5 posts tagged “san diego”
Driving back from Joshua Tree National Park, we saw these wind turbines. You can read about them here.
On Sunday, we met up with my co-worker Albert (he works for our company from his home in San Diego) to go surfing. This was my first time ever attempting to surf. It is very difficult, not that I expected it to be easy. Basically, you lie on your stomach on the board, and when you catch a wave, you "pop up," or do a push up and snap your feet under you. This is especially hard if you're tall (I am). Simone is also pretty tall and said some people jump to their knees first, but ideally you want to get your feet under you quickly because you only have a short time to stand up. I wish I had some action shots, but I was afraid my camera would be stolen on the beach so I left it in the car.
After we rested and cleaned up, we met back up with Albert and drove to downtown San Diego, where we had dinner at Sushi Deli. Simone and Ranmali love this place. The sushi was good and fairly inexpensive compared to other sushi places I've been. Check it out if you're ever in San Diego.
After we rested and cleaned up, we met back up with Albert and drove to downtown San Diego, where we had dinner at Sushi Deli. Simone and Ranmali love this place. The sushi was good and fairly inexpensive compared to other sushi places I've been. Check it out if you're ever in San Diego.
After leaving the Salton Sea, we drove up to Joshua Tree National Park. We stopped at the vistor center to pay our fee and pick up a brochure. Flipping through the brochure, I noticed a list of park wildlife. Among those were rattlesnakes, tarantulas, and mountain lions. Uh ... I seriously felt a moment of panic, but then realized I had just made my friend and her roommate drive 2 1/2 hours so we could go hiking. There was no way I could back out now.
Thankfully, we didn't see ANY animals while we were hiking (though we saw piles of droppings all along the path). I was silently panicking for the first mile of our 7-mile hike. But then I figured screw it, I couldn't enjoy my time if I was going to be nervous, so I sucked up my fear and enjoyed the rest of the day.
Joshua Tree is SO beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice.
On Saturday, Simone, her roommate Ranmali and I decided to go hiking at Joshua Tree National Park. We took a scenic route through the mountains and stopped at the Salton Sea along the way. Driving up to the sea through Salton City felt like being in a horror film. The small street is lined with old, rundown mobile homes. On the corner, there is even a restaurant in a trailer. I half expected to see someone playing "Dueling Banjos."
The sea itself is creepy. Walking up to shore, you come upon lots and lots of dead fish (our theory was they committed suicide to escape the salty water). The water along the shoreline is tinged red. There isn't even any sand; the ground is a crunchy shell mixture.
Now whenever anything weird happens, I'm going to call it a "Salton Sea" moment.
The sea itself is creepy. Walking up to shore, you come upon lots and lots of dead fish (our theory was they committed suicide to escape the salty water). The water along the shoreline is tinged red. There isn't even any sand; the ground is a crunchy shell mixture.
Now whenever anything weird happens, I'm going to call it a "Salton Sea" moment.
This weekend, I traveled to San Diego to visit my friend Simone. She and I were friends our freshman year of college, and then she transfered to another university. It had been 5 1/2 years since we'd seen each other. It had also been 7 1/2 years since I'd visited to San Diego (my dad had a Seal Team reunion there in 2000) and 4 1/2 years since I had traveled to the west coast.
Flying over Colorado Springs, CO
As someone who has only lived in the midwest, I am fascinated by palm trees.
This is probably my favorite picture from the whole vacation.
According to Simone, the pier in Ocean Beach is the longest pier on the west coast.
On my first day in San Diego, Simone picked me up from the airport and then after dropping my stuff off at her place, we walked down to the beach. The weather was cooler than I expected for southern California, but I was still able to wear a t-shirt and flip flops and not be too chilly. Simone and I sat on the beach and talked for a while. When her roommate showed up, we drove to another beach to watch the surfers at sunset. Then we had dinner at a local bar where I tried fish tacos for the first time. For some reason, everyone was really tired after that so we went back to Simone's, where her roommate made chocolate chip cookies and we all dozed on the couch.
