San Diego

Two friends from college came out to San Diego (I'm avoiding names since they don't keep blogs so I don't want to make the decision to post info about them) and two of their friends also met us in San Diego. They were nice enough to let me stay in their hotel room so it was like I took a vacation to San Diego and I took off Friday so it was like a real trip.

On Friday we went to the wild animal park. It is mostly African animals which makes sense since the park is in the desert east of San Diego. The setup was very well done - the animals were given a lot of area to move around and the fences were subtile enough that it didn't have that caged animals look. That night we went to Jakes Del Mar which is a great restaurant along the beach.

One of the friends found a desert tour that started in Borrego Springs. We rode around in an old army jeep through the desert and went on a short hike. There were some plants and some of them were interesting plants that I had never seen before, but it was also interesting just how barren a giant amount of land can be. One day I'll get pictures from the other members of the group (hint, hint) and post them rather than describing everything. The most amazing part was when we got out of the jeep and the tour guide told us to look down until he told us to stop. When we looked up we were a foot from the edge of a cliff from which you could see for about 60 miles in almost every direction including seeing out into mexico. The view was unending brown hills. Brown hills don't sound that amazing and I'm not sure that the pictures will capture it, but the immensity was incredible. The weather was interesting because it was in the high 90s or low 100s but was so dry that it actually didn't feel that bad; although, I did feel the dryness making its way down my throat - it was like the scene in the matrix where neo first enters the real world - but instead of melted glass creeping down it was dryness. After the tour we had dinner in Borrego Springs and then went out for some star gazing. I haven't seen that many stars since scout camp in the middle of Missouri. Saw a couple satellites flying along and one shooting star.

Next day we started with breakfast/lunch at a french pastry restaurant. Then made our way tokayaking/snorkeling in La Jolla. We kayaked out to some caves and then snorkeled in them. I enjoyed the event, but did see quite as much while snorkeling as I expected; although, when kayaking we saw a bunch of seals and some small sharks (only about 5 feet long and supposedly don't attack people). Also saw a bird dive into the water. For dinner we headed to old town where we ate at The Old Town Mexican Cafe.

Overall had a very good time and thanks to my friends for planning the whole weekend and letting me stay in their room.