Sunday, September 23, 2012

Home Sweet Apartment

Ah. I still mourn for my condo. (except for the neighbors). I feel like its just a bit of a blow that I pay twice as much for half the room I used to have. Sigh. I guess I'm paying for the sunshine and the views! (and the pool and spa I haven't even used yet!)

Anyway, I have had requests for an "apartment tour" up here, so here it is! Some pics of my new home. Here is my bedroom, and the sliding door out to my porch (pictured alter), and my closet door in the corner there which is actually good sized, and then the bathroom and the big wall storage closet that I do like. (without it, I'd be in trouble - not enough kitchen cabinets!).  





 Here is the living room. I have one window in the living room, and my view is other buildings/parking area, and a big green leafy plant in a planter and some Eucalyptus trees. And look - the shelf is full! Also, there is another door that goes out onto my patio in the corner you can't see near the window. And the front door is to the left of the shelf unit.

Also  - note my awesome Ikea couch that folds out into a cot. So if you come visit me, its your bed!

The kitchen, as you can see is behind the living room. There is a little desk area which is nice. And right now the only thing I have that resembles a dinner table. And then the porch, where my bike currently lives, and also my two plants. My plumeria plant is from Hawaii and is doing really well! It grows so fast. I'm really excited about it. I think I'd like to get a hibiscus plant to put out there sometime, but I can wait a bit for that!  :)
 


 

So that is it.  The other cool thing is that around the corner of my building, there are a couple of big planters with Birds of Paradise growing in them. They were blooming the last two weeks (sorry didn't get a pic before they got trimmed back). Several times when I have walked by them on my way somewhere, I have seen a hummingbird flitting here and there feeding on them. So Cool!!! Its not even in zoo! So I guess that's a neat thing about this place too. I guess I should have done a front of the building shot too. I'll add one later. :)

Thursday, September 20, 2012

My family visited!

Wow, I didn't realize I hadn't posted since the beginning of August. Seems like it can't be right. . . Well anyway, this is long overdue! My house is in much better order now, and I've had requests for pics on the blog, so I'll try to get to that this weekend.

Otherwise, not too much has been going on. There was a fun trip to a farmers market in San Diego's Little Italy district called the Mercato with some girls from church, but I need to get some photos from one the ladies I went with. The post just can't do without. :) hopefully you will all soon see why!

Other than that, I haven't really done much up until last weekend. Truth be told, I was starting to get pretty homesick and missing everyone pretty badly. So somehow, instead of trying to go and hang out with some of the new people I've been meeting, I just ended up staying home and drowning my sorrows watching Downton Abbey (2nd season) and reading Mansfield Park, the last long Jane Austen novel I had left to read. Probably would have been more helpful for morale to hang out with people. At least it would have given me something to report here, besides TV and reading. Oh well.

I made up for it all when my family (dad, mom, Nick and my aunt Glenna) all came for a visit! We did a lot of fun things and ate a lot of good food, and I got all the hugs I've been missing. So that should hold me over til my next visitor!

Here are some pics of the fun things we did! We went on a trolley tour of the city that started in the Olde Towne area and goes by 9 or so different stops. We got off at Seaport Village, the Gaslamp district, and Coronado Island!  The pics on the left are from Coronado - the top one is the Hotel del Coronado, this famous huge (and expensive) hotel, and then bottom is a view of the San Diego downtown skyline from the Coronado Bridge. Middle is the Gaslamp district sign. We also saw one the best sunsets over the La Jolla Cove that I've seen since I've been in California while the family was here. The grapes are from a winery we visited in Temecula when we went and visited a cousin of my dads, and the bottom right is my cinnamon french toast with blueberry paste decorations that we had for breakfast one day. So yummy!



We also visited Point Loma where there is the Cabrillo National Monument. It also afforded great city views, and had some great rocky coastline with tidepools where we found the little crab (if you can see him - upper right)! The statue is a statue of Juan Cabrillo, who was the first European to land in that area.



We had a great time, but sadly, I did not manage to get a picture of us all to prove that I really did have visitors. The best I have is this picture of Nick on the rocks at Cabrillo Ntl. Mon., looking out into the ocean, perhaps pondering the vastness of the Pacific, or how much he wants to move to California to be with his favorite sister, or something of the sort!