Last weekend in Paradise

Howdy everyone.

So I am totally wiped out for some reason and am ready to call it an early night, but I know all of you are itching to learn about what I did this past weekend. Unfortunately, I don't have a whole lot of exciting details to share with you.

Saturday Susan and I spent the morning looking for hotels and beginning to plot our trip home. We've plotted out about a week so far, and tomorrow we are going to be a little bit more. This beginning part is tougher because we are stopping in a few major vacation spots and national parks. Our trip to this point looks like this:

Tuesday - Drive up Coastal Highway 1 to San Francisco
Wednesday - See the Redwoods and spend time in San Fran
Thursday - Visit Yosemite (if the fires have been put out) & spend the night in Lake Tahoe
Friday - Head to Vegas for the night
Saturday - Go to Zion National Park
Sunday - Grand Canyon National Park and then hitting the road again

So that only gets us about a 1/3 or so across the country, and it's looking pretty eventful already.

Beyond that, we played some mini golf (which we tied), and fooled around in a small arcade after. Today, we spent the morning at the beach, taking in some last rays, sand, and surf while we still can. This afternoon we ran around, take care of some errands and began cleaning the house.

While at lunch today, a TV with ESPN was on. On the screen the boys from Chula Vista, CA (30 minutes from us) celebrated after winning the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. As many of you know, I worked there last summer covering games and writing feature stories before going back to school. Until last summer I usually loathed those 10 days in August where ESPN is taken over by little boys playing on miniature diamonds in some town in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania. But last summer completely changed my outlook, and I really enjoyed my time there and watching the kids play a different brand of ball I was used to watching.

Seeing the games on ESPN this past week has reminded me of that incredible week in Williamsport and the great people I met during my time there. Being in a city which has a team contending in the Series adds perspective and showed me how important the event is to the whole community. At the Padres game last weekend, they showed highlights of the game on the jumbo screen and the fans erupted with applause and cheers when the final score of 12-0 Chula Vista flashed on the screen. While eating dinner the other night at Phils BBQ, Chula Vista staged a massive comeback, coming back to win 11-10 in extra innings after being down 10-5 in the 4th. People cheered with each run crossing home plate, and the restaurant announced over the loud speaker the final result of the game.

It was another cool piece to be a part of, and something I've never experienced before. Of course, a team from Staten Island also made it to the Series this year, but since I wasn't home I can't comment on how that was covered or paid attention to by locals. Luckily though, I happen to be in another city with a contender.

After being in Williamsport, I feel it is something every baseball fan should experience. It is a nice, quaint, small town where everyone and their grandmother turn out for Little League games. The tradition of sitting in the hill behind Lamade Stadium, or sliding down the hill on cardboard are things everyone should see and do in person, not just hear about from Orel Hershiser and Brent Musburger.

Anyway, that's my $.02 on the subject, since you asked and all.

Tomorrow we plan on hitting the beach one last time and then heading downtown for lunch at Blue Water Seafood, a place I have been dying to go to since I got here because I saw it on Dinners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. So it has to be good, right!?

I know I mentioned I have a bunch of photos waiting to go online. I'm going to do my best to get them up tomorrow so I can start with a clean slate one we hit the road.

And Then There Were Two

Yay for almost being back on schedule.

Yesterday Susan, Linz, and I headed to the beach for Linz's last day in San Diego. We decided to rent some surf boards one last time and caught some waves for an hour or so. I did much better this time around, and Linz picked up right where she left off, catching waves and riding them in. A couple times we tried to catch a buddy wave, and it usually ended in one of two ways, 1) I wiped out, or 2) We both wiped out.

Beyond that, we didn't do too much on the beach. We also made sure to do some final photo shoots on the beach. The waves were pretty sweet once again and I was sure to take advantage of them. I caught some good waves, and got pretty tired being thrown around in the ocean and diving through some big swells.

We ended the day with what we knew would be a great dinner, Phils BBQ. It was just as good as the last time, and there was a 30 minute line at 6:30 on a Thursday! We couldn't believe it. But anyway, we had a really good meal.

Today Susan and I visited La Jolla again to go kayaking around the caves in La Jolla Cove. It said we would "explore the caves," but that wasn't exactly what happened. Being in a two person kayak, it took us some time to figure out how to get the kayak going in a relative straight line as we made our way around, and frequently ended with hits into strangers or being hit by them. We got to look into the little caves, but didn't get to go kayaking through them, so that was unfortunate.

The coolest part of the tour was seeing leopard sharks on our way back into shore. There were a whole bunch of them right under the kayaks and you could see them swimming this way and that. After the tour ended, we grabbed some lunch and went down to La Jolla Cove to see some seals. Unfortunately, there were only two seals floating around in the cove and we only spotted them every couple of minutes.

Linz left us today to head back to Massachusetts for a couple weeks before moving to Minneapolis. We were all sad to see her go. It had been a lot of fun hanging out with her again the past two plus weeks, reminding me of days at school again. Depending on when we get back East we might see her again before she heads to Minnesota, else I'm sure we will see her again soon, if not at Homecoming to say the least. Have a safe trip home, Linz. We miss you.

The weather here has been scorching, even by SoCal standards. It has been in the 90s the past couple days, so hopefully it'll break soon. Susan and I are starting to plan our trip home, and it looks like it's going to be a looong one. We are starting out going north on the Cali Coast, spending some time up North and seeing the Redwoods. The complicated part is trying to get from the San Francisco area to the Grand Canyon without completely double-backing through Cali like Google Maps wants us to.

Any suggestions on paths and way points are encouraged.

The Most Magical Place on Earth

Wednesday:

8 AM - estimated departure for Disneyland

8:15 AM - Linz knocks on the door to the bedroom and I hear "Are you guys coming?"

8:16 AM - I curse very loudly, waking up Susan and mayhem ensues.

8:25 AM - Actual departure for Disneyland, but of course we had to make a couple stops (breakfast, money, gas) so we didn't actually hit the road till about 8:45. The good part about all this is that was the worst part of the day.

10:25 AM - We pull into the parking structure and instantly I become a 5 year old again. I was jumping all over the place, smiling ear to ear, and was generally silly. We met up with Linz's friend Danny to complete our quartet and we headed for California Adventure.

I was nervous about the park, since I hadn't been there in about 5 years and I was unsure if everyone else would like it, or even if I still would. But the good thing is we had an absolute blast. I talked about California Screamin', the roller coaster there, and it didn't disappoint. Everyone really enjoyed it.

The highlight of our time in the park was Toy Story Mania. It was by far the best ride we did in the park. In each car you sit four, with two facing each direction, so you are back to back. Each person gets a pair of 3D goggles and has a mounted gun in front of them on the ride. As you go through, there are different themed areas, from the little green aliens with three eyes that you have to shoot rings around, a cowboy roundup where you shoot suction cup darts, and others (all 3D and not real, obviously). And it's a competition between you and the person sitting next to you. Susan kept it close for the majority of the ride, but in the end I was able to persevere and be victorious. (She let me win)

Later on we decided to go on a Monsters, Inc. ride. It was terrible, for more than one reason. It turned out to be just a summation of the movie with animatronics, which we had all seen already. But the best part was the ride broke down in the middle! At first we thought it was part of it, but then the lights came up, the robots stopped moving, the cars stopped moving, and we heard voices over the intercom. A couple minutes later someone came around, rounded us up, and led us out of the ride on foot. I snapped a couple quick pictures before the man lightly mentioned "no photos please", which you can see with the rest of my new photos very soon.

We also went on the Tower of Terror with some teenage girls who almost made our ears bleed, Muppet Vision 3D, and Grizzly River Rapids.

3:00 PM - We decide we've done all we wanted to in California Adventure and walk across the way to Disneyland. At this point I became even more giddy, if that was possible. We walked down Main Street, and set off for Tomorrowland and Space Mountain. The line was pretty short, and we went on Buzz Lightyear's Adventure, which was a weaker version of Toy Story Mania.

By this point, it was 5:30 and I needed to have the one thing I had been talking about all week: a smoked turkey leg. After searching around and becoming thoroughly cranky in the process, I found my food of choice and quickly found a bench to enjoy it on. Shortly there after I trashed the almost completely cleaned turkey leg bone, and was content to go about our evening in Disney.

We went on a bunch of stuff including Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones Adventure, King Arthur's Carousel, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

9:00 PM - Hands down the best part of the whole day starts at this point. Disney's nightly Fantasmic. The show took place right on the River of America, with choreography, boats on the river, dancers, a projection screen on the water, some fireworks, a live orchestra, and of course, Mickey himself. Somehow, Linz and Danny found a great place for us to stand almost dead center, so we got a great view of everything going on. It was pretty special, and served to remind us all how unbelievable Disney is and how when they decide to do something, they go all the way. They even dimmed the lights so we could see the show more easily. It made me feel like a kid again as the movies of my childhood appeared before me: Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and The Little Mermaid. It seemed like everyone in the park was on the River to watch the show.

9:25 PM - To cap off the event, a fireworks display followed Fantasmic and we had a great view of it all. Some people cleared out after the first part, so we sat down, and looked to the sky as the music continued and fireworks lit up the sky synchronized to several Disney movie songs. It was really cool, and they had some great fireworks. I tried to get some pictures of it, but they don't do it justice. The display lasted about 20 minutes, which we all thought was pretty impressive considering the park is putting on this same show every night for at least the summer, maybe even the whole year.

We capped off the night walking around Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and taking in how amazing the park looked lit up at night. The park closed at 11 PM and we didn't end up leaving the park till 11 PM. So we had a long day inside the wide world of Disney to say the least.

It was an incredible day though, and I'm really glad we got the chance to go. Many thanks to Maryann Ford.

On our way back to the car, I couldn't help but think, "In the world of Disney, anything is possible."

Sea Lions, Tigers, and Gorillas, Oh My

Tuesday:

Susan and I wandered over to the world famous San Diego Zoo. It was an awesome and exhausting day. We walked all over that place and saw all the animals we wanted to catch, plus a few extras.

We started off the day by seeing the reptile exhibit. Some of those things are HUGE. There were pythons, an anaconda, cobras, vipers, and a whole mess of others. It was sad though because some of the snakes didn't look like they could even fit in their tanks if there were laid out straight, as opposed to the coiled shaped they were in. We also took notice of the size of the exhibits for some of the animals. While I will admit they were generally much bigger and well designed than other zoos I have visited, even a "big" area for a tiger, lion, or wolf in a zoo is still pretty small compared to the vast amounts of land they cover in the wild.

After the reptile exhibit, we saw a sea lion show in a small amphitheater. We couldn't figure out why no one was sitting around us, until the show started and we were sweating instantly...Everyone else had found a spot to sit in the shade on the side bleachers. But the show was fun, and the sea lion and its trainer were great. In the show they also brought out a white wolf, an Andean condor, and macaws. The birds flew up and down the arena, swooping right over the audiences' heads. Seeing the condor was really cool. The bird is so big, but it was surprisingly agile and quick once it landed, hoping around and jumping back into the air.

On really hot days, like the one we chose to go on, a lot of the animals hide out in the shade or their caves to escape the heat until the late afternoon. Fortunately we caught a few of them before they disappeared for a while. Susan really wanted to see the gorillas, apparently she really likes them. When we got over to the viewing area, three of them were just hanging out, leaning on the glass in the shade. But we got lucky and got to see them do some pretty funny stuff. One of the gorillas had a baby in its arms, and another one came over to take the baby for a while. It was really funny watching the gorilla hold its baby, with it slowly falling to sleep and head gradually tilting back till its head was just above the ground. Then another gorilla decided to say "hello" to everyone by turning around to face the spectators, and throwing its hands over its head and pressing its whole body against the glass, essentially flashing everyone there.

I really wanted to see the tigers, but the first time we stopped by they were at the very top of their exhibit, hiding under a tree to escape the heat. We stopped by again later and after a couple minutes of just sitting around, the tigers started playing and chasing each other around their area. They ran over to another part and we tried to follow them, just somehow they disappeared and we couldn't seem to find them again.

We couldn't go to the San Diego Zoo without seeing the famous panda exhibit. The zoo is well renowned for their panda research, and one of their pandas even gave birth just about a month ago. Unfortunately the newest panda or its mother were in the exhibit, but two others were. The funniest part was the second panda in the exhibit was actually sleeping in its tree! But this wasn't sleeping, like propped up, or laying across a branch kind of thing. This dude was straight-up hanging over a single branch right across her stomach. On either side her arms and legs were dangling down out of the tree. I tried to get a good photo of it, so be sure to check it out.

We saw scores of animals throughout the day, and I got a little trigger happy with the camera, so I'll slim it down to just the good ones before I put them up for you all to look at. We got to see meerkats, polar bears chomping on some snacks, a grizzly bear taking a nice afternoon dip, zebras, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, hippos, and a bunch of birds.

Once you walk around the zoo a little bit you realize how much better it is than a vast majority of the zoos out there, and it has some really cool environments to both walk through and for the animals. I really enjoyed the day there.

After that, we came home and collapsed on the couch for a little bit, trying to recoup and get ourselves ready for taco Tuesday. We didn't eat much at the zoo, saving our appetite and cash for delicious $2 tacos instead. The Memphis Crew went to Fred's, the girls favorite Tuesday night stop, and got a couple tacos and some large 20 oz margaritas to wash it down with. After a long day of walking around in the heat, it was just what my body needed.

Definitely another good day in the books, and making some headway on our list of things to do before we depart SoCal.

Wipe Out

Hey everyone. Sorry for the major time lapse between posts. I kept saying to myself "post something tomorrow" and each day I came home more tired than the last, so I just kept putting it off. But here we go.

OK. Well there is a lot to catch you all up on. To make it a little easier, I'll break it down into three different posts, one for each day.

Monday:

We went to to the beach for the day, but the exciting part was Linz and I tried to do
some surfing. I haven't been on a surf board in about 10 years, and she had only done it once before about three weeks prior, so not a whole lot of experience to speak of. After about an hour of complete failure, I started making progress and eventually got a couple good rides. The funny part is the camera died before I got better, so there only pictures are me wiping out. Linz picked it back up faster and we got some good shots of her hanging ten. I think we are going back to try it one more time today, so hopefully I'll have some better luck.

One of the scariest parts when we first got out in the water was trying to control the surf board through big waves. I'm used to a little boogie board, and if there is a big wave you just dive under and let the water thrash the board, no problemo. But a big, hard, 8 foot surf board is a little more of a hazard to both yourself and other surfers around you. To complicate the issue more, there were some BIG waves coming in on Monday, and trying to navigate through and around them was definitely challenging. When we finally regained some energy later and went for a swim, the swells were still big, and since I was now on foot I had a better perspective of them. They were easily 8 to 10 foot swells. Swimming in them was a blast, but for a very inexperienced surfer, not so much.

That night the three of us claimed one of the fire pits on the beach, got a couple bundles of fire wood, and just chilled as the fire lit up the area and kept us warm. It was really nice being on the beach at night and it was unbelievable how many stars we could see. We walked down by the water and played catch with the light-up frisbee. It was a little challenging for me to catch though because I lost my contacts swimming earlier. Staying at the beach all day gave us the opportunity to see something which is apparently pretty rare in San Diego:

An actual sunset.

There are usually big cloud banks that swallow up the sun as it makes it way down and it is never seen or heard from again, or least for a couple hours. But this day the cloud bank was a little higher, and there was space between it and the water, so we got to see the sun disappear into the ocean. It was something I was determined to see since I got here, and it was well worth it. I even mustered up enough energy in my camera for two good shots of it going down before the camera totally gave out on me.

Welcome to the Hotel California

Howdy everyone.

Sorry no post last night. It has certainly been a packed weekend and we had a lot of fun.

Yesterday we changed up our beach scene a little bit and went to Del Mar for the day. Susan told me I would like it, and she was right. It was beautiful, and was definitely a more unique place than OB or PB. We drove toward the beach from the top of a hill, and going down it, the beach just off to the left of the highway looked spectacular. The sun was shining, the sand looked bright, and the water had an incredible green hue to it. We parked on a windy downhill street, and took some beaten path under the bridge down to the beach. We cut through shrubs, up rocks, and by the end of it I felt like I had just illegally crossed the border into Mexico.

The cool part about driving through the area, which included the Torrey Pines golf course and is pretty classy, was how many bicyclers were in the area. It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and the bike lanes were filled with groups of men and women riding up and down these intense hills. No where on Long Island or in the tri-state area have I ever seen so many bikers together, besides maybe for a major ride or competition. I also see runners all up and down the beach when we go. I'm not sure if it's just that I'm paying attention to it more out here, or if it is really just more prevalent here on the West Coast. I tend to think the latter.

Well anyway, back to Del Mar Beach. We ended up at what apparently was the surfer end of the beach. The waves were pretty close together, the breeze was strong, and the current in the ocean was intense, so it was pretty rough in the ocean. Susan and I took a long walk down the beach, taking in all the sights around. It was a real pretty walk, as we wandered down the beach, with 20 foot cliffs on one side and the ocean on the other. On the way back to the blanket and Linz, we got to walk on the upper path and look out over everything. The whole trek took about two hours and we took some nice photos along the way you can check out.

Last night I convinced the girls to go with me to a Padres game after quitting the beach for the day. We left late to go downtown, and wouldn't ya know it, there was actually traffic getting to the game. Everyone told me how easy it was to get tickets, how they never sell out, blah blah blah. Well apparently this time none of that applied. Of course, it was a Saturday night against the Cardinals, so we actually had to pay some money for seats. I felt bad for the girls, but they let me have my fun. I can't complain too much though. For $34, we were on the lower level. We were down in the right field corner right next to the foul pole, but we were still on the lower level. A hell of a lot cheaper than that would be at a game in the Bronx. Unfortunately, Chris Carpenter was on the mound for the Cards and was dealing. The Padres only had 3 hits for the night I think, and they lost 7-0.

After the game we tried to find a place to go out downtown, but finding parking was IMPOSSIBLE. I honestly could not find a thing in the area of downtown we wanted to go out in. Thirty minutes in, I said "to hell with it," and we gave up. We ended up at Gordon Beirsch for a couple drinks before calling it a night.

Today was another packed day.

To start things off, we went down to Don Tommy's, a Mexican place the girls swear by. The food was cooked fresh and was pretty delicious. The tortillas were homemade, soft, and a delicious addition that made the tacos and burritos even better. Then we headed for Balboa Park and had no idea what to expect. The park is huge and beautiful. Within the park are about 8 museums, 10 gardens, and beautiful buildings to house everything. The famous San Diego Zoo is also within the confines of Balboa Park (another stop on our list this week).

The Memphis Crew spent the afternoon walking around the park, checking out gardens, taking pictures, and having fun. We saw cactus, rose, and tropical gardens, and a bunch of other stuff I've left out. Susan and I had a bit of an unfortunate run in with a cactus, but we won't go into it...And yes, we're fine. Linz said all afternoon she wanted face paint and luckily we happen to come across one. Susan and her decided to get some "tattoos". It was another sunny day and a nice break from being on the beach every day. By the end we were exhausted, and threw down a blanket on the grass and rested our legs for a bit.

Linz and I decided tonight would be a good night to fulfill our sushi craving in San Diego, so we set off for a place that knew how to roll raw fish in rice well (not the easiest thing to search for in a city which is a major port and restaurants everywhere). We ended up over the bridge in Coronado for some dinner, and ice cream at Moo Time. In between we headed over to one of the most famous hotels in California, if not America:

The Hotel Del Coronado.

It was built in about 1888 I believe and is an old fashion, wooden, aged, and beautiful hotel. We walked all over the place. Down by the beach, in the lobby, through the stores in the basement, we checked the whole place out. My grandparents suggested I be sure and visit the hotel, and I'm definitely glad we did. It is a pretty spectacular place. The accommodations and rooms they offer are just unbelievable. If only I had enough money to stay there and enjoy that place. A boy can dream, right?

The night was capped off with some ice cream from Moo Time and then a trip home after a very full day.

I put up some new photos from the past couple days, mostly because certain people threatened me *cough* Derek *cough* to "add some more excitement" to the photo album. Hope these work for you, D Rock. I'll have some captions up tomorrow, so if you want, hold off on looking and there will be more context soon.

Hope ya'll enjoy them!

Quick Hits
*****
Congratulation to Greg for hitting more cars than hit him. He won his demolition derby this week and is advancing on to the finals! The car apparently only needs a few fixes and it would still be drivable. Nice going.

D Rock passed the first part of his CPA exam. Congratz, bro. It almost makes spending the whole summer "studying" and not taking a road trip to California with me worth it...Almost. Only two more parts to go.

How about them Yankees? Another good series against the Sawks. Guess those first eight didn't really matter, eh? I expected more from A.J., but I guess C.C. did enough. Lets keep on rolling and take this into the playoffs. They are playing great ball right now.

Lastly, another good episode of Entourage this week. I love the stuff about buying guns and knives. Drama is ridiculous.

What Do You Mean It's Cloudy??!!

Apparently it isn't always sunny in SoCal.

Today was the first day where the haze and usual morning overcast sky didn't clear up around noon, unfortunately. So with no sun in the sky and warmth on our skin, the Memphis Crew was at a loss for what to for the day.

Fortunately, Susan woke up feeling much better today and was hungry for some food by lunch. We decided on Hodad's, which consistently has a line around the block and was on Newport St near our usual beach hangout. Thankfully, the gray skies scared most of the beach goers and the line wasn't too long. We took our burgers to go and sat by the ocean, watching the people pass by and surfers try to catch a few rides. The burgers were big and awesome, kind of like in an In-N-Out style. They were delicious and I have yet to have a real meal since. That was 1 PM. It's now 10 PM.

The people of OB are pretty eccentric. They seem to still be stuck in the 1970s to put it lightly. Wandering down the street, one will see lots of long beards, shaggy haircuts, psychedelics, head shops, and tattoo parlors. It's a pretty interesting community to say the least. Everyone I've mentioned OB to has characterized it as a "hippie" community.

My eye caught a newspaper stand on the street and a I realized that I have had little connection to the outside world. No news channel on the television, no paper to look at in the morning, and I haven't even been checking the headlines on CNN. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that this has been the trend lately, but I'm going to try to fix it.

We decided to go on a little adventure after lunch and sought out Mission Beach. We had heard it had a nice boardwalk, along with some rides and games. Linz, our expert navigator, got us there with relative ease (it was, after all, only about 2 miles from OB, but she gets props nonetheless) and we pulled into the parking lot right by the coaster. As soon as I set foot on the boardwalk, I was instantly transported back to my summers in Ocean City, MD. The overwhelming smell of funnel cake was even in the air, but I couldn't bring myself to buy one with the huge Hodad's burger still sitting in my stomach.

It was fun, walking around the amusement and all. We tried on ridiculous sunglasses and played around in a cheap little arcade for a bit. Linz even treated us each to a pack of Smart-Ez and a set of fake vampire teeth for herself with the 30 tickets we won playing skee ball. Afterward we hung out by the beach and took some funny photos since I finally decided to bring my camera along for a day. It turned into a pretty good day considering how bad the weather was.

As we meandered down the boardwalk, we came upon a sweet sports club right on the beach. They had fire pits, benches, and brought in sand. On top of it all, there was a competition going on. The place had one of those wave makers, like you see on the cruise ship commercials, and there was a full blown competitions going on to apparently win a trip to Singapore to compete in the international competition. They were shredding back and forth, doing 180s, catching air, and going in and out of the perfectly shaped curl. I snapped some nice photos of the event, so look for them to be up soon.

Susan and I started looking at everything we want to do over the next week or so, and we definitely have a full list of things to do. The next week-plus is going to be pretty awesome.

To end: It's not 10:50 PM and I'm still not hungry for meal.

Day 2 With The Patient

My alarm went off at 8 AM as per our plan to go to Disneyland, but I turned off the alarm without even waking Susan. It appeared she was asleep, so I figured it wasn't worth it to wake her up. Turns out my judgment was correct. She woke up this morning feeling just as bad as Wednesday, if not worse.

So I got up and went to CVS to pick her up some things (yeah, I know I'm good) and then chilled out for the majority of the day. I spent some time out on the roof catching some rays, trying to make up for some lost time the past two days. I think I might have gone a little over the top, but oh well. I'm guessing I'll be fine by the morning.

Later in the afternoon I convinced her to get out of the house for a bit and we went to Fashion Valley Mall. It was exactly what you'd expect in southern California: upscale, outside, well designed, and gorgeous. We wandered around for a bit, got some pretzel bites (delicious, by the way), and just did some window shopping.

Afterward, we decided we would make dinner tonight and grabbed some salad stuff, steak, and some sweet potatoes. Dinner turned out pretty good, even with the temperamental oven and stove top. Susan was a little over zealous with the choice of sweet potatoes, so we got some left over wedges to cook tomorrow.

But the good news is Susan felt and looked better by the end of the night, so hopefully by tomorrow morning she'll be feeling better and ready to kick it on the beach again. I know she's ready to get out of the house, and I'm ready to catch some waves and show off some moves.

Nice thing about hanging around today was it gave me time to catch up with some friends. Chatted with Greg, who is getting ready for the first of two demolition derbies he's in this summer (yeah, he's a little bit of a red neck). But we love him anyway and wish him well. Kick some ass, buddy.

Also checked in with some of the boys from home. Sounds like all is going pretty well there, and people are looking for jobs, at least Jonny is, while I'm being a bum out here. What are ya gonna do, right? I'll be joining the daily grind soon enough, but a couple more weeks of freedom and fun first.

Amen.

It's all about the Cuse

Soooo this morning Susan woke up and wasn't feeling too hot. At that point, our plans for the day kind of got put on hold as we waited to see what she was up for doing. Turns out she mostly wanted to lie in bed for the day and rest.

After hanging around all afternoon, the Memphis Crew decided to head down to OB for the weekly farmers market. We were hungry and wanted to get a couple things. Well, we certainly made the most of the trip down. We got chocolate, nectarines, hummus, dinner, and I bought the lady some sunflowers. Thought it might help her feel better.

I wore one of my many Syracuse shirts out to the market, and the guy at the chocolate counter was from Cortland. We of course told him we went to Cuse, and he proceeded to give us extra chocolate. It was most likely because of the Cuse connection, or the two pretty women standing with me. Afterwards, on the way back to the car, i got a "Yeah Cuse" shoutout. Gotta love the Cuuuuusse!

No Padres game tonight. Oh well. The plan for tomorrow was supposed to be Disney, but we'll see how Susan is doing in the morning. Lets cross our fingers that she's feeling better so we can go hang with Mickey and the Gang.

Oh, and my sun burn is already tan, so no worries. I know all you out there were nervous about how I was doing. We've also started looking into the return trip home, but don't think we've made too much progress there. We started thinking of driving up the coast to see the Redwoods and then over to Lake Tahoe. Oooor, we just drive straight East and head for the Grand Canyon. But how many times will I have the chance to drive up the California coast? What you guys think? We'll look closer at possible trip routes and hopefully decide soon what we are going to do.

Taco Tuesday!

Today we went to Pacific Beach to hang out for the afternoon. I was meeting an acquaintance who lives in San Diego for lunch in PB, so we figured we might as well just hang for the day and try a new beach. I was pretty nervous on the way there since the sky was really overcast and it was pretty cool out. But just like a typical California day, the sky cleared up and we were left with a beautiful afternoon on the beach.

As the headline states, just about every place in PB that serves tacos has specials on Tuesday. So for I had 4 tacos and a quesadilla over the course of the afternoon, which was pretty sweet and definitely filled my craving for tacos for a couple days. We also caught some sweet drink specials and got some good margaritas for $5.

Today I decided I was a grown man and made my own decision about SPF for the day, choosing to go with 4. I'm a lil red, but not too bad.

Just don't tell Susan.

It's *spelled* "La Jolla"

So today we hung around for most of the morning. By about 1 I was getting a little stir crazy in the house and needed to get out.

Susan had a doctor's appointment at 4:15 in what I thought was "La Hoya" but is apparently "La Jolla". So we hung around La Jolla Cove, and while she was at her appointment Linz and I walked down to the beach and watched the seals play around in the water and lay on the rocks by the beach. It was pretty cool to watch them swim as the waves crashed into the outcropped walkway built which was lined with people looking down over the seals as they hung out. A few times the waves crashed pretty hard into the side, came up over the top of the walkway and soaked us pretty good. Like usual, I didn't bring my camera, soooo, I have no photos to share with you all about it. Hopefully we'll make it back there again and I'll grab some shots to put on the web.

Afterwards, we headed home and made some pizza. One was a BBQ chicken pizza made with the leftovers from Phils BBQ, and the other was tomato, fresh mozzarella, garlic, and basil. Pretty good, right? Well, we enjoyed them at least. The only problem was the tops cooked real fast, but the bottoms of the pizza were still soft and gooey, so we used some ah... creative ways to say the least... to get the bottom cooked. But they turned out pretty delicious.

Not too much excitement otherwise today. Got the photo gadget up and linked to the pictures I'd taken so far if you haven't noticed. Sorry for so many scenic shots, but haven't been in too many places so far. I'll get some good beach pics up soon, and hopefully this week we'll go downtown to a Padres game. Tomorrow we are going to Pacific Beach, so I'll be sure to check in and let you know how a beach is there.

Update - The Promised Pictures

Grrr....Having trouble uploading the photos. Will have them up for viewing by Monday night (AKA Tuesday morning for most of you)

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Ok, photos should now be viewable from the sidebar on the right. Enjoy. More to come

Sand, Sun, Surf, and Face Kicking?

So my first weekend here is in the books, and it was pretty perfect. We spent Saturday and Sunday camped out on the beach, which was pretty sweet. The weather was perfect, going into the mid 80s with a nice breeze blowing, and a nice cool Pacific Ocean to jump into.

The Memphis Crew (Susan, Linz, me) got to the beach by 11 or so both days and stayed till about 7. There was plenty of paddle ball and laying in the sun. The girls kept telling me about how strong the sun was, and how I didn't know what it was like - blah blah blah. Basically they scared me into using SPF 15 for the bulk of the last two days and because of it I have made little progress in getting a tan. (Susan is reading this as I write and would like to point out that not only am I a whiner, but I got red today while using 15)

On the plus side, we played a lot of paddle ball, with plenty of dives and sand in my face. But each session ended the same way, diving into the water and riding some waves. There was a little too much kelp in the water, but we fought through it. And I finally started showing my East Coast skills, taking some big waves into the beach. Of course, both days I kicked myself for not bringing my boogie board because the rides would have been sweet.

And speaking of "kicking," yesterday while in the water with Linz, I dove into a wave and apparently kicked her in the face with the top of my foot. I have no idea how it happened. Personally, I think she dove into the wave behind me...Sooo, yeah, my foot would be in front of her...She disagrees. My nickname since has become "face kicker"

Saturday night we went to Phils BBQ for dinner and it was awesome. The line to get in was about 40 minutes long, but the food was worth the wait. Linz and I got beef ribs, dripping in BBQ sauce and Susan got some BBQ chicken. Everything was really good, and I've already requested another trip before our departure in 2+ weeks.

I know I promised photos, but I'm typing from Susan's Mac, so I'll shoot to add some later before bed. I know all you working folk need something interesting to look at while sitting in the office all day. No worries though, a couple more weeks and Ill be suffering just like you. :-(

But until then, I'm going to continue taking it day by day and loving every moment out here. :-)

So after being chastised this evening for not having a blog post for almost two days and being presented with the fact my readers may be at a loss and wondering what I'm up to, I'm here for you.

Fear not.

Nothing too exciting happened yesterday. We spent the afternoon at the beach, which was my first day on the sand while being here. The beaches are so much nicer than on the island, lacking all the branches and other crap you step on walking around in Long Beach or occasionally Jones. On the otherhand, the water was not crystal clear, and instead of being inundated with seaweed, there were large pieces of kelp floating around. There were some good waves breaking, but I couldn't seem to find my groove and ride one in to the beach. I chalked it up to getting used to a new coast, since I am known up and down the east coast as an expert body surfer.

Before we went to the beach though, I made the first of many trips to In-N-Out, a must-see for first-timers to the West Coast. It was delicious as usual, and I got a lot of food, so it became my main meal for the day. For dinner, we went into downtown San Diego which was nice to see, and I caught a glimpse of Petco Park, home of the Padres. Downtown looks like a nice area to go out in for a night so hopefully we'll revisit the area in the coming weeks.

Today I took Lucille in for her service, and she's back to me already in one piece and ready for full-active duty. Apaprently there was just a bunch of crap clogging up the a/c system, so the water was getting stuck. She's happy to be back, and I'm looking forward to driving back to NY without having to worry about the a/c giving out on me.

We went to the beach for a couple hours again today and relaxed, though it became overcast shortly after our arrival of course. Me and Susan played some more paddle ball, I game I love, especially because it allows me to make game-saving dives in the sand without having to worry about injury. Whether she does it on purpose because she knows how much I enjoy diving or not, Susan served up saveable shots pretty often. By the end, 1) tired, and 2) very sandy.

For dinner Susan, Linz (friend and roommate), and I headed back up to Carlsbad in a healthy Lucille for one last dinner with my dad before he gets on a plane and heads back to the East Coast. We tried to convince him to stay and hang around for the weekend, but our attempts were unsuccessful. We went to Kings Fish House I believe, and dinner was delicious, along with a really great waiter, Reggie. We had a really nice time and ate a lot of food.

I think all that food kind of knocked everyone out and that's why I'm sitting in bed blogging about all this at midnight on a Friday. It's sad to see dad leave, as I stated before, especially because without him I wouldn't have gotten to make this trip and be having this adventure now. So thanks, dad.

Oh and on another note, I spoke to someone from a PR agency in Boston, who wants to keep me in mind for a opening they are expecting in about a month. Could be interesting, but obviously would have to move there and be setting out on my own. Not necessisarily a bad thing, but we'll see what happens over the next couple weeks.

Since we are packing it in early tonight, the plan is for a full day on the beach tomorrow. Goal is to be AIS (ass in seat) by 10 AM...We'll see what happens. Well i think that's a pretty solid update, so sorry for the delay and hope I didn't cause too many panic attacks.

The Breaking of the Fellowship

So today truly marked the end of my road trip to Cali. I dropped off my dad to pick up his rental car and then went on to San Diego to see Susan. It was kind of sad to say goodbye to my pops, tho we met up again for dinner and I'll see him on last time on Friday before he heads back to NY. Still, after spending 4 days less than 5 feet away from each other, this felt like a "goodbye".

I had been up since 8 AM in anticipation of seeing Susan again after 2 months of phone, text, and video conversations. It was amazing to finally see her again, and we had a nice afternoon hanging around and going to a farmer's market down by the beach. We picked out some avocados, humus, and nectarines to snack on the next couple days, and then headed back to Carlsbad for dinner with my dad and a family friend.

After that, it was like I hit a wall and up until about 5 minutes ago I was ready to pass out, but I knew some people needed these daily entries to "keep on truckin" (T-Mac). I figured I'd put a lil post up about today, but nothing too exciting to tell yall about, sorry man.

Biggest news of the day was I made an appointment at a local Subaru dealership to take Lucille in and get her fixed up. She's a tough broad and got us all the way out here, so it's the least I can do. Stay tuned for the diagnosis and prognosis.

Tomorrow is the first of many designated beach days, with a promising weather report also. I have also OK'ed us going just about anywhere over the next couple days...as long as it does not involve me driving.

I know I promised photos. They'll be up by Sunday...Hopefully

Tigers Love Pepper...They Hate Cinnamon

Well it's Tuesday evening, 7:29 PM to be exact, so that must mean I'm finally in California. The past two days have definitely been eventful as we cruised from Denver to Carlsbad, CA.

Denver was absolutely awesome, and only reinforced the idea I love that place. Driving through the Rockies was pretty unbelievable, and I had no idea what awaited me on the other side. All of the lush greenery and snow patches were replaced by an arid, desert-like place, brown with the soil color and shrubbery. I had always imagined Colorado as one, big, green state. Apparently I was wrong, but don't go spreading that around.

From there we went on to Utah. I was in Utah for the first time ever this past winter to go skiing up in Salt Lake City. This time though, we stayed to the south and it was more of the same, arid, desert conditions. It was really awesome to see the eroded rock faces, and the multiple layers of rock jutting a 100+ feet into the air. It was the exact scene I had painted in my mind when we decided to make this trip. It was a hard drive through it all though, climbing and descending hills the whole time. Lucille had trouble and didn't do too well on gas, and we were still trying to survive without a/c in 90+ heat. I was driving and needless to say after a couple hours I became pretty irritable with the sun beating down on me all afternoon. While the first hour of looking at the rocks was fun, the three hours after weren't quite as interesting.

We strayed from Utah into Arizona for all of about 40 miles to cut into Nevada, so nothing too interesting happened there, except we wanted the thermometer climb. The only plus to come out of here was after my drive, we decided "the hell with it, we're putting on the air conditioning!"

I finished off the driving for the day rolling into Las Vegas for the evening, which was pretty cool. Driving through the desert the car temperature gauge said it was 107 at one point. Thank god we put on the a/c. We got in just before sunset and checked into our hotel, Excalibur. It was a pretty family-oriented place, with a sponge-bob show, a Medieval Times-like dinner theater, and to top it off a male stripper show, which is something apparently the whole family can enjoy. After showering and my dad pounding a Monster energy drink, we headed out for some fun on the town.

We quickly lost $100 at a blackjack table where our cards continuously sucked and it seemed like the dealer caught every break imaginable. So we wandered around, checking out New York, New York, Luxor, and finally heading to the MGM Grand. It was incredible how empty the casinos were, and how many tables were empty, even without dealers. We settled at a table called "Blackjack Switchback", which turned out to be a pretty cool game. It's basically the same rules as blackjack, except you play two hands at a time ($10 each) and you can switch the top two cards on either. So if you have a 10 over a 7 on one side, 3 over an Ace on the other, you can switch the 7 and 3, and have a guaranteed winner on one side with the 10 and Ace. We sat down with $100 in chips, and walked away two hours later with $205, so we didn't do too bad. It was a blast and we didn't get to sleep until about 12:30 AM local time, which was now West Coast Time.

Today was crunch time.

We tried to get up and out early, managing a 10:30 departure from Vegas after eating at a buffet breakfast and winning $40 at a slot machine. The drive today was cake comparetively speaking, only lasting about 4.5 hours. I started behind the wheel, and hoped into a pretty good amount of cars leaving Vegas for Cali, not to mention being on the receiving end of a pretty serious stare down from a Nevada State Trooper as I drove by his parked car. We decided to test the limits and put the a/c on again. It did start leaking with about an hour left, but without it we would have been toast. When you're going through the Mojave Desert, you don't have too many options.

The rest of the drive for the day was relatively painless, and we arrived in Carlsbad, CA at just about 3 PM. Since then, we've just been hanging around, got some food, and finally shaved after not having so since Wednesday.

I'm going to try to post some pics of the sites we've seen so far, so check back for more on that. Tomorrow is San Diego and seeing the girlfriend for the first time in over two months. Needless to say, I can't wait.

PHEW...Well, I doubt many have even read down this far, and if you have, kudos. I can hear my dad sleeping in the other room and the couch is looking pretty inviting right about now. I may be in Cali now, but there is still plenty of adventures to come, not to mention the return trip to New York!

Lots more to come!

The Cornhuskers? Really?

Today was quite a day on the road. Started early out of Davenport, Iowa, and got across the state pretty quickly, only took about 4-5 hours or so. It was beautiful. Nice rolling hills, corn fields as far as your eyes could see. We got caught in a couple flash storms, but nothing too major. The coolest part was watching the lightening from miles off, until we inevitably drove right into it.

Nebraska was a totally different story. It was boring as hell. Period. The corn state? After what I saw, I'd have to give that award to Iowa. Definitely more corn fields. There was a whole lot of nothing going on in Nebraska. Just flat land forever. Getting through there took a good portion of the day, about 7 hours.

Tonight we are in Denver, Golden to be exact - home of Coors . Coming into town there was a huge storm blowing across and we watched the lighting for miles as we approached. We just missed it, catching only some light rain and some wet highway, but the lightening was just awesome. It was amazing; crawling across the clouds and branching out as it went, sometimes not even going to the ground. The sky lit up like there was a fireworks show going on, but with no noise to go along with the huge explosions.

Coming from a place where houses are so close and open room is so hard to find, it was exciting to watch storms all day rolling across huge tracks of lands from miles off, seeing what they were bringing with them.

Toughest part of the day was driving without air conditioning. Lucille (my car), apparently has a leak in her fan system, so when we turn on the a/c it just pours out and soaks the front passenger rug and floor. We went just about all day with windows open. It was brutal at times, especially going through NE with the sun shinning right down on us. Tomorrow as we go through Utah and Nevada, we may have to make concessions and

Tomorrow will be another long day with Vegas as our destination for the evening. That will be awesome! Hope we don't bet the car.

Day 1 On The Road - Updated

We started the day in Freeport, NY and about 15 hours later we rolled into Davenport, IA. So over that time period, we went through NY, NJ, PA, OH, IN, IL. It was definitely a long day to say the least, but I was impressed with how far we got.

Nothing too exciting happened while we were on the road, as hard as that may be to believe. The scariest part was stopping at a rest stop in Indiana. We had just gotten into the state, so we decided to stop for some food and stretch our legs. I can't even begin to explain the kind of people I saw roll into that highway stop. We had rather large families (individually speaking), a guy in running pants and a hunting shirt, and a McDonald's employee who looked so angry at the world, I thought she was going to hop over the counter and come after us when we only order 1 soda. After that whole experience, I made sure we didn't stop in Indiana again that night.

We discovered upon our arrival at the hotel that my front passenger seat was soaked, like if you pushed your hand down, water rose up around you. Needless to say that isn't a good thing to have, and being about a 1,000 miles into the trip, there's not a whole lot we can do. Hopefully it won't be too much trouble and once we get to San Diego it'll have to be looked at for sure.

Anyway, one day in the books, 3 days, 1,800 miles to go!

An A-Bomb! From A-Rod!

So I just got finished watching an epic 15 inning Yankees-Red Sox game which Alex Rodriguez made all worth it with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 15th to win the game 2-0. I have to be up early tomorrow, but I could not bring myself to go to bed without seeing the outcome. Tomorrow is a big day, baby! Hopefully we will depart on schedule at 10 AM in my father's and I quest to make it to San Diego by Tuesday. It's certainly going to be a wild and patience-testing couple of days.

I'll try to make some posts as we travel, but I can't make guarantees since I have no idea the kinds of places we are going to be staying in. At the very latest I will have another post on Wednesday. If you don't here from me by Friday, you can start getting nervous.

It's time to go lay on the beaches of Cali!

Oh boy

So with my impending trip to Southern California kicking off in less than 48 hours, I thought it would be an appropriate to create a blog. I'm am about to travel at least 6,000 miles across this country, and I thought this would be a good way to capture my experience as well as share it with those I know or I left back in New York. It is going to be an awesome couple of weeks, and I can't wait for things to kick off.

Stay tuned for the beginning of the adventure!