Category: California

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Blue Angels in SF

Our friends Chris and Lori have a Blue Angels party every year. It’s also a fundraiser for the YMCA where Lori is on the board, which is really nice. They have the perfect location to watch the airshow, they are up on Nob Hill and have a great roof deck.

They also have a million friends who are all great people, so it’s guaranteed good times. I got a few pictures.

Album with rest of pictures of the Blue Angel’s Air Show 10/07/12 in San Francisco:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20121007BlueAngels#

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San Diego with Daniele

Daniele and I finished our California Coast Trip with four days in San Diego. He had been here before for a two week nursing exchange, but I never had. We were here Saturday November 18 through Tuesday the 21st.

Saturday.

We arrived in San Diego pretty early, our first stop was Mission Beach. It started to rain a little bit, but we walked around and enjoyed the views anyway. There were women setting up support tents for one of those big breast cancer walks, but we didn’t see any runners/walkers yet.


(Mission Beach with some rain)

Our next stop was Sunset Cliffs, which are very pretty! At this point the rain stopped, but we found the ladies in pink walking and running for breast cancer awareness. I of course think that is amazing, but disturbances make Daniele a bit nervous.


(Kait at Mission Cliffs. Can you tell I woke up early?)

Next we went to Cabrillo National Park were we saw the Cabrillo National Monument, a beautiful view of the city and a light house.


(Daniele and Kait by the Cabrillo National Monument with downtown San Diego in the background)

At this point we could go to our hotel, which was right by Old Town, so we went there. Old Town San Diego is both a neighborhood and a State Park. It commemorates the early days of the town of San Diego and includes many 19th century buildings. We started off with lunch at Casa da Guadalajara, which I thought was pretty good, Daniele thought it was a bit touristy. We walked through the mini-town and some open buildings. Including Casa De Estudillo, where it seemed to be some type of special day and there were people in period costume, many doing hand crafts, like spinning yarn.


(Girls dancing “Baile Folklorico” in Old Town)



(Women spinning yarn in Casa De Estudillo in Old Town)

In the afternoon we went to the Gas lamp district. We saw Market, Broadway, and the Waterfront where there were old ships and there was a sailboat race going on, America’s Cup World Series it seemed. We hit up a happy hour special at a place called Current for dinner, it was really delicious.


(The Maritime Museum of San Diego)

Sunday.

We gave all of Sunday for seeing Balboa Park. We knew there were free Ranger tours, but they changed the time to later in the day, so after we checked up on that we saw a bit on our own first. We saw the Lilly Pond (reflecting pool), the Botanical Building, The Moreton Bay Fig Tree (really, really, huge old fig tree), the Zoro Garden, an open market in the SD Theater, and the Butterfly Garden.


(Lily Pond in Balboa Park)



(Lilly Pond and Botanical Building in Balboa Park)



(In the Botanical Building in Balboa Park)



(Moreton Bay Fig tree in Balboa Park. Planted in 1914, it now has a girth of 42 feet, a height of 80 feet and a canopy of 145 feet.)



(Butterfly Garden in Balboa Park)

After we saw all of that, Daniele wanted to skip the Ranger tour, but I’m so glad we didn’t! We saw so much more, and what we covered again, we actually learned about this time. Our ranger was the best possible guide for the park, not only did he know the park inside and out, it was his life, he cared so much about these plants and buildings that it made every thing he said interesting.

He told us a little about the history of the Old Globe Theater. It was built in 1934 as a copy of the one in Chicago, which in turn was a copy of the Old Globe in London. He also pointed out the more interesting a rare plants as we walked around (I’ll save most of them for Picasa). He told us that most of the creatures swimming in the Lilly Pond, including the dozen or so turtles I saw, are not supposed to be there and are all dumped pets. Besides some of the places we had already been, we also saw the Alcazar Garden, which had an English Garden design, and the Japanese Friendship Garden, which is undergoing heavy expansion at the moment.


(Coffee Plant in Botanical Building in Balboa Park)



(Alcazar Garden in Balboa Park)



(Japanese Friendship Garden)

Most of the buildings in Balboa Park were quickly constructed for the two World Expos held in San Diego in 1915 and 1935. These Expos were almost like World Fairs and hoped to attract some of the attendees of the larger Fairs. Some of the buildings are lovely originals. Many more were build at the time to be temporary buildings and ended up beings used way past their intended longevity. At some point the city had to carefully renovate what are now historic buildings, that were made from materials never meant to last. The project is now almost done and looks great.


(California Tower, Museum of Man, and and Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park)



(Daniele on El Prado in Balboa Park)

After our Ranger Tour we wondered around the park a little more. We first found the “International Cottages” which are a series of little houses each representing a different nation. Lucky for us, on Sundays they all open their doors and offer regional goodies; we didn’t even need lunch! After we went to the 1935 Cactus Garden, which was really cool! Balboa Park has like the world’s biggest cactus collection (don’t quote me on that! I think the ranger might have said it). We also went to the Rose Garden-Inez Grant Parker Memorial, which I think would be a very nice place to stay and read or have a picnic lunch. We found the Desert Garden after that . I’m not sure why this is different from the Cactus Garden, but I liked it better. At this point we had seen all the gardens we wanted to see, but as we were leaving we heard some organ music playing so we headed to the Spreckles Organ Pavilion (the Ranger told us a little about it earlier) and sat in on a few numbers. The ranger had also told us that all the Museums in the park are free today. Opening hours overlapped with daylight hours and it wasn’t exactly what we were looking to do, but it was too good to pass up so we hit up the SD Museum of Art real quick before they closed. Probably too quickly, because I don’t remember much of it.


(House of Pacific Relations / International Cottages in Balboa Park)



(Inside the House of Ireland in the House of Pacific Relations / International Cottages in Balboa Park)



(1935 Cactus Garden in Balboa Park)



(Rose Garden-Inez Grant Parker Memorial in Balboa Park.)



(Kait in the Desert Garden in Balboa Park)

Monday.

Daniele really, really wanted to go to Tijuana. He pointed out how close it was. I wasn’t exactly thrilled, heard Tijuana was kinda a dump, but I had never been to Mexico. I’ve been to Canada, Italy, the City of the Vatican, Spain, France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Austria, Germany, and Costa Rica; but never Mexico. Who doesn’t want to cross a boarder and add one to their nation count when it’s just 15 minutes away? He had already been to Mexico on a vacation a few years ago, so I don’t know why he wanted it so bad. I generally get my way whenever I want it, so I try to give Daniele little things. So we went to Mexico.

It was in fact a very short drive down. Even the large boarder control on the highway between San Diego and Tijuana just waves you in when you go south. As soon as we crossed the boarder and for miles after, we saw the traffic the other way to come back to the United States. Being optimistic (and delusional) we figured people must live in Tijuana, where it is cheaper, and work in SD, where there is more money, and we are looking at morning rush hour traffic that will clear up.

Also as soon as we crossed the boarder, my phone stopped working. That is when I started to be unhappy. Trusting Daniele to navigate lasted for about 90 seconds before I accepted roaming charges. Then we didn’t even know where we were going, but we found something like the historic center and I found another car with CA license plates to park behind. But then, wtf?! There are three men swinging hammers on the sidewalk outside my window. Is this a thing? It takes me a minute before realizing they are just bored shoe cobblers. But we need to pay the parking meter, I don’t have any pesos! This was so incredibly poorly planned. Just because we are 15 minutes from the US doesn’t mean anything. This isn’t Europe for goodness sake!

The parking meter, and everyone we met that day took US Dollars, so at least there was that.

Daniele and I walked around the area. We didn’t see any other Americans and we only spoke Italian, both to each other and to any Mexicans we met, who if asked we said we were Italian. Speaking Italian to native Spanish speakers is how we got around Costa Rica it actually works pretty good for getting a basic point across.

The people we passed were staring at us/me so much I felt incredibly uncomfortable. This was worse when we went away from the more crowded main square area or when I took out my big ol’ “I’m not from around here” DSLR camera.

We did a decent little walk. We started by Parque Teniente Guerrero, walked to the biggest church we saw at Benito Juarez y/o Segunda & Av C. This area was pretty crowded. We walked down Santiago Arguello, where there were lots of restaurants, each with a guy outside desperately trying to get us to eat there. We crossed over a pretty dry river bed, where you could see gypsies (are they still gypsies if they are Mexican?) camping out on the river bed from the bridge. On the other side of the river the town felt even worse. Things were newer over here, but cheaper, and abandoned. Like maybe the city had expanded quickly or undergone a gentrification project that didn’t have the underlying economy to support it. I don’t know enough this city to say.


(Church in Tijuana, Mexico at Benito Juarez y/o Segunda & Av C)



(Men trying to get us to eat at their restaurants on Santiago Arguello Tijuana, Mexico)



(Gypsies living on the dry river bed.)



(Across the River)

At this point I fully made up my mind that I didn’t like it here and I wanted to go back to the United States. We had lunch at a place that probably would not have met health codes in the US, but that’s what Daniele likes– more rustic somehow implies better, more authentic food.

We then found the car and headed back. Only this time we couldn’t just drive through. We waited for hours in the line to reenter the US. On the highway, between cars, people weave about trying to sell everything you can imagine. Everything. Water bottles, churros, Statues of the Holy Virgin, blankets, ice cream, you name it. Some of them have freaking huge carts that are almost impossible not to hit while avoiding the children juggling for tips on your other side.

When we finally reached the end, the man at boarder control, who I couldn’t tell if he was representing the US or Mexico just asked me all these weird questions about if I liked Tijuana/Mexico and I would consider leaving Daniele. It was completely random and a bit inappropriate. Definitely wasting the time of everyone in line behind me.

With what was left of our day we went to Imperial Beach and them Coronado Island (the little island in the center of San Diego).


(Imperial Beach)



(Daniele and Kait in front of downtown San Diego on Coronado Island)

That evening we met up with my cousin David who lives out here. I got to be the second family member after his mom, to see his apartment. Then we got some pizza at a pretty good place. In his neighborhood. He lives up in Northpark (north of the park), it’s a hip area with lots of bars and restaurants.

He also filled me in on why we were one only “gringos” in Tijuana. What is more common knowledge if you live close to the boarder (or are just better informed than I am) is that the US’s drug war in Columbia has driven a lot of drug traffic to Mexico. It is a poor country with the drug business one of the few ways to make a living, making it very dangerous. I had heard about problems with kidnapping in Mexico years ago, but not recently. And when I expressed concern earlier to Daniele, his view was that these would not be problems right by the boarder. Dave let us know we were both wrong, it is still a huge problem, and ESPECIALLY near the boarder. He used to go to Tijuana to see a doctor if he needed (between insurance providers), but now no one does that anymore, it’s just not worth it.

Tuesday.

We wanted to go to either the Zoo or Sea World while we were in San Diego. I was leaning towards the Zoo since I know the one here is so famous, Daniele wanted Sea World since as he said “we have a Zoo in Rome”. I won since the prices for the Zoo or Safari Park are $42 each, while Sea World is $73 each. We chose the regular Zoo over the Safari Park because the Safari is like 40 minutes North and we were flying out this same night.

It was a great choice in the end because the San Diego Zoo is AMAZING! Even Daniele loved it. Besides the fact that it is huge, the climate allows them to keep basically any type of animal. It was mostly families, but we were not the only grownups there without kids. However being there without kids we were able to get there at opening, see every last exhibit, and just have time to take the sky tram to the end and back before they were shoeing everyone out the doors for closing. I loved it so much! I took a million pictures, 137 of which are online, separate from the rest of my SD photos because I know not everyone is into that.


(OK, just one picture! I can’t resist! The rest are here.)

My cousin Dave was able to meet up with us again for an earlier dinner before we had to get to the airport. We had some yummy west coast Thai food one last time before I said good bye to my cousin and California. Then we got on our redeye full of good memories and Happy Thanksgiving wishes from Dave for the rest of the family.

All of the pictures I took in San Diego and Tijuana are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20111118CACoastSD

The pictures from the San Diego Zoo are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20111121CACoastSDZoo

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CA Coast Trip with Daniele

Daniele and I drove from San Francisco to San Diego. Along the way we stopped at Purisma Redwoods, Morgan Hill, Santa Maria, Santa Barbra, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Hollywood, LA, Redondo Beach, Long Beach, Lagoona Beach, Oceanside, and finally landed in San Diego (which I’ll save for next time).

Monday.

Having just left San Francisco and picked up our rental car and headed South. Our first stop was to see some big trees. Chris had recommended Purisma Redwood park to us, which was perfect. It was more wild than Muir Woods, we didn’t see anyone else while we were there though it was pretty early. Also not too far out of our way driving South; we would hve lost way too much time trying to hit up Muir Woods. We were able to drive pretty far in, though I never saw a parking lot so we did it “Italian style” and just left the car on the side of the road by the trail head. The trail we did was a nice loop, like an hour or so, good start to a long day of driving!


(Daniele hugging a tree in Purisima Creek Redwoods)

The objective was to drive to Santa Barbra today and arrive not too late. We decided to take the Pacific Coast Highway / Route 1 despite this goal because it is more scenic and more of an experience. The PCH takes much, much longer than the 101. My friend Nick, who used to live in LA and knows the PCH pretty well, told us a few cool places to check out, unfortunately it was dark by the time we got to any of them.


(California coast along Route 1)

We stopped in Morgan Hill for lunch at a little Mexican place called “Jesus” that was pretty good and amazingly cheep. Later on we stopped in Santa Maria for dinner at a Thai place. We ordered our food spicy. When it comes out, the man who presumably prepared it and would seem to be the father of the hostess/waitress brings it to us. I wish I had a photo of this wrinkly, hunched-back, long-haired, one-eyed old Thai man. He made me the best Thai food I have ever had. Unfortunately, I could hardly eat it because every bite was like eating fire, but I kept going because it was that good!

We eventually made it to our hotel in Santa Barbra.

Tuesday.

We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and went off to explore the town. Santa Barbra is really cute! Main Street is lined with stores and there is also the waterfront and the pier.


(Main Street in Santa Barbra)

After that we headed toward LA. We stopped first in Santa Monica and had some Mexican (again) for lunch. Then we went to Venice Beach, which I really liked. I had never been there but it’s so famous and it really is just like it is on TV. There were tons of people on bikes and skateboards. There was “Muscle Beach” and volleyball courts. There were a bunch of medical marijuana vendors saying “the doctor is in” as we passed – that I don’t remember from any movie. There was a full mix of teenagers and families, tourists and people who live there. We were there for sunset, too, which was nice; though everything (except the pot vendors) shut down pretty quick after dark.


(Venice Beach at Sunset)

Wednesday.

In the morning we walked around Hollywood, saw the stars, etc. Then we took the subway to Civic Center to see downtown. We went to Chinatown, had some sushi in Little Tokyo, saw City Hall, the Police Headquarters, even bought some fruit at the Central Market.


(There were only a few star’s that I recognized, but it was exciting when I did)

Thursday.

First thing we went to Beachwood Ave to take a few photos of the Hollywood sign. Then we drove to Manhatten Beach for a quick stop and then Redondo Beach after where we walked around a little.


(Hollywood Sign!)

In the evening we went to Long Beach were we walked around downtown and the waterfront. Later we met a Couchsurfing friend of Daniele’s and we went to the 2nd Street / Venice area. There we saw beautiful waterfront houses and ate very yummy Lebanese food.


(Downtown Long Beach)



(Samin, Kait, and Daniele in Naples, Long Beach)

Friday.

We left LA in the morning to continue South. Our first stop was Lagoona Beach, which has these beautiful beach front parks that we walked through. Also a cute downtown; we stopped for a snack at an impressive bakery.


(Lagoona Beach)

We stayed the afternoon and night in Oceanside. Daniele picked this this town because it has the longest wooden pier on the west coast. We walked around the town, ate in a cute little diner, and visited their library. In Italy you have to be a member to enter the libraries, so I showed off to Daniele how anyone can come in and use our American libraries, read the books, use the bathrooms. We actually did read a little bit, he was impressed. This was our last stop before heading to San Diego, which I’ll leave for next time.


(View of Oceanside from its famous pier)

I have even more pictures from this part of our trip here, like this picture of a Pelican https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20111114CACoastSoCal

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San Francisco with Daniele

Daniele and I started our California trip off in San Francisco. We flew in Thursday, November 10 and stayed until Monday the 14th. My friends Chris and Lori very graciously offered for us to stay with them.

Thursday.

We were running four hours late from Philadelphia, so we didn’t get to anything I had wanted when we arrived. We ended up dropping our stuff with Chris and going with him to meet Lori and a Italian / Canadian friend of theirs, who happens to be fluent in Italian. So that worked out nice. We had some drinks at Cigar Bar and then went to China Town for dinner. Daniele really liked China Town.

Friday.

I wanted to get all the “touristy” stuff I know all my friends are sick of over with on Friday while they would be working. My first choice for breakfast had a line around the building, so we ran over to my old neighborhood, Lower Haight and went to Kate’s Kitchen. That was delicious of course! Then we took the N train over to the Ferry Building. We passed by Occupy SF, they had a nice showing. Later we would see people in tents in L.A. and Daniele asked if they were protesters. I wasn’t 100% sure, but I think they were just people living in tents. Anyway. We walked though the Ferry Building before hopping on the F train to Peir 39. There we did all the usual tourist stuff, the shops, seals, waterfront, Ghiradelli Square. After we went to North Beach. Daniele was excited about North Beach, but we didn’t see that much because the on and off light rain we had been having all day got pretty serious here.

(Sea Lions on Pier 39)

We stopped at Chris and Lori’s for dry socks and to change up between day and night clothes. Then we met up with two of my favorite people, Marc and Jeani for a happy hour and Jenkins Brew House. It was a pretty cool place; they always know the cool places. After that we met an old work friend Steve and his new girlfriend for dinner at Farmer Browns. I had wanted to bring Daniele to a Soul Food restaurant for a long time as an example of a type of “American” cuisine and my attempt in NYC had been a terrible failure. After all that, he was not very impressed. It was probably over hyped. He liked my friends, though.

Saturday.

This day my plan was to cover on foot some real neighborhoods of San Francisco. We managed to cover Mission, Castro, both sides of Haight, and Hayes Valley. Needless to say, my calves were getting pretty sore at this point.

We started in the Mission. Part of the reason for that was I wanted to bring him to a place that serves Blue Bottle Coffee (since he is Italian and therefore an expert on coffee). I really like Blue Bottle and wanted to get some while in SF and I wanted to get some for him to show him Americans make good coffee. Four Barrel is one of the few cafes I know that serves it, so we went there. It was a Saturday morning in SF, so of course there was a line from the cash register to the door. In Italy there are no lines; people just crowd by the registrar or barista and yell their order. I’m not sure he had ever seen such a thing and he put up quite a fuss. But I held my ground. I said I was going to wait in this line and he could do whatever the f* he wanted, minus continue to make a scene. Five minutes later all the people in front of us had been served and we had delicious coffees and donuts. There was a little confusion as Daniele apparently wanted an American style coffee (opposed to espresso) and accidentally ordered and “Americano”, an espresso drink with hot water added made popular in Italy by American Gis from WWII. But everything was delicious. After we walked around aimlessly in the Mission area. Lastly checking out Dolores Park.

From the park we easily wondered into the Castro. We just walked up Castro Street and absorbed the ambiance. From there we went up to Buena Vista Park, and then Upper Haight. We did a quick circle through Upper Haight and hit up Alamo Square on the way down to Lower Haight. Daniele was not very impressed by the painted ladies and found it much more interesting why so many people were taking pictures of these four houses. Daniele was really anxious that we had been on the west coast for almost 48 hours and still had not eaten Mexican food. So we stopped at one of my old favorites, the Little Chiwawa on Divisadero and Page. They have some yummy unusual flavors like a plantain and cheese that I got. After that we walked through my old neighborhoods, Lower Haight, we had seen it a little at breakfast the day before, then continued to Hayes Valley. There we got dessert: macarons from Miette that we enjoyed in the little park in Hayes Valley along with some people watching.


(Kait and Daniele in front of the Painted Ladies of Alamo Square)

After that we regrouped before heading to Marc and Jeani’s. They had moved to a new apartment since I had left and it’s beautiful! I had organized a dinner of my old San Francisco friends tonight and we met here first for some wine and cheese. I also got to meet Simon, Michelle and Billy’s beautiful little baby boy! He’s a fast mover though, all my pictures of him came out blurry. But such a good baby! He played around, let anyone hold him, and during dinner just sat quiet; you could forget he was there if he wasn’t so cute. From Marc and Jeani’s we went to Kan Zaman, one of my favorite places: delicious hummus, babganush, falafel, and other yummy things, also belly dancing, and there used to be hooka but apparently SF started cracking down on hooka bars because it’s considered “smoking”. The belly dancer gave me a lesson. So that video exists. Chris, Jenna, Daniele, and I had another round at Mangolia after, too. It was so nice seeing all my friends again!!!


(Michelle and the amazing Simon!)

Sunday.

Our last full day in SF Daniele and I rented bicycles to go around Golden Gate Park. The best rentals I found were from Sports Basement in the Presidio. That worked out great because it is near Ella’s, a great breakfast place. It’s also very close to the Golden Gate Bridge, so we did that as soon as we got our bikes. We just went halfway and took some pictures. We didn’t want to lose too much time since the real objective was the park. We also had to ride through some of the Presidio Park and some hilly streets between the bridge and the park. I have been to Golden Gate park 100 times, but never saw the things we did this day. We went and saw the Bison, the Chinese Pavilion, the Dutch Windmill, and a little of Ocean Beach. In between we grabbed a quick lunch at a vegan place in the Richmond, which was OK. As it started getting dark we started heading back to return the bikes. By the time we made it there we were riding under under-construction overpasses in the dark. Neither Daniele nor the guy at Sports Basement when I asked if there was a different way out seemed to think this was sketchy. But it was. It was very sketchy. Daniele and I wanted to take Chris and Lori out to dinner to thank them for hosting us, but Lori was still not back from LA, so the three of us went to The Front Porch. The food was pretty tasty and it was the first time I had warm breaded goat cheese balls in a salad, which I guess is a thing now. Highly recommended.


(Daniele on his rented bike in front of the Golden Gate Bridge)


(The Bison of Golden Gate Park)



(The Chinese Pavilion in Golden Gate Park)

Monday.

Monday morning we left pretty early to pick up our rental car and start our drive down the coast. I’ll leave that story for next time.

Photos from the San Francisco part of our CA Coast trip are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20111110CACoastSF

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Leaving San Francisco

I’ve started my gypsy adventure. Tuesday was my last day at work and Wednesday I moved out of San Francisco. Wednesday morning I still had a lot to get rid of, so I rented a man, named Rick, with a pick-up truck for the morning. He brought me to Adobe to ship the last of my stuff and to Out of the Closet to donate the rest. Then I packed up my suitcases and headed to the airport. There was a little issue with United. Unlike most airports that measure carry on bags at the gate, they measure them at the entrance to Security. Mine was too big. I knew that it was pushing it, but I figured I would gate check. Instead I had to pay for a third bad at $100. Not too happy with United right now. Schuyler got into Las Vegas 40 minutes before me and was waiting for me when I got there. We took the shuttle together to the Riviera and met up with Danny, Nick, and Dave there. The three of them have already been adventuring in LA and Baha, Mexico. We drank in the hotel and shared stories for the night.

Today we picked up our Defcon badges. Then we got breakfast at the Blueberry Hill Dinner and went to the Pinball Hall of Fame. We stayed there for hours. It was pretty awesome, both new and old machines. Nick and I went to the Smithsonian Atomic Testing Museum for a some time while the others, who had already been there, played more pinball.

After a little break in the room we headed out for the night. We got dinner at Beijing Noodle #9 in Caesar Palace. Then walked to the MGM Grand where Danny and Dave played craps, and the rest of us walked around. We had nice cocktails at the Nob Hill Tavern before heading back.