San Diego

Spring Break in San Diego!

This is an incredible place-the terrain is beautiful, the people are gorgeous, and the sights unlimited. Chuck and Ruth have been fabulous hosts, and it's been wonderful to spend quality time with Carrie. They've given me the full tourist treatment. What a super family-even Louis the dog welcomed me. :) Too bad...that they live so far away! Though it might not be quite as much fun to visit if they still lived in Iowa. You never know though-this fab fam consistently surprises me. We'd probably find a full week of sight-seeing in Iowa City, too.

I was reminded once again how strongly the genes run in the Davis clan when Carrie and Ruth picked me up from the airport . I don't think my family bears such strong family semblance, but the Davises-wow. Carrie looks like her dad (but blonder!) and acts like her mom, Mike looks just like Ruth, and talks like Chuck. As far as I can tell, Nate resembles his dad in word and deed, but not sure if he looks like him...I know he doesn't look like Louis, anyhow. :) Veddy interesting...

Friday night we went to the beach at Del Mar, walked the dog, watched a little terrier with homosexual tendencies go at it-or try to anyhow. Louis would have nothing to do with him. Hooray for Louis! After dinner we watched the first part of Pride and Prejudice. If I didn't like these people before, I do now-even MY parents wouldn't be interested in that. Chuck said it made him want to see Bridget Jones again. Funny.

Saturday we went on the personalized Chuck Davis Tour of Los Angeles. We stopped at the Crystal Cathedral where Robert Schuller preaches. It's ostentatious to the nth degree. Chuck pointed out that it's appropriate that the church is set only a mile from Disneyland. After lunch at a little Christian burger joint where you have to lurk around waiting to grab the next available table, we went to the Kodak Theater where the Academy Awards are held. On the way there, I got my first glimpse of the Hollywood sign on the hill, and felt like I was really in California. :) We stopped at the Chinese Theater and saw the famous footprints and handprints in the cement, before driving through West Hollywood and into Beverly Hills. Carrie took my picture next to Cary Grant's spot. :D Such a contrast between Hollywood and Beverly Hills! Carrie and I got out at Rodeo Drive, and walked through Prada, Tiffany's, Ralph Lauren, Max Mara and several other froo-froo stores. The streets were crowded, as there was construction going on for the set of a Def Leppard music video to be filmed there. When we tired of the lush life up close, we drove up into Bel Air for a view of the insanely expensive houses and the gorgeous view of LA. I'd had no idea it was going to be so pretty. The afternoon was spent at the Getty Museum viewing art, gardens and architecture, followed by dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (my first time). Yummy! I heartily recommend the Godiva chocolate cheesecake. Chuck says cheesecake is "chick food". I suppose he's right, but since I'm a verifiable "chick", I can enjoy it with a light conscience. As long as I don't think about the calories!

Sunday was a bright sunny San Diego day, and we went to church in the Audi convertible with the top down. Wa-hoo!! Carrie and I had Chipotle for lunch, then spent the afternoon lounging at home. We drove around San Deigo a bit in the evening-the view of the coastline from Mt Solidad is superlative. Ended the evening with the second installment of Pride and Prejudice, then the hot tub. Truly, vacation material.

Monday was San Diego Zoo day. The pandas were kind of a disappointment-the travelling panda exhibit I saw in Toledo about ten years ago was more impressive. The zoo is beautiful though-the flowers are gorgeous. I think the whole thing is good though slightly overrated, but my favorite exhibit was the Galapagos Tortoises. Some of them are over 100 years old! It was fun to imagine the fashions they've seen come through on the other side of their fence over the last eighty years. Davises let me cook dinner for them this evening-it was fun to be able to treat them a little, as a sort of thank you for all they're doing for me. We spent the evening watching the final third of Pride and Prejudice, followed by the hot tub for me and Carrie. Heaven won't be quite complete without a great big hot tub, I think. The last part of the movie is of course, the best part- where the boy gets the girl and everybody goes home happy. Just like Jane Austen, and not at all like reality. Overall, the movie was a hit, I think. I'm glad-I love it.

Tuesday was desert day. I'll have to say that, besides Rodeo Drive and P & P, this was the highlight of the trip. The drive to Anza-Borrego State Park was between 1-2 hours...I'm not exactly sure-there was so much to look at. The mountains there are odd; green, and covered with giant boulders that you expect to slide down and smash you at any moment. It turns to ranch country pretty quickly, with forest fire warning signs everywhere. It was beautiful, though-maybe my favorite place to live, if I were to ever be nuts enough to move there!

The ranch country turns to brown, dusty hills which quickly grow into brown, dusty mountains covered in cacti and yellow wildflowers. When you drive over the mountains and see the desert plain, the view leaves you speechless-vast, flat nothingness, with one town in the middle, and the Salton Sea visible in the far, far distance. The road winds dangerously down the mountains for years, and then you're officially in the desert. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced-I could see why Carrie likes Tucson, if that's what it looks like.

We stopped at the Park Visitor Center, shopped in the gift shop, watched a film about the wildflowers, and went for a short hike around the center, taking tons of flower photos before driving out to see more flowers, several caterpillars, and the badlands from Font's Point. So barren! It was kind of depressing, especially considering that people actually try to travel acroos that vast nothingness to get into the US from Mexico. A little scary to sit on the edge of the cliff, too. (I'm NOT an adventure traveller!)

We took a different route back from the desert, through a mountain town called Julian. The views were gorgeous, the road very wind-y, and lots of evidence of last year's forest fires, whcih was another kind of sad. Julian was a cute little town--I think it must have been a mining town back in the day. Lots of touristy arts and crafts shops. As Ruth said-once you've been to Amish/Mennonite country, arts and crafts anywhere else are pretty much all the same.

Stopped at another natural wonder on the way home-Costco! Pizza for dinner...and Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn for dessert-we watched Charade, for which no one but Carrie stayed entirely awake. Too much stimulation, I guess.

Wednesday morning, and we're headed to Tijuana-though I think Ruth was a bit uneasy about it all. Apparently when one lives so close to the border, one hears all kinds of nasty stories...Well, corrupt police and all-we had no difficulty. Carrie, Ruth and I parked the car, and walked across the border (evidently it's easier that way). The first experience is to be accosted by several Mexican preschoolers, begging for money. A vivid reminder that we are now in a third-world country, and don't you forget it, either. The streets are lined with hawkers, selling their various trinkets and beckoning us into their shops. I am fascinated by them-it takes a talent which I gladly do not possess. We avoid the pharmacias (no steroids for us!), and head for the souvenir shops. I found some great pottery, which was very reasonably priced after haggling with the shop owners. (I hate that part, too. The original prices aren't so high, and you know they're poverty-stricken. Still, it's expected, so when in Rome...or Tijuana, anyhow.)

After making it safely and very easily back across the border, we drove to Mom and Dad's old neighborhood to see if we could find their first apartment. Sadly, it's now entirely a business district, with nary a residence in sight-their house number was sandwiched between a gas company and a furniture store. I took photos anyhow, but it was too bad that everything was so changed. I know they were disappointed when I told them.

As if we hadn't enough movies, Carrie and I decided to go rent one while her parents went to Bible study. (In retrospect, we should have just had our own Bible study, but who thinks of these things at the time?) We sat in the hot tub and watched "Without a Paddle" on my laptop. I think her folks thought we were nuts, when they came home and saw us there. Live dangerously, I say! Just not TOO dangerously. Without a Paddle was distinctly a grown up Goonies, even taking place in Oregon. It was funny-a little more heartwarming than I had expected. I was kind of surprised that it was the best film we could find to agree on. Just goes to show...

Thursday, and my last full day for San Diego sight-seeing. We drove back to Mt Solidad for daytime photos of the coast, then to La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya) in the drizzle to see the sea lions and the magnificent view of the coastline and the commercial hotel/tourist district. The sea lions were funny-they really look like dogs-especially the pups, who really do look like puppies with deformed feet. We went to Old Town San Diego for more souvenir shopping in the rain for the rest of the afternoon, and met Chuck for an early dinner at Su Casa, with authentic mexican fare. We got guacamole made in front of us at the table-I was madly jotting the recipe down as the waiter whipped it together. Yummy!

The evening ended with (of course) one last movie: An Affair to Remember. I did warn Chuck that it was a chick flick, but he didn't seem to mind-just made fun of its semblance to Sleepless in Seattle-which admittedly, is hysterical. I'd hate to think of the abuse we girls would have had to endure had the rest of the Davis males been present. Well, then again maybe not-Nate and Mike probably wouldn't have even stood for it, and we'd have watched something else. Hooray for absence of brotherly intolerance! :P

Carrie and I took one last walk around the neighborhood before we drove to the airport on Friday. It was a truly perfect last day in San Diego-the skies were clear and sunny, and the world smiled through beds and beds of flowers. At the luggage kiosk, I met the very talkative lady I had sat next to on the trip out from Detroit. She and her husband just bubbled over with stories of their visit, and we shared photos of sunny southern California on the plane back to snowy Detroit. Sigh. We had about the same layover before our next flights, and they asked me to join them for dinner. We had a lovely visit-what a fun way to end the trip!

And I'll end my account of Spring Break there, because if I go on, I'll have to include the hour I had to wait for my suitcase at the airport, followed by the tire blowout on the Beltway between Baltimore and DC at 1 am, the night spent in a parking lot in the ghetto after AAA proved useless, and the $200+ I spent getting it repaired the next morning...

So, best to leave the story where it is, and forget about the reality that met me at home. :P C'est la vie! It was a wonderful trip-good friends in a lovely place. A perfect vacation!