San Diego

Wall-Eywood

Originally uploaded by rteest42
 

 

Here is the next set of photos from our vacation. This first one is of the Hollywood sign. But it was elusive, and the traffic was horrid, and as we drove up Highland Ave (?) I was searching for it as we approached Hollywood Blvd as the sites online told us would be good photographs. But we had to move through the intersection when we did…. not when we wanted. I looked up and there it was…WALL-Eywood!!!

It seemed the ideal shot!! (if you go to the flickr site by double clicking on any of the photos, you can see the more common Sign shots.

So, what was Hollywood like? It was like this….I am glad I went to California to see family in San Diego, and hadn’t made Hollywood/LA our destination. Of course, had it been our destination, it’s possible we would have gotten a better overall impression.

Maybe at night it would be more impressive, when all the neon is going, kinda like Times Square, except Times Square holds up in the daytime. We had gone to Hollywood for the express purpose of finding the Petersen Museum, which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment to Timmy because a few of the cars he wanted to see were not on display (The Batmobile, and Cadzilla, for those who care)

We did a bit of Mulholland Drive, because there is nothing Timmy likes more than driving on a winding road, and I will give them this….that road WINDS!  We were going to stop and have lunch before hitting the road for Saturdays ultimate destination, the BEACH, but we couldn’t find parking so we drove through to Beverly Hills, and had lunch there ( ok, it was at Micky-D’s).

Other photos that are attached to this post would be of my brudder and his beau, my brudder and me (I was nice and scooted down into his embrace so he looks TALL LOL) and some other images from the zoo and downtown San Diego….

Next up, the BEACH photos! Soon, I promise.

Our Most Excellent California Vacation


2008-SanDiego-131

Originally uploaded by rteest42

There are a LOT of photos, folks. Like, almost 1000. But I’ve culled that down in half, and I am currently busy looking them over to try to find the three dozen or so that REALLY say Vacation. Yeah, I know– good luck with that!

We went to San Diego a few weeks back, and I was humorously saying it was to get away from the oppressive early June heat wave of Virginia. (Over 103 for days on end with a humidity attempting to reach triple digits as well) It turns out I wasn’t joking! We stayed with three different relatives over the course of the week. One plain old doesn’t HAVE air conditioning. One has it but doesn’t really use it. And the third, well it’s a new high-rise in downtown San Diego, but they were sure to show us how to turn it off if we found it too chilly at night! Seriously, our A/C has been running since early March.

And then they were tripping over themselves, apologizing for the terrible heat, it isn’t usually so hot here, we’re sorry you came out during this weather. It was around 91, and no measurable humidity. We toughed it out!

Beyond the absolute shock at the temperature, we were pleasantly impressed by how incredibly clean downtown San Diego is and I was surprised by the civil quality of the drivers. They don’t even have traffic lights at every intersection, instead trusting drivers to obey 4-way stop signs, and allow pedestrians the right of way. A lovely, if not otherworldly, experience for this New Yorker transplanted to Virginia where there are no such things as pedestrians.

And I have found a new favorite tree, the Jacaranda. What a beautiful, although I understand, fragile tree. The blooms were a wonderful splash of color on the landscape, along with the bougainvillea. Oh, and the palm trees, and the bird of paradise, and the eucalyptus, with its fascinating peeling bark. Timmy laughed and said one entire memory card was going to be trees if I wasn’t careful.

I did remember to take some other photos as well, but sadly realized as we got on the plane that at our last stop, we never did gather Betty and Herb together at the same time to take photos with them!! Sorry!!!

Our flight out was uneventful, if not delayed bizarrely. Anoki and Michael met us and took us out to dinner at a pub called the Tilted Kilt, where Timmy had a sandwich that he then thought about the rest of the vacation. Talk about peaking early!

With our vacation clock firmly set on slow, we managed to make it to the San Diego zoo around 12:30, but had sit down and chat more with the guys at lunch first. Totally fun but definitely cut into our monkey viewing time. Next time, we should arrive at opening. And go for two days. Then, maybe we would have gotten to see everything. However, it was all good, because the baby panda, Zhen Zhen, who was seriously involved in naptime lying on a tree branch, decided to make herself more comfortable. She did some complicated gymnastics on her ‘balance beam’ and turned around and posed for us!

So, for now I am going to leave you with these shots over on Flickr to enjoy. As I edit more, I will post more!