Torrey Pines State Beach

My goal...go to every beach in San Diego. I'm waiting for my picnic basket to arrive first. ETA 3 weeks.

Torrey Pines is the beach between Del Mar and La Jolla. It costs $6 to park, doesn't have a whole lot of sand, but it's got that multi colored water reminiscent of tropical areas. I saw a baby shark in the water, or at least a foot long fish that looked like a baby shark! I went on a Thursday afternoon and the beach was absolutely packed with children learning to surf. A fair number of people simply walk to the beach, lucky persons who live in Del Mar.

The marshy river that empties into the beach:


Condos in Del Mar overlooking the beach:


The beach, packed!

Liquids on a Plane

Flew back to Los Altos right during the no liquids on a plane scare. No one searched me, the worst I got was a verbal question, are you carrying liquids?

Saw cousin Grace, visited Santa Cruz. It was one of those days when there were a million sardines in the ocean, and everyone had fish in their coolers. People went nuts with happiness.

Would have been a good trip but GM tagged along everywhere. Would be ok, but she didn't even know I came back, she didn't want to go to Santa Cruz, I don't understand why she got into the car.

Here's Grace with a cat.

So I made it. I got on the plane, they didn't search me, they just asked me if I had any liquids. I got my assigned seat on Southwest, and it was the best seat I've ever gotten on a plane. Sad in a way, it's the closest I'll ever get to first class.

Grace is here too. Yesterday we went shopping at Valley Fair, where I got a skirt and a shirt. No one else bought anything. Today we went to Santa Cruz. It wasn't really hot, foggy. We checked out the botanical gardens where I held a stripped tabby, went to the pier, the beach, and then downtown. The ocean was packed with sardines today, you could see them, dense and thick. Everyone was catching fish, people, birds, sea lions. I bought a cat lunchbox. It's plastic, neon pink and blue, and has drawings of cats. I'm going to take it to work.

Tomorrow we're going to Mayflower for dim sum, and we're going to hang out with the super dense Chinese crowds. It'll be a China day. China days make everyone (grace, grandma, parents) happy, b/c they all understand each other. I'm kind of left out.

Monday....I go back to SD.

Burj Al-Arab

I want to stay at this hotel. It's supposedly 7 stars. Located in Dubai over the Arabian Gulf. It's about $1000/night, and you get a concierge on every floor. They're also building an Atlantis hotel in Dubai, set to open in 2009. It'll be on the Jumeirah strip, where they built an island shaped like a palm tree. Dubai will be the next big tourist destination, and I'm going to go before anyone else does.

Catalina

Went to Catalina today, boarding from Newport Beach. Catalina is a 1.5hr boat ride, in the choppy Pacific. There's a good chance of getting seasick on this ride. On the way there, I saw a million dolphins. Yes. The boat went straight into a pod of dolphins. There were dolphins as far as the eye could see, thick and shiny, flipping through the waves, and it went on and on and on. There was no space of ocean without dolphin. Hard to think they're endangered, or that any fish was left in the sea.

This is a picture of our boat. It's a catamaran! It seats a lot of people, passage is $50 per person round trip, and the boat's packed at 9am. It's docked in Catalina.



Catalina's really rocky, when you land you go to this small town called Avalon, with a few restaurants and shops. Houses are small and thick stacked high on the hills. People drive around in golf carts. Boats are a big deal, people just dock their boats anyplace, and kayak/raft out to them when they need. What's popular today is sitting with a bunch of friends and beer on your anchored, non moving boat.



The island also lacks beaches. This is Descanso Beach, a private beach that really didn't have sand, and was made of rocks. People don't care, it's a place for beautiful women to show off their new bikinis. This is also where we launched our kayak. We kayaked out around the island. There's ships everywhere...even on the parts of the island with no beaches and no real shore access at all. People just park their sailboats wherever there's space. I saw kelp forests, sardines, and starfish from the kayak. The water today was warm and clear, and the ocean very choppy.



This is another example of how there isn't a beach. People just sit on a raft in the water. Note how the area is packed with boats, people, and housing.



All in all, it's nice to see once, but I'm not sure I'd go again. It's a long trip, both driving up to Newport and then the 1.5hr boatride.

Muffy's 8.5yrs old.

That's getting on in years for a cat....=(

Last Thursday was the last day of work for me. Still not sure if I'm returning in the fall. I'd like to get a position that paid money. Thursday was also the last day of class. My tax final will be next Thursday night. Someplace in there I need to prepare for fall recruiting and finish my citechecking assignment.

It's been muggy and disgusting down here. Last night I thought I died. I usually sleep with the window open, but last night, it didn't make a difference. It was suffocatingly humid and hot; we couldn't breathe. What's worse is Muffy and I fight for the same corner, the one right under the window. I denied Muffy last night, and as a result, she crammed her body up against the window, blocking all air. I hear no relief in sight.

Here's a picture of cats in Hong Kong I found online. Notice how the middle one is a composite of the ones on top and bottom.

Comic-Con

It hit 104 yesterday. Luckily, I didn't feel much of it. I had law review training from 11-14, where they assigned work and more work. If it wasn't so prestigious, I would drop out. If I had made top 10% of my class, I would drop out. It sounds like 10hrs minimum of photocopying and running around the library. You pay for your own copies. And that's on top of the time I'll need to spend writing my article. I'm going to write it on copyrights in cyberspace law. I don't care if it hurts my chances of being published, I'm not going to write on criminal justice or Guantanomo Bay or internet poker. Some tool last year changed his topic right after Katrina hit, just so he could get published. No, I'm not like that.

Afterwards three of us snuck into Comic Con. Let me tell you, the booths were AMAZING. The place was absolutely huge. All the television and movie studios were there, along with comic book vendors, American comics, anime, and video and computer games. I saw Dirge of Cerberus, Warcraft, I saw the guy who voices Fry on Futurama, and of course, Snakes on a Plane! Afterwards we watched a Batman Q/A. It was just like on tv, when they make fun of star trek geeks at star trek conventions, where people ask the same retarded questions and the people answering are like...what the hell? Ya, just like that. Real life comic book guys. Then we watched the world premiere of the Teen Titans movie (which sucked). We missed out on the guy who wrote the Last Unicorn, and on the preview of Neverwinter Nights 2, which is today!

I bought two ugly dolls, one for my parents, and one for me. It looks like Muffy.

FISH DIED

Yesterday the fish died.

It was four years old.

Today I saw a large beetle.

I think it was the fish. Reincarnated.

It's 86 degrees today. Muffy's ears are warm. We slept w/o blankets last night, Muffy and me, and Muffy took over the entire bed.

Rosarito Beach

Three of us visited Rosarito yesterday. It's quite a trip by bus, we bussed to the border, then bussed for 20 min from Tijuana to Rosarito. Rosarito's famous for its spring break parties and beautiful beaches.

The bus dropped us off in front of the Rosarito Beach Hotel, which is famous b/c it's where celebrities used to stay. The hotel isn't luxurious like the Coronado hotel, but it's equally huge and spread out. We found the streets packed with clubs, huge industrial clubs booming with music at 10am. They all sold wristbands which offered all you can drink. Didn't go in, too early for that kind of stuff. We found a lot more street vendor type shopping than Tijuana, but it's still about the same stuff.We went to the beach though, where I got really sunburned.

The beach has awesome waves, it's big, white, and somewhat clean. It would be clean if they didn't let people ride horses around at least. It got really crowded in the afternoon. Some mexicans, some tourists. All in all, it's definitely a good place to pick up a girl/guy, good place for beautiful people to go. Not so good if you're into anything besides beach going and clubbing.