the same one I mentioned in New York City 2008 who says I can’t cross a city street) and I have an ongoing debate.  East vs. West, New York or California?  San Diego or Washington D.C.?

Of course being from California, I always say West.  We have better beaches, better waves, we’re more relaxed, we have Hollywood and Disneyland.  He laughs at me, claiming they have better cities, better public transportation, better manners, New York City and the good colleges.

In California, we don’t really have seasons.  But when we do, we can have all four seasons in one day -even one afternoon.  So when I went to Washington D.C. with my school in October of 2009, it was quite a shock seeing the trees changing colors and watching the rain fall steadily every night and early morning.

We took the red-eye out of LAX, flying out at 10:45 p.m. on my first Virgin America flight (I highly recommend this airline.  It’s super awesome.)  The inside of the cabins look like this:

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Philadelphia Freedom…not so sweet

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The Eagles…what can I say about the Eagles? As I sit here typing on this beautiful San Diego night, I look back on the day’s occurrences. While my family and I sat down to a game of Scrabble without one “E” tile, we discussed the most recent failure of our beloved Philadelphia Eagles. “It’s the coaching”, my mother said. “It’s all Andy Reid’s fault.” I have only ever followed the Eagles while Andy Reid has coached them. Yes, I feel it is time for a change also. But, how would this even feel? Certainly wouldn’t feel right for a few weeks. Seeing a new coach on the Eagles sideline. Turnover after turnover occurred for the Eagles and once again found themselves on the losing end of a very sloppy competition. This time, it was made even more humiliating because they suffered at the cleats of the Buffalo Bills. What is happening with the supposed “Dream Team”? Are they really all hype? Are they really just a high payroll franchise? How can this be corrected? I’d welcome any comment on this very pressing matter.

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Please, think of the Philadelphian children.

New York City

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According to Urban Dictionary, you know you’re a New Yorker when:

“You say “the city” and expect everyone to know that this means Manhattan.

You have never been to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.

The subway makes sense.

The most frequently used part of your car is the horn. 

You think Central Park is ‘nature.'”

Click here to view an entire list of what makes you a New Yorker.

I am most definitely NOT a New Yorker.  As my best friend would say, I don’t know how to cross a city street (because pushing the “walk” button doesn’t count).  I’m from San Diego, 8th largest city in the United States with an estimated 1.307 million residents.  So I should know about cities right?  WRONG!  I moved to Ventura, California when I was 7 and the population is barely crawling past 106,400 thousand people.

So when I went to “the city” in 2008, I was mind blown.

My aunt and uncle used to live in Chelsea, a neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan.  I took this picture out of their loft window:

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