Category Archives: Adventures

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Santa Barbara

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We drove up from LA to Santa Barbara and immediately began running around. We checked out quite a bit of the area by simply driving through neighborhoods. There were some really stunning properties, and with the mountains as a backdrop, many of them have front yard ocean views. You can tell a little from my pictures just how green it is, but I was too busy looking to take really great ones. The whole place feels tropical and lush like somewhere other then the US, some tropical destination.

The city itself had a distinctive college town and feel, and reminded me a little of so much about what  liked about Austin. It was easy to navigate, and we went down to the water and walked the pier sharing an ice cream. We strolled through an artwalk and down State Street, through California’s first mall, and through the many restaurants and shops. There’s a definite tourist vibe (it’s called the American Riviera) but it wasn’t overwhelming like I feel La Jolla is right now. There was certainly less beach but it’s relatively a small place so it wasn’t overcrowded.

We saw the mission and stayed the night at a great hotel called the Best Western Pepper Tree Inn. For some reason this quaint and unique hotel had the highest ratings on my phone’s suggestions so we decided to see what it was all about. For how cheap it was it spoiled us with a giant bathroom, giant living room, view of the pool, deck, and amenities everywhere. It was just what we needed to recuperate to head further up the coast.

Here are the pictures from Santa Barbara.

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Vacation From Vacation

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Usually you never know I’m gone, I know I’m going to be away and I throw some posts up. Couldn’t do that this time since my vacation was a surprise. MK decided we’d both (cough) been working so hard we needed to get away. We packed up and set off Friday morning.

MK booked us an amazing room at a great hotel right on Sunset Strip. We wandered up and down and shopped and ate and wandered some more. We got all fancied up and hit some clubs. We exhausted ourselves. We woke up and ate some more, pooled some, and set off for more adventure. We drove through Beverly Hills, Glen, and Mulholland, which we hadn’t taken the time to do before. There was a lot of “let’s live in that one” “oh my gosh did you see that?” “Is that all one house?”. The only (I don’t think this even counts) celebrity MK spotted was the guy that owns Sunset Tan, while we were eating at the awesomest diner ever that happens to be underneath it.

We failed on pictures – didn’t want to look like tourists! 🙂

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Should Have Brought My Ray Gun: Comic Con 2008

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The weekend was full of crazy fun, in spite of our Comic Con being a little weak. I could have done the convention for three whole days. We waited too long (since we didn’t know the power of the nerds) and the tickets were sold out every day but Sunday. It was fine though, even if the crowd wasn’t at its height it was overwhelming, even after a giant preparatory breakfast at the Broken Yolk. We just missed the cast of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, but we did get to see tons of hilarious costumes and people freaking out over free stuff. Best costumes: Bender and Marvin the Martian, methinks.

My favorite moments were trying to get on a unicorn, yelling at MK to take more pictures, and meeting the writers of my favorite web comic: Cyanide & Happiness. You’ve surely seen them in posts here before. Well, they drew me my very own (FREE!) comic:

"It's the alcohol that's addicted to me"

"It's the alcohol that's addicted to me"

That makes me cooler than anyone that I know. Don’t be surprised to see it framed and mounted and lit up on the most important wall of my house soon. If you make fun of my glasses, I will punch you in the throat.

As a casual observer that knew very little about a lot of the things going on there, I was expecting to see nothing I knew anything about. But if you’re into Lost or Heroes or any regular TV junk there’s just as many people like you as there are in Battlestar Galactica costumes. No, not as many. But some. My point is it’s not just Star Wars fans, only mostly.

There were traditional newspaper comic writers there (being completely ignored) and people that write graphic novels and rows and rows of people I’m pretty sure are just good at drawing but never drew for the company that makes the characters they draw (walking there was totally awkward).

Here’s a link to the rest of the pictures. SB, this Jabba the Hut is for you.

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Why I Haven’t Called You

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There’s not much to say besides that the last few weeks were right back in our style: party-company-mode. After getting back from our trip JM came and we did everything there was to do. As in, all of San Diego. We saw the fireworks. We went to the beach. As I mentioned here we shopped every mall. We snorkeled every cove. We tried some surfing. We lounged. We ate more ice cream than I’ve ever eaten. I didn’t even know I liked ice cream. We saw a yacht. We saw some sky-advertising? We counted a dozen weddings. We not exactly legally got as close to planes landing as we knew how…

RD and JML came for Comic Con, which gets it’s own full review, but I mention it since we had some great dinners and were all together one night to play UNO all night and get a great pic of JM in a cage. Priceless, really.

Here’s the link to the pictures, which I’m pretty sure say more than my words even can. Really.

Leopard Sharks La Jolla Cove

Leopard Sharks La Jolla Cove

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When I Dip You Dip We Dip

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So the real point of the drive was, of course, to get to Vegas. It wasn’t that bad of a drive, especially for me since I could sleep. Apparently MK tells me it’s harder when you have to actually do the driving. Getting in to Nevada was cool, the casinos start as soon as they are allowed. Border pics:

And we saw a giant wreck:

Vegas was the awesomest ever (I say that every time, I know). We stayed at the new Planet Hollywood, which was fine even though I would not recommend it. We kept getting in free no waiting in line to clubs at night (must be MK’s dimples) and got to check out a bunch of new bars. We slept most of the day after seeing the sun come up. We upped Red Bull stock considerably. SoCal is officially too small when you see people you know IN VEGAS, but that was cool too.

Sunday we stayed at the Hard Rock. There is nothing in that hotel that is remotely cool, especially since it’s under construction. Here’s one you might not know: the light fixtures have cymbals over them. Real ones. People bang on them NO MATTER WHAT TIME IT IS. Who’s the idiot that came up with that? Fortunately I passed out and didn’t have to hear it. The bathroom was like a Motel 6, it was so awful.

The only reason we submitted to this torture was all the nonsense we heard about REHAB, the pool party Sundays. So we get down there and walk right in. The line for non hotel guests is, from what we hear, over 2 hours long by noon, and also (by rumor) more expensive than just paying for the room sometimes. So you stay in the junky room, and skip the line.

I’m thinking it’s like a lounge type thing. NOPE. It’s a wild super rock your face off see and be seen party the likes of which I’ve never seen. It made MTV Spring Break look like a snooze fest. They were filming a movie. There were beds in the sand, and cabanas everywhere. There were people freaking making it rain (click for explanation) over the pool. What??? The DJs were the best of the best. Everyone was prancing and dancing and drinking and partying like mad. It was awesome. Really, really awesome.

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Palm Springs

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Before the company (I’m screwing up already) was the road trip. We drove to Palm Springs to see what was going on there in the hot hot heat. It’s hot.

We ate some really good food and met the people that have been keeping UR company for ages. We saw a show. We slept in the most comfortable bed in the nicest hotel ever. We did the tram. We drove through the ritzy neighborhood. We saw that guy that got fired from that show. It was a quick stop but all we needed to see what Palm Springs was like. During tourist season I bet it’s a trip, but I like going when things aren’t such a zoo (like our home right now).

Here’s a bunch of not that impressive photos.

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San Diego County Fair

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I’m only a month late telling you about my day at the fair. It’s held at the Del Mar Racetrack grounds. We got to park for free and ride on the top of an open double decker bus. I beat MK at that game where you roll the balls and make the horse move. I won a turtle. He beat me at Skeeball and won a duck. It was sheer excitement. I got to enjoy a roast beef sandwich and an Orange Julius. I taught MK the fair rules I learned from my Dad: Animals first. Then food. Then games. Then rides. So we got to see all the chickens, and the pig race. I gave serious thought to the idea of a pot-bellied pig as a viable dog alternative.

Here’s the link to the silly pictures.

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All Time Lows And Highs

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Does no one read blogs in the summer? Does no one blog in the summer? Is it too summer? I don’t know what you’re up to but it’s awfully slow around here, and on my feed reader! To be fair, my computer time is pretty minimal now that the sun is back out. Don’t ever visit SD in the June Gloom season. The gray weather is the worst.

Maybe you’re busy. We are. We swam with freaking leopard sharks last weekend. And snorkeled in the cove. And THEN took a Hobie Cat out on the Bay. We joined a volleyball group that is perfect – MK can play and I can drink ‘punch’ and watch. We’re traveling for the rest of the week and weekend to see family and friends and get in some trouble. KE took me shopping at her new boutique and I got some outrageous dresses. If I get skin cancer, I will blame it on this summer. I don’t think I’ve ever been this shade before.

We clubbed at the Hard Rock downtown, which for all it’s Vegas efforts, is pretty lame. Envy beats it hands down. We saw Spencer Pratt and almost no one even cared. He was with dudes. All dudes. Quite possibly paid-for posse dudes. That was the funniest thing ever.

My favorite cousin ever is coming to see me. Which means I will again get my wardrobe updated. We are going to Comic Con with RD. It is going to rule.

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My Maiden Voyage

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My husband and I have this thing. We love each other like crazy and know we are both borderline geniuses. So it’s hard for us to teach each other things. He couldn’t help me when we went skiing. I can’t help explain him anything I know. So we get out on this sailboat, and cords and sails are whipping around – and  apparently I was supposed to know (never having even seen a sailboat in action before) that I was in charge of some of them.

Once we figured out a system though, we were sailing. Like professionals. Like a team. Like we should get endorsements. Apparently all the big fancy boats look out for the little boats assuming those people are learning and don’t know the rules of the open water, but man did we impress them. I had to learn when we had right of way, all the names of things, and that I wasn’t just ‘flipping the front sail-thingy’.

Now that I’ve passed the first test, we get to go out on way fancier boats, which the great guys at the club MK belongs to let us check out. Some of them are nicer than our apartment…

Here are some pictures. I’m most proud of this one of me – I jumped out and parked the thing. WooHoo!

me paking boat

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All Things Considered

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Let’s see: The Gaslamp. The Field. The Red Bull Air Race. The Terminal. The Yardhouse. The Bitter End. The Hard Rock. Coronado. The Hotel del. The Silver Strand Beach. The Cuban Cigar factory. Seaport Village. Horseshoe Beach. Windan Sea. Jack’s. Crystal Pier. Torry Pines: Golf Course, Gliderport, nature hike. Del Mar. Poseidon. Mission Bay. Mission Beach. Pacific Beach. Broken Yolk. Karl Strauss. Daily’s. Prospect. Souvenir shops. The Embarcadero. The ships. The dolphins. The planes. The helicopters. The Zoo. Balboa Park. Old Town, Cinco de Mayo style. Mt. Soledad. Heritage Park. Scripps Park. Del Mar Plaza. Girard and Prospect. La Jolla Shores. La Jolla Cove. Goldfish.

We did just fine.