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.