Darlings, we're baaaaaack...
Dec. 29th, 2008 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kimberkitWe are back from San Diego, where I wish I could have stayed forever and ever.
~
Day one, I was stuck in the Las Vegas airport because the plane was over an hour and a half late, forcing me to miss my connection. But, I met a very nice older gent who bought me a drink (because I declared that we deserved to be on vacation, rather than stressing), and who made me laugh a lot. This is the Vegas airport, lonely and with way lots of sprawlyness:
I was a little cranky, but Neil (who had taken a separate flight) met me at the hotel, and brought me tea, and the bed was fluffy, and I am pretty sure I just collapsed, because there aren't even any bad photos on the memory card from that night.
~
Sunday, the next day, met us with a nice sunrise (because California time is three hours earlier, so what would be unthinkable on "normal" time was actually fine there):
... and breakfast in a pretty lounge:
The hotel had two connecting towers, and the walk in between the towers was on the marina, so we saw endless sail boats, every morning. And it made me want to learn to sail.
And because our trip was centered around food, we went up to George's for lunch, where the view was lovely, and the photos were terrible (sorry, gang), and my dad was half an hour late, which made Kim's brain explode. (photos of brain explosion not included)
Post-explosion, we hiked Torrey Pines, which turned out to be awesome, because it was one of the few days where it ended up not-rainining (apparently we brought New York weather with us to San Diego, because we saw all of the rain that was supposed to fall in San Diego for the next few years).
Torrey Pines is gorgeous. My favorite part was the beach there:
Torrey Pines is actually famous for the craggy sandstone cliffs, though:
~
The next day was marked by lots of rain, a reflexology session, shopping for last-minute Christmas stuff, and cuddling. (Photos not included)
~
Speaking of snuggling, though, the animals at the Wild Animal Park, which we went to on Tuesday, seemed to do a lot of either mating or making weird faces at me.
For example, meerkats were at it:
The flamingos were apparently in season, which is why they had this weird town hall meeting, with lots of honking:
And the "whatever, stupid human" look was given to me by a few flamingos and a giraffe:
I also think this is a pretty crazy expression on my own face (weird!), after I got facepainted:
~
This lion photo is for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
readysetg0:
~
We also managed to see gratuitous birds. Birds:
~
We went to Sushi Ota for dinner on Tuesday, and it was the best sushi I'll never have again. Sigh.
~
Wednesday: Christmas Eve. It threatened to rain most of the day, so we kept our schedule fairly wide open, but the "threatening" bit just resulted in these amazing clouds:
Later, we met up with Brian Hirshman, wandered La Jolla, and made a quick stop to the zoo, where it did suddenly begin to downpour, but I may have gotten one or two cute shots off in between the rain (to be posted later).
~
Thursday. Christmas day. It poured, but it didn't particular matter, since almost nothing was open -- so we pretended like we were Jewish. We went to two movies and did dim sum for lunch, which delighted Neil. Then we went to JRDN, which was sooooo tasty - they had the freshest greens in a salad I've ever tasted, along with a perfect balance of vinegar and pomegrenate and some sort of legume for the dressing. And the duck was served in this sauce that tasted a little bit like the one for Peking duck, but milder, and it was the most wonderful crispy-tender thing. My brother made silly faces, joked with the waiters, and attempted to fold a crane out of his napkin (he failed).
~
On Friday...
Sadly, this is the bit where I tell you that my lens broke. I'd dropped it a few days earlier, for the sunrise photo, and it had some interesting focusing issues after that, but after harbor seals (see below), it just refused to snap anymore. It gave its last whirly gasp, and sputtered away, much to my horror.
There were some really cute couples in La Jolla that I managed to catch before the lens breaking:
And this may be the one shot of harbor seals that wasn't inhibited by sudden weird focusing issues and bad lighting:
Fortunately, it was Neil to the rescue, and he decided that we could afford to get Kim a new lens, with money from dad and his parents. So I did manage to fire off a few more shots, this time with a lens that goes from 18-200! Yeah! Hurrah Christmas!
We went to the Marine Room for an early dinner, knowing the sunset would be gorgeous from there, and that we'd have to pack for the flight out the next morning.
Right outside the restaurant, there was this pretty shadow:
And in the lounge itself, this view:
The food, of course, was brilliant. I had sesame crusted ahi tuna with thai rice. You'd think would be mildly boring, because sometime or other, everyone does seared ahi tuna when they're out of ideas for meals, but the freshness and quality of the tuna matters a *lot*. And oh boy, this was better than some sashimi I've had, and the thai rice was this perfectly firm, textured creation that wasn't the least bit grainy. There were mango notes in the sauce somewhere, and it tasted faintly nutty, the way that the sauce for gyoza is, but mild, overall. I gobbled every last bite. I wish I'd thought to take a photo of the entire shebang, since there was actual light there, unlike at the restaurants we'd been to before, but ... next time.
Mmmm, food.
~
We left San Diego the next day. Goodbye, San Diego! We miss you already...
See,drlynch? I picked up my camera again :)
~
Day one, I was stuck in the Las Vegas airport because the plane was over an hour and a half late, forcing me to miss my connection. But, I met a very nice older gent who bought me a drink (because I declared that we deserved to be on vacation, rather than stressing), and who made me laugh a lot. This is the Vegas airport, lonely and with way lots of sprawlyness:
I was a little cranky, but Neil (who had taken a separate flight) met me at the hotel, and brought me tea, and the bed was fluffy, and I am pretty sure I just collapsed, because there aren't even any bad photos on the memory card from that night.
~
Sunday, the next day, met us with a nice sunrise (because California time is three hours earlier, so what would be unthinkable on "normal" time was actually fine there):
... and breakfast in a pretty lounge:
The hotel had two connecting towers, and the walk in between the towers was on the marina, so we saw endless sail boats, every morning. And it made me want to learn to sail.
And because our trip was centered around food, we went up to George's for lunch, where the view was lovely, and the photos were terrible (sorry, gang), and my dad was half an hour late, which made Kim's brain explode. (photos of brain explosion not included)
Post-explosion, we hiked Torrey Pines, which turned out to be awesome, because it was one of the few days where it ended up not-rainining (apparently we brought New York weather with us to San Diego, because we saw all of the rain that was supposed to fall in San Diego for the next few years).
Torrey Pines is gorgeous. My favorite part was the beach there:
Torrey Pines is actually famous for the craggy sandstone cliffs, though:
~
The next day was marked by lots of rain, a reflexology session, shopping for last-minute Christmas stuff, and cuddling. (Photos not included)
~
Speaking of snuggling, though, the animals at the Wild Animal Park, which we went to on Tuesday, seemed to do a lot of either mating or making weird faces at me.
For example, meerkats were at it:
The flamingos were apparently in season, which is why they had this weird town hall meeting, with lots of honking:
And the "whatever, stupid human" look was given to me by a few flamingos and a giraffe:
I also think this is a pretty crazy expression on my own face (weird!), after I got facepainted:
~
This lion photo is for
readysetg0:~
We also managed to see gratuitous birds. Birds:
~
We went to Sushi Ota for dinner on Tuesday, and it was the best sushi I'll never have again. Sigh.
~
Wednesday: Christmas Eve. It threatened to rain most of the day, so we kept our schedule fairly wide open, but the "threatening" bit just resulted in these amazing clouds:
Later, we met up with Brian Hirshman, wandered La Jolla, and made a quick stop to the zoo, where it did suddenly begin to downpour, but I may have gotten one or two cute shots off in between the rain (to be posted later).
~
Thursday. Christmas day. It poured, but it didn't particular matter, since almost nothing was open -- so we pretended like we were Jewish. We went to two movies and did dim sum for lunch, which delighted Neil. Then we went to JRDN, which was sooooo tasty - they had the freshest greens in a salad I've ever tasted, along with a perfect balance of vinegar and pomegrenate and some sort of legume for the dressing. And the duck was served in this sauce that tasted a little bit like the one for Peking duck, but milder, and it was the most wonderful crispy-tender thing. My brother made silly faces, joked with the waiters, and attempted to fold a crane out of his napkin (he failed).
~
On Friday...
Sadly, this is the bit where I tell you that my lens broke. I'd dropped it a few days earlier, for the sunrise photo, and it had some interesting focusing issues after that, but after harbor seals (see below), it just refused to snap anymore. It gave its last whirly gasp, and sputtered away, much to my horror.
There were some really cute couples in La Jolla that I managed to catch before the lens breaking:
And this may be the one shot of harbor seals that wasn't inhibited by sudden weird focusing issues and bad lighting:
Fortunately, it was Neil to the rescue, and he decided that we could afford to get Kim a new lens, with money from dad and his parents. So I did manage to fire off a few more shots, this time with a lens that goes from 18-200! Yeah! Hurrah Christmas!
We went to the Marine Room for an early dinner, knowing the sunset would be gorgeous from there, and that we'd have to pack for the flight out the next morning.
Right outside the restaurant, there was this pretty shadow:
And in the lounge itself, this view:
The food, of course, was brilliant. I had sesame crusted ahi tuna with thai rice. You'd think would be mildly boring, because sometime or other, everyone does seared ahi tuna when they're out of ideas for meals, but the freshness and quality of the tuna matters a *lot*. And oh boy, this was better than some sashimi I've had, and the thai rice was this perfectly firm, textured creation that wasn't the least bit grainy. There were mango notes in the sauce somewhere, and it tasted faintly nutty, the way that the sauce for gyoza is, but mild, overall. I gobbled every last bite. I wish I'd thought to take a photo of the entire shebang, since there was actual light there, unlike at the restaurants we'd been to before, but ... next time.
Mmmm, food.
~
We left San Diego the next day. Goodbye, San Diego! We miss you already...
See,
drlynch? I picked up my camera again :)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 07:56 pm (UTC)Also, I'd like to juxtapose the picture of you enjoying your face painting with the giraffe, who I imagine is saying, "Nice try, you're still not a giraffe."
no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 11:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 02:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 03:41 am (UTC)One photo of me looking plump with Neil:
Neil photos also live here:
no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 04:38 am (UTC)You guys are cute though :)
Any chance I'll see you for New Year's?
no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 04:27 am (UTC)