Balboa Park

I think I'm a bit overdue for a post! I have been putting in some effort to get out and do things with my new friends here, which has been good. Two weeks ago, I ventured with my new friend Grace to Balboa Park, which is a beautiful park here in San Diego. It is home to the famous San Diego Zoo, but also a number of museums, some beautiful buildings, green grass and beautiful flowers. We had a nice time walking around through the botanical garden and the rose garden.

The coolest stuff in the botanical garden were the beautiful orchids (of many amazing colors), and the carnivorous pitcher plant!

 The rose garden was quite extensive and so pretty! I thought the colors on this one were so astounding. So bright and stunning that it was hard to believe it was real!

The architecture is very picturesque. I love it. Very Spanish/Mission style; some of it with amazing detail work. It makes me wish I had hours to spend there (and a really cool camera) with which to get the most artistic shots possible! I think it would be fun.

 

Love the tiling on the roof of this building! There is also an amphitheater at Balboa Park with a large pipe organ, and a free organ concert every Sunday at 2pm.  Who wants to go?  I really want to check it out sometime!

Grace and I topped off our morning at the park with lunch at an Afghani restaurant (delicious!) and pumpkin gelato. Yum.

Since this fun weekend adventure, I caught a virus that was going around at work. I spent last weekend feeling pretty sick, and spent all this week trying to recover. I'm still working on that. I really hate being sick. However, this coming week, I have some fun to look forward to! The first of two back to back visitors!  My dear friend Melissa arrives later in the coming week to help me celebrate my birthday! I am very excited about this.

It's beginning to feel like fall . . .

Being in California has really thrown me off my seasons. Really, it seems like its still summer. It has still been rather warm, which is nice. The days have gotten shorter, along with still being warm, so that's confusing. And I've overheard conversations about how it is starting to look like fall. I think I need to open my eyes wider! I don't really see it! I have noticed some trees loosing their leaves. I just feel so far from fall because it is everywhere in the Midwest! So many trees turning colors, the snap in the air, the start of school, and college football season.  (even if I didn't pay attention to the games, it was still hard to miss!)

I'm so off here because I don't feel that snap in the air yet, I'm very far from college football (I can't believe it is several weeks in!), and the schedule at UCSD is a bit off. The students started last week. I'm pretty sure that still means summer! (doesn't it?) The church I attend had a kickoff for their college ministry for the first week of school last weekend. It was fun! (they invited the church too. That's why I was there. No, I'm not trying to pass as an undergrad!)

We went out to this area called Fiesta Island. It is in the bay, so one can do boating and such, and it is as if one is a lake. Just a saltwater one :). They rented a boat and jetski and we got to go tubing and hang out on the beach. Not such a bad way to pass an afternoon!

I then went home, bought Honeycrisp apples, and baked a pie. Because that helps me feel like its fall! And the pie was greatly enjoyed by a number of people. I'll have to make applecrisp soon. I think its my second addiction (i could eat a whole pan of it myself). And goes quite well with my primary addiction (coffee, of course). But doesn't all dessert?   

One last story - today I had one of those moments, where if you aren't being patient in the traffic, you will be made to wait even longer!! We had church in downtown San Diego as all the associated church plants in my church's network all met together. So I was driving home from downtown, and was trying to turn right. But traffic was all stopped up (due to a trolley track crossing). So I decided to be impatient with some other people and went straight. I passed the street I was trying to turn onto just as traffic started moving. And then I only made it a block forward before a policeman on a motorcycle blocked off traffic for a 10 minute parade toward the harbor. So there I was. Stuck waiting even longer because I wouldn't wait! Oh the city.

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. :)

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!

Getting more settled

Well, I was successful. I got the shelf put together, and found some help to help me get it upright. Below is the finished product! Only took about a week. And a little bit of a sore lower back. But I got it! Followed by a decision to try to only buy furniture items that I can handle myself from here on out. Which was a good thing to decide before I went to Target this weekend to buy some *more* shelves (I don't have enough kitchen cabinet space and I have too many books!). I had to decide between this  tall shelf/pantry thing I really wanted - which came with a warning that it was a buddy item (meaning it takes two people to lift it safely) and another one that wasn't really big enough but I could lift on my own. After I got the big one by myself onto the bottom of my cart (not an easy endeavor) and walked around the store with it for awhile, I came to my senses and realized that I'd never get that thing out of my car and into my apartment. I put it back. :)

With the shelf up, I was able to get all but 2 boxes unpacked. Yes! I'm finally almost there! this weekend I hope to acquire the couch/bed that my future guests will sleep on when they come to visit me! (hint hint - please come have fun with me in California! I'm almost ready!) I will use it to sit on too.

I also did have some weekend fun again finally! My new friend Rebekah and I went for a hike in a beautiful nature reserve park (Torrey Pines State Park) just north of where I live and work. Its got beautiful ocean views. We followed our scenic hike by putting our feet in the ocean! Ah refreshing. I still have yet to get all the way in. The water is a bit chilly. . .  and it doesn't seem so fun to go hang out on the beach and in the ocean alone. . . surrounded by all the tourists and fighting for a place to park. Sigh. I'll get there eventually.

And then there was internet!

Finally! I got internet today! This is the reason. . . mostly. . . why I haven't posted in weeks! I'm sure I could have written a post at home, and taken my laptop to work, gotten online, and put something up. . . but that didn't happen. Obviously.

So anyway, to catch everyone up on things - I found an apartment and moved in. Yay! Now I have a living room half full of boxes, 2 1/2 weeks later. Someday, I will get them unpacked. I seem to be having some circular problem where to unpack the boxes, I need to put up my shelves, but there really isn't enough room to assemble the shelving unit until I unpack the boxes. . .  But I'm hoping that with my brain that managed to get a PhD, I should be able to sort this one out soon :).

It's a one-bedroom. It's an okay size, and it is pretty updated inside, so that's nice. I just keep thinking that I'm paying twice what my mortgage used to be for just over half the amount of space. Sigh. Its quieter here than I expected it to be, for which I am very thankful. I'm working on getting a couch/thing guests can sleep on, so soon I'll be ready for visitors! Oh, except I probably have to unpack my boxes to fit the couch in here. Well, guess I'd better get to work! I really don't want my lack of a couch to be what stops you all from coming to visit! (hint hint)

I'm now nearing the end of my 4th week of week in my new lab. I gave my first presentation at lab meeting this week. The "what i'm planning on doing" talk, cause I haven't really done any science until today. :( I've been reading/planning a lot, which is needed, but really not as much fun.

I'm not sure there is much to report on the adventure front. Besides that I figured out how to use the card (not coin) operated washer and dryer at my apartment. (sigh, $2.75 for a load of laundry). And I can now get to Trader Joe's without my GPS. (it's only about a mile away - I'd really hope I could figure that out!) These are my current excitements. Hopefully I will have more time to go check out more San Diego soon.

The Laguna Lodge and starting my job!

Last week was my last week without work. Tomomi's condo was being fumigated for termites, so we had to vacate for two days. I took the opportunity to go on a little adventure out of the city. Turns out there is a National Forest (Cleveland National Forest) that is only an hour away from San Diego. And I found a lodge there that rented out cabins. So I got one for two nights and headed out to the mountains! It was a really nice little retreat. There were probably 15 cabins - I think I was the only one there. The only person I talked  to or saw was the guy that owned the place. Absolute solitude. It was nice just to be alone after a couple weeks with people everywhere! It was rather pretty as well. There were tall pine trees, and a family of woodpeckers outside my cabin. It still did have a desert look though. But a nice getaway that wasn't so far away!

But back to reality.  Monday was my first day at my new job. I work in a beautiful new building across the street from the Salk Institute and very close to the ocean. :) Some of the lab windows have ocean views. We are very close to the San Diego Glider Port, so those lucky few get to watch people hang gliding too. I can catch a far off glimpse through the window in the bay next to mine. But my desk is on the opposite side of the room as the window in my bay, and our view is blocked by an office anyway. They made all these offices in little squares that line the outside of the building floors, so you have to go outside to go see the boss. Its an interesting set up.
Anyway, things are going well. I'm just doing a lot of reading at first and trying to get all the proper usernames and passwords and email accounts and orientation classes. I can't wait til I really get to do Science!

And the nice part is, I got a holiday in my first week! Happy 4th of July! I decided to go on a little biking adventure. There is a mount called Mount Soledad. On the top is a war memorial. Its an 822 foot hill with great city views. I said to myself, "Well, Its only a 3 mile ride to the top from where I am. I don't know any other bike routes, I should just try it." I used to think that hill on Benton Street in Iowa City was killer. However, after I got slaughtered by this one, I think I little more kindly of Benton street. I did make it to the top, with rubbery legs and all. Unfortunately, it was little cloudy today, so the views were not spectacular. However, I shall include a couple anyway.
So the 3 mile hill up probably took me 45 min to an hour. I got home in about 12 minutes. It might be a while before I try that one again! :)