San Diego Trip

t some point Southwest was running a special where you could fly 1-way to certain places for $25 in January. Derrick and I checked out the options and decided to get tickets for San Diego. We stayed at the downtown hostel and took the bus around so it ended up being a very cheap trip. Anyway, enough about how cheap frugal we are and on to what we did!

We arrived Thursday night at around 9pm. We had planned to go to this Irish pub to eat but turns out they don't serve food that late. So we ended up going to a french bistro/ice cream place. It was about all that was open, but still pretty tasty. Friday morning we woke up early and took the bus over to Balboa park. Our first stop was the zoo. We spent the morning there looking at all the animals. We even got to see the baby panda! The whole experience was definitely worth the $$ for the tickets. We ate lunch in the zoo and then explored the rest of Balboa park.

Next we went to the Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA). There was only one exhibit at that time, Beloved Daughters: Photographs by Fazal Sheikh. He took pictures of women in India and recorded their story. The photos were incredible and the stories were heart-wrenching. It was a bit heavy but I'm still glad that we went.

After MoPA, we headed over to the botanical building. This was one of the best parts of the day and it was FREE! We wandered around the rest of Balboa park and ended up at the air and space museum. It was really lame, epecially considering the price of the tickets. I was also pretty exhausted by this time so that may also have had something to do with my disatisfaction. After that we headed back to the hostel where we took a short nap and thought about where to go for dinner. We decided on Chianti - we were a little worried at first since there were only like two other people in the restaurant but it ended up being really good. We considered going back to the pub for a beer but I was really tired and convinced Derrick that it was time for bed.

Saturday morning we packed up our stuff and boarded the bus for Coronado. We checked out the Hotel del Coronado and then sat on the beach for the rest of the morning. It was really nice just to sit after walking all day Friday. After lunch we took the trolley to the San Diego Mission. It is the oldest CA mission and very pretty. After that we headed back to the airport to go home. Overall, a good trip!

See the pictures here:

San Diego 2009

Emily and Kelly's Excellent Adventure!

Emily and I are starting a spur of the moment road trip up the northern CA coast this weekend! Emily has been awesome and basically planned everything- here is our proposed route.  I am going to take the Amtrak from Davis to Oakland where she will pick me up and we will begin our journey.  We will sleep in Mendocino, Humboldt Redwood SP, Eureka and Redding with stops along the way wherever we see fit.  Maybe Emily has a more thought out plan than that but as far as I know we are playing it by ear. I don't really care, I am just excited to be going somewhere!

I am really excited about taking some pictures! I finally figured out how to load the 120 film into the Argus 75 (had to trim off the edges of the spool) so I am ready to shoot!  There are only 12 pics per roll and I only have one roll so I have to really plan out each shot.  This will be such a different feel than shooting with the digital camera.  With digital I just take as many pictures as I want, get all the different angles, lighting etc., and then pick the best one once I download on to the computer.  I have found that the ones that look the best to me through the viewfinder are not always my favorites once they appear on my screen.  So I will really have to dig deep and find my inner photographer to get some good shots.  Then I will have to figure out how/where the heck I am going to get the film developed.  But that's a whole other post.

Vacation 2009

We went on vacation a couple weeks ago.  It feels like forever ago since things have been so busy though.  Anyway, I took over 900 pictures but I only posted about 100 for the internet to enjoy.  Since then I have played around in GIMP with a couple of them.  I think they are cool so I will post them here for you too!  I am generous like that.

We went out to the coast- started in Monterey and ended in Marin Headlands with stops in Santa Cruz, Big Basin SP, Half Moon Bay and San Fransisco.  It was our most low key vacation ever and probably the most enjoyable.

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Park and B&B Reviews

We visited a lot of parks this week so I thought I would give a little review of each one for anyone who is interested.

Pinnacles National Park- REALLY REALLY REALLY HOT! During the day at least. There are two sets of caves, but only one was open when we went - Balconies. We hiked there and it was really cool. There are also lots of places to climb for those who are into climbing. The campsite was also decent. There are bathrooms, 6-minute hot showers, although mine still seemed quite cold at 6am. There is also a pool that looked pretty nice but we didn't swim.

Big Sur- So there are 3 different parks in the Big Sur area: Andrew Molero SP, Pfieffer Big Sur SP and Julia Pfieffer SP. I will review them separately.

Andew Molero State Park- We only hiked here but it was beautiful. There is a cove area with a beach which is popular with the surfers. You have to cross over the river (wade) to get to it though. You can also hike out to the point which gives you a nice view of the cove and the ocean. This is actually the largest of the three parks, but also the least developed

Julia Pfieffer- the main attraction here is the beautiful cove with waterfall and crystal blue water. The area was donated by a lady who used to live up the hill with the condition that there be no access to the beach. So you can't touch it but the view is fantastic. Its only about a 5 min walk from the parking lot. There are other hikes back into the mountains but we didn't go.

Pfieffer Big Sur- This is the main park of the three and the one people commonly refer to as Big Sur. This is where we camped. I wasn't particularly impressed with the hikes. We went up to Pfieffer Falls (decent waterfall) and Valley view (totally not worth the uphill haul). I was also quite tired and cranky this day so that might have biased my experience.

Hearst Castle National Monument (or something)- this isn't technically a park but it is owned by the park system so I'll count it. This is incredible. Our tour guide was superb and the 'castle' is beautiful. A little pricey on the tickets but worth it in my opinion.

Montana de Oro State Park- This park was really pretty, lots of beach area, eucalyptus groves, etc. But we had the hardest time trying to figure out where we were supposed to go for camping. We went to the visitors center but it was closed (at 3:30pm). It had sign telling us to go somewhere else, that place said to go somewhere else, etc. We eventually figured it out with enough time to take a picnic out to the beach before we had to hike our gear in. This was our only night without showers but also the most peaceful. We were the only ones in the 1 of 2 campgrounds in the area. We had E-camp #2 which was in the eucalyptus grove but we could here the waves down the hill as well.

Point Mugu State Park- We didn't do much here besides camp and putter around on the beach for about 20 minutes. There were showers but you had to feed it quarters to get any hot water. Well worth it in my opinion :) You could also hear the beach from our tent.

Malibu Creek State Park- My least favorite park. Hot hot hot, bugs bugs bugs. Loud french people. Thats all I have to say about that.

Secret Garden B&B, LA, CA- After an entire week of camping we thought we had died and gone to heaven. There was a bed with lots of pillows and someone to fix us yummy breakfast that wasn't from a box. The owners were friendly but not too in your face, which we appreciated. We also got upgraded to the cottage (separate building in the back) for free! There is a nice garden with a waterfall and birds (like lots of them, in cages) that almost drown out the traffic (its LA, what do you expect). Overall, very pleasant, would stay again.

Vacation Itinerary

Derrick and I drove south down the coast to LA, camping and site seeing along the way.

Day 1- Drive to Pinnacles NP, hike to Balconies Cave, camp.  The caves were pretty awesome, some parts were pitch dark and it was hard to tell which way to go even with a head lamp.

Day 2- Drive to Andrew Molero SP, hike to the beach;  Drive to Juila Pfeiffer SP, see awesome waterfall/cove thing; Drive to Pfieffer Big Sur SP, hike a bit, camp

Day 3- Drive to Hearst Castle, tour; Drive to Montana de Oro SP, pinic at the beach, hike in to campsite

Day 4- Drive to Santa Barbara, go to the beach, Mission, and a big fig tree; Drive to Point Mugu, hike a wee bit, camp

Day 5- Drive to Malibu, go to the beach and out to lunch for my b-day; drive to Santa Monica Pier and then to the Getty museum; Drive back to Malibu Creek SP to camp

Day 6- Drive to LA farmer's market, eat brunch; Drive to Griffith Observatory; Drive to Bed and Breakfast in West Hollywood

Day 7- Wander around Hollywood in the blazing heat, Chinese theatre, El Capitan to see Prince Caspian

Day 8- Drive home!

Pictures can be found here.