*long* San Diego x San Japan blog
Wow, okay, I was totally supposed to blog about San Diego weeks ago... and then San Japan weeks ago... but, you know, as usual I got busy. I've actually been busy getting ready for my junior year of college, which starts this Monday, and dealing with different issues that have popped up. Anywho, I'm just going to condense my San Japan + San Diego blog into one thing, because I'm going to blog again either tomorrow night or Monday night about my birthday :D
San Diego
Day 1: Sunday (July 27th) We actually flew into San Diego on Saturday night, but since it was a little bit late and it took a while to get to Phil's house, nothing of interest really happened. Sunday morning though, we all woke up at the buttcrack of dawn, which was really not easy for Kendall or myself. I have to say that Phil and his wife, Louella (I hope I'm spelling that right) are amazing cooks. For dinner on Saturday they just had this awesome spread of food and Sunday morning breakfast was no different. Louella made oatmeal (from freaking scratch) with blueberries in it and cut up fresh peaches for us. We all needed the big breakfast because afterwards we headed out to this old mining town called Julian to spend the day shopping and exploring. It was a really cool place actually, it was a really small town but there were so many shops and places to see. They even had their own little biker gang that was riding all over the town. XD Anywho, we shopped a bit and then stopped for lunch at this awesome place called the Cowgirl Cafe where I had the best tunamelt EVER! They also had this absolutely delicious apple pie/puff desserts... it was amazing. We got to the actual Mine around 3pm because the waitress at the cafe said if we got there any later it would be tourist hell. Our tour guide for the mine was a huge grizzly bear of a man, but he kinda looked like Santa Clause because he had this really big white beard and a rather jolly demeanor. The mine itself got boring after the first ten minutes because it was just the same dark extremely cold stuff over and over. Plus there was this super annoying Mexican family that obviously had more children than they could handle because one of the little boys would NOT shut the fuck up, he kept yelling stuff over and over in Spanish. My dad even laughed a few times because he said the boy was saying really odd things for a kid to say. After the mine tour was finished we pretty much just left, and on the way home stopped at this wine tasting place for my mom. Ah, my dear wine-loving mother.
Day 2: Monday So, we had spent Saturday & Sunday night with Phil and Louella, and they were wonderful hosts, but by Monday we were ready to go to our totally sweet hotel room at the Mariott. The only problem was that we couldn't check in until 3pm and we had plans to go to the beach that day. Fortunately my dad worked out that we would all go to the beach together and then halfway through he would meet Phil at the hotel and check all of our crap in. Dad actually played a prank on us at breakfast by telling Kendall and me that he got the worst car on the lot because he was so cheap. Well, we walked outside after packing up all of our stuff and were greeted with the lovely sight of a shiny red convertible mustang. Yes, I said mustang. The beach was absolutely gorgeous (albeit stocked with people) and I had a great time. I don't think I've been to the beach since we left Hawaii and that was when I was 7, so it's been a while. Kendall and I started off head first into the ocean, but dad was being a little baby because the water was freezing. I've always wondered why when ocean water is freezing ass cold you can still get used to it, but when pool water is freezing ass cold you never truly get used to it. Anywho, Kendall and I spent the bulk of our time trying to ride waves (without a boogie board mind you) and then convinced mom to go buy us some kiddie shovels so we could make sandcastles. Kendall also managed to convince me to scour the shallow ends of the water for shells, and at one point I scooped up a handful of sand complete with a mini white crab. We were beyond exhausted by the time we left the beach so as soon as we all got into the hotel we took turns hitting the shower. After we had a chance to relax and view the breakfast menu for the next morning we all decided it was time to go out for some yummy seafood dinner. For whatever reason we let my father convince us to walk to this little area of town known as Seaport Village (it has a bunch of cute beach themed shops and places to eat). He told us the place was only around five blocks away when in reality we walked nearly sixteen, that rat bastard. We ate at this little place called the Harbor House and let me tell you that was some fine ass seafood. On the way back we convinced dad to hail a taxi to take us home, especially since we were all kinda stuffed to the brim with food. On a sidenote, how lame is it that I was all excited to hail a taxi? XD Being the genius that I am I managed to convince mom and dad to go back out and have a drink at a local bar so Kendall and I could have some freaking privacy. We had a nice time, we watched TV in the room and ordered a hot fudge sundae, although would you believe that damn hotel doesn't make milkshakes? What kind of world is this?
Day 3: Tuesday The Mariott has some really comfortable beds, let me tell you. It was almost a shame to wake up the next morning, except that we had ordered some freaking awesome breakfast room service. We decided to go to the aquarium and I was super pumped because I really love marine life and aquariums are some of my favorite places to visit in a different city. I was severely let down, you would think that a city as big as San Diego, especially considering the size of their damn zoo, would have a stellar aquarium. This place was shit, they had like... trout and that was it. They had an assortment of tiny fish and like a couple of sea turtles sprinkled here and there, but it was probably the worst aquarium I'd ever been to. The good side though was that we got done super early so we had a chance to hit the enormous mall downtown. We ended up going to the movies while at the mall and saw The Dark Knight, which rocked except for Christian Bale's weird "hey guys I'm Batman but my voice is different and creepy" thing he did. Once again I convinced my parents to get the hell out of the hotel room and go drinking so Kendall and I could lounge around. We ordered dinner for ourselves from room service, but I paid instead of mom and dad because they had been nice enough to get us breakfast.
Day 4: Wednesday We had to get up a little bit earlier on Wednesday because again we had to pack our stuff so we could go back to Phil's. After checking out of the hotel and dropping our stuff off, we were headed to the zoo. I was really excited because I've only heard good things about the San Diego zoo and I really really really love zoos. I wasn't disappointed either, that place is fucking huge and has some really cool exhibits. Right off the bat we went on this little sky thing that takes you to the opposite side of the park so you can work your way back. I'm not sure how to better describe it though, it was a zoo, I'm sure you get the picture. Oh, but we did see the pandas that are on loan from China, and the baby one was asleep in the tree, it was SO adorable. We also stopped to see a sea lion show before we left and that was pretty cool too. We decided to go to the movies again and saw Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D. I have a feeling this movie would have sucked a little if it weren't in 3D, so I'd suggest only seeing it in that form. Can they make 3D movies for your home? That would be sweet. Afterwards we met up with Phil and Louella and this sushi joint and then went back to their house and watched The Messengers before crashing out. Did I mention they have like every movie channel imaginable? Seriously, think of a movie you want to watch and I bet you they had at least five channels playing it.
Day 5: Thursday ONCE AGAIN we woke up early to pack our stuff. This time we packed it all into Phil's car since the rental car was really tiny and we were going to do more sightseeing until our flight left. We went to the San Diego Natural History Museum and if you're ever in San Diego you should go because it was really fun and informative in a non boring way. It took us a minute to actually get in the place though, we had to wait for Kendall to make another one of her damn pennies. If you know what I'm talking about, it's those machines that when you put a penny and 50cents in them and turn the little knoby thing it'll press a design of the place that you're at into a penny. Stupid, right? Well Kendall has at least four different designs from all the places we went. Think about that. I think she spent like 20 bucks on those stupid things. While we were there we also saw this pretty awesome movie about the oceans all around the world and what sort of creatures inhabit those areas. We were there for quite a while, then dad dropped us off at the airport and we waited for him until he returned the rental car and met up with Phil. We ate at the airport and still had an hour to kill before our plane left, I think it left at like 3 or 5pm or something like that. We were in the air for around an hour and a half, or something, then landed in Albequrqe and had another two hours to kill before our next plane left. Mom and I amused ourselves by walking around and gawking at the ridiculous turqouise jewerly they had for sale in some of the little kiosks. We boarded our second plane, flew to El Paso, waited for the next flight to load, then finally arrive home in San Antonio at around 11:30pm. Needless to say I was a little depressed because it was a GREAT vacation and I have a feeling we might not go on one again for a while.
San Japan Weekend So August 8th thru 10th Derek and I went to an anime convetion here in San Antonio called San Japan. This was it's grand opening and for a first year convention it was surprisingly well put together and ran very smoothly. I'm not going to recount everything that happened because this is already an insanely long blog, but to make a long story short WE FUCKING WON BEST IN SHOW. Yes. Let me explain: every convention has a cosplay contest and should you dress up in costume (one that either you made yourself or someone made and gives you the okay to compete) you can enter the contest. They have two divisions: skits and walk-ons. Skits are just that: two minute skits. Walk-ons are like mini skits without scripted (or any) speech, you have 30 seconds to walk on and impress the judges. Apparently Derek and I impressed the shit out of them because even though we entered the novice category we were voted Best in Show. If you don't know what that means, it means you were the best overall. I really still can't believe it because there were some AWESOME costumes there, but from what the judges told us we won because our stage presence was good. You can judge for yourself because here's the video:
(we're at the six minute mark)
This is a better view of us, but the camera person only got Derek for the first few seconds XD
We also met these awesome cosplayers Alissa & Daniel (known as Shoeless) and they are really cool and I'm really glad we got to meet/know them over the weekend.
Okay, that's it for now. Sorry if it rambled on or didn't make sense at some points, but it is now 3:51am so... yeah. I'm about to turn 20 bitches.
San Diego
Day 1: Sunday (July 27th) We actually flew into San Diego on Saturday night, but since it was a little bit late and it took a while to get to Phil's house, nothing of interest really happened. Sunday morning though, we all woke up at the buttcrack of dawn, which was really not easy for Kendall or myself. I have to say that Phil and his wife, Louella (I hope I'm spelling that right) are amazing cooks. For dinner on Saturday they just had this awesome spread of food and Sunday morning breakfast was no different. Louella made oatmeal (from freaking scratch) with blueberries in it and cut up fresh peaches for us. We all needed the big breakfast because afterwards we headed out to this old mining town called Julian to spend the day shopping and exploring. It was a really cool place actually, it was a really small town but there were so many shops and places to see. They even had their own little biker gang that was riding all over the town. XD Anywho, we shopped a bit and then stopped for lunch at this awesome place called the Cowgirl Cafe where I had the best tunamelt EVER! They also had this absolutely delicious apple pie/puff desserts... it was amazing. We got to the actual Mine around 3pm because the waitress at the cafe said if we got there any later it would be tourist hell. Our tour guide for the mine was a huge grizzly bear of a man, but he kinda looked like Santa Clause because he had this really big white beard and a rather jolly demeanor. The mine itself got boring after the first ten minutes because it was just the same dark extremely cold stuff over and over. Plus there was this super annoying Mexican family that obviously had more children than they could handle because one of the little boys would NOT shut the fuck up, he kept yelling stuff over and over in Spanish. My dad even laughed a few times because he said the boy was saying really odd things for a kid to say. After the mine tour was finished we pretty much just left, and on the way home stopped at this wine tasting place for my mom. Ah, my dear wine-loving mother.
Day 2: Monday So, we had spent Saturday & Sunday night with Phil and Louella, and they were wonderful hosts, but by Monday we were ready to go to our totally sweet hotel room at the Mariott. The only problem was that we couldn't check in until 3pm and we had plans to go to the beach that day. Fortunately my dad worked out that we would all go to the beach together and then halfway through he would meet Phil at the hotel and check all of our crap in. Dad actually played a prank on us at breakfast by telling Kendall and me that he got the worst car on the lot because he was so cheap. Well, we walked outside after packing up all of our stuff and were greeted with the lovely sight of a shiny red convertible mustang. Yes, I said mustang. The beach was absolutely gorgeous (albeit stocked with people) and I had a great time. I don't think I've been to the beach since we left Hawaii and that was when I was 7, so it's been a while. Kendall and I started off head first into the ocean, but dad was being a little baby because the water was freezing. I've always wondered why when ocean water is freezing ass cold you can still get used to it, but when pool water is freezing ass cold you never truly get used to it. Anywho, Kendall and I spent the bulk of our time trying to ride waves (without a boogie board mind you) and then convinced mom to go buy us some kiddie shovels so we could make sandcastles. Kendall also managed to convince me to scour the shallow ends of the water for shells, and at one point I scooped up a handful of sand complete with a mini white crab. We were beyond exhausted by the time we left the beach so as soon as we all got into the hotel we took turns hitting the shower. After we had a chance to relax and view the breakfast menu for the next morning we all decided it was time to go out for some yummy seafood dinner. For whatever reason we let my father convince us to walk to this little area of town known as Seaport Village (it has a bunch of cute beach themed shops and places to eat). He told us the place was only around five blocks away when in reality we walked nearly sixteen, that rat bastard. We ate at this little place called the Harbor House and let me tell you that was some fine ass seafood. On the way back we convinced dad to hail a taxi to take us home, especially since we were all kinda stuffed to the brim with food. On a sidenote, how lame is it that I was all excited to hail a taxi? XD Being the genius that I am I managed to convince mom and dad to go back out and have a drink at a local bar so Kendall and I could have some freaking privacy. We had a nice time, we watched TV in the room and ordered a hot fudge sundae, although would you believe that damn hotel doesn't make milkshakes? What kind of world is this?
Day 3: Tuesday The Mariott has some really comfortable beds, let me tell you. It was almost a shame to wake up the next morning, except that we had ordered some freaking awesome breakfast room service. We decided to go to the aquarium and I was super pumped because I really love marine life and aquariums are some of my favorite places to visit in a different city. I was severely let down, you would think that a city as big as San Diego, especially considering the size of their damn zoo, would have a stellar aquarium. This place was shit, they had like... trout and that was it. They had an assortment of tiny fish and like a couple of sea turtles sprinkled here and there, but it was probably the worst aquarium I'd ever been to. The good side though was that we got done super early so we had a chance to hit the enormous mall downtown. We ended up going to the movies while at the mall and saw The Dark Knight, which rocked except for Christian Bale's weird "hey guys I'm Batman but my voice is different and creepy" thing he did. Once again I convinced my parents to get the hell out of the hotel room and go drinking so Kendall and I could lounge around. We ordered dinner for ourselves from room service, but I paid instead of mom and dad because they had been nice enough to get us breakfast.
Day 4: Wednesday We had to get up a little bit earlier on Wednesday because again we had to pack our stuff so we could go back to Phil's. After checking out of the hotel and dropping our stuff off, we were headed to the zoo. I was really excited because I've only heard good things about the San Diego zoo and I really really really love zoos. I wasn't disappointed either, that place is fucking huge and has some really cool exhibits. Right off the bat we went on this little sky thing that takes you to the opposite side of the park so you can work your way back. I'm not sure how to better describe it though, it was a zoo, I'm sure you get the picture. Oh, but we did see the pandas that are on loan from China, and the baby one was asleep in the tree, it was SO adorable. We also stopped to see a sea lion show before we left and that was pretty cool too. We decided to go to the movies again and saw Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D. I have a feeling this movie would have sucked a little if it weren't in 3D, so I'd suggest only seeing it in that form. Can they make 3D movies for your home? That would be sweet. Afterwards we met up with Phil and Louella and this sushi joint and then went back to their house and watched The Messengers before crashing out. Did I mention they have like every movie channel imaginable? Seriously, think of a movie you want to watch and I bet you they had at least five channels playing it.
Day 5: Thursday ONCE AGAIN we woke up early to pack our stuff. This time we packed it all into Phil's car since the rental car was really tiny and we were going to do more sightseeing until our flight left. We went to the San Diego Natural History Museum and if you're ever in San Diego you should go because it was really fun and informative in a non boring way. It took us a minute to actually get in the place though, we had to wait for Kendall to make another one of her damn pennies. If you know what I'm talking about, it's those machines that when you put a penny and 50cents in them and turn the little knoby thing it'll press a design of the place that you're at into a penny. Stupid, right? Well Kendall has at least four different designs from all the places we went. Think about that. I think she spent like 20 bucks on those stupid things. While we were there we also saw this pretty awesome movie about the oceans all around the world and what sort of creatures inhabit those areas. We were there for quite a while, then dad dropped us off at the airport and we waited for him until he returned the rental car and met up with Phil. We ate at the airport and still had an hour to kill before our plane left, I think it left at like 3 or 5pm or something like that. We were in the air for around an hour and a half, or something, then landed in Albequrqe and had another two hours to kill before our next plane left. Mom and I amused ourselves by walking around and gawking at the ridiculous turqouise jewerly they had for sale in some of the little kiosks. We boarded our second plane, flew to El Paso, waited for the next flight to load, then finally arrive home in San Antonio at around 11:30pm. Needless to say I was a little depressed because it was a GREAT vacation and I have a feeling we might not go on one again for a while.
San Japan Weekend So August 8th thru 10th Derek and I went to an anime convetion here in San Antonio called San Japan. This was it's grand opening and for a first year convention it was surprisingly well put together and ran very smoothly. I'm not going to recount everything that happened because this is already an insanely long blog, but to make a long story short WE FUCKING WON BEST IN SHOW. Yes. Let me explain: every convention has a cosplay contest and should you dress up in costume (one that either you made yourself or someone made and gives you the okay to compete) you can enter the contest. They have two divisions: skits and walk-ons. Skits are just that: two minute skits. Walk-ons are like mini skits without scripted (or any) speech, you have 30 seconds to walk on and impress the judges. Apparently Derek and I impressed the shit out of them because even though we entered the novice category we were voted Best in Show. If you don't know what that means, it means you were the best overall. I really still can't believe it because there were some AWESOME costumes there, but from what the judges told us we won because our stage presence was good. You can judge for yourself because here's the video:
Click to view(we're at the six minute mark)
This is a better view of us, but the camera person only got Derek for the first few seconds XD
We also met these awesome cosplayers Alissa & Daniel (known as Shoeless) and they are really cool and I'm really glad we got to meet/know them over the weekend.
Okay, that's it for now. Sorry if it rambled on or didn't make sense at some points, but it is now 3:51am so... yeah. I'm about to turn 20 bitches.