we weren't lost in the technical sense of the word...
so this weekend. saturday morning i got up early (after having only 4 hours of sleep thursday night and not too much more friday night with the rain and all) 'cause cookie2697 and i were gonna go to san diego. now the original original plan was to have gone to the grand canyon and left on thursday. it was probably better that i didn't end up missing those days, but that would have been fun. probably cold, but fun. so the current original plan was to get down there midday and go whale watching, and then to go to the wild animal park the next day. but then of course the aforementioned rain. which woke me up several times friday night it was so dang heavy. so it was nothing short of pouring saturday morning, but we decide to go anyway. we figured we aren't opposed to getting wet for the good of having fun, so we'd try to make it down to go whale watching. we left pretty much right when we wanted to (just before 10am, 3 and a half hours before the whale watching...), and had decided not to call and make reservations because who in their right mind would want to go whale watching today? well the drive was a bit of an adventure in itself. there were times it was raining so hard that you couldn't see through the drops, it didn't matter how well your windshield wipers were working. and then there were the times when the sun found a hole in the clouds but it was still pouring out so that you had heavy rain and bright sun reflecting off of everything. and then there were the places where the freeway is sloped so if you are in the left or right most lanes you have these huge puddles that were probably pretty dangerous. and then there was in general so much water on the road that it wasn't really draining. but we made it. saw several people who didn't have things quite so easy. there were five separate accidents in a row with emergency crews within something rididculous like a mile at one point in irvine. we made it to the harbor and had found parking just in time, only to find out that whale watching was sold out. you see, the rain had more or less stopped and there was actually significant blue sky by the time we got to san diego. and it wasn't that it hadn't been raining their either. so instead we took a harbor cruise where we got to learn about san diego and a lot of the old and current military ships that are docked there. those things are massive. it was really interesting, although i was definately done by the time the two hours were up. we then walked around, looked in some of the shops that are set up for the cruise ship passengers that stop there. then after a "3 block" walk that turned out to go through significant portions of not so populated portions of the down town ended up at tgi friday's for dinner 'cause we felt like being cheezy. but it tasted good, so that's the point, right? the biggest problem was that there was a cheerleading competition going on in the city. so there were about a million 7-12 year olds i'd say who were definately trying to look and act much older than that. damn were they annoying. and the party of 80 of them in the restaurant didn't help either. but anyway. we ate our dinner, made it back to the car, then made it to michelle's boyfriend's apartment where we stayed the night. fun, chill, nothing exciting.
so we get up today and it was raining again. it stopped after a while, but unlike saturday the sky didn't really start clearing. our initial plan then got modified to going to coronodo to check it out, then going to the balboa park/museum/zoo area to see what was there. we got kind of a later start than we meant to, but sleeping in a little was good. so we decided to go the southern route to coronodo, which is by going on the road that is on the little spit of land connecting it to the mainland. as we get off, we realize we are at exit 5, and realize we are darn close to the border. so we say what the hell, and drive down to mexico with the intention more or less of just driving over and driving back. well the driving over wasn't so hard, although the road splits pretty quickly in all sorts of directions, and we ended up on this senic drive road towards ensenada, which was not going to take us back to san diego. and at first there is no place to even pull off the road, let alone turn around and go back the other way. so we keep going. and eventually we find a place to turn around and head back. but then things aren't labeled so well. we start heading in the right direction, and then get stopped at a traffic light where this kid comes out and washes our windows even though i told him no and to go away. then of course he wanted money. as we made the turn when the light changed, i ended up in a lane too far to the left to get back to the road to san diego. which actually turned out to be ok because there were tons of cops blocking off the ramp and so all the people in those lanes were stuck. i don't know for how long, 'cause we kept going. i missed i think three turns that would have gotten us back, but did finally make one. so we got to go through some of the down town of tiajuana. and then eventually made it back to the border crossing road. which was packed with cars and people trying to sell all sorts of food and random crap. we had noticed right as we came over that the getting back was rather traffic-y and that it might not be as easy as we thought... it didn't actually end up being that difficult, although it was slow and i had to make sure not to hit any of the kids running between lanes asking for money. that was a little un-cool, but they are obviously out there all the time.
we eventually made it out, and made it over to coronodo, adding only about an hour and fifteen minutes or so to our initial trip... we found this cool little hole in the wall restaurant for lunch there. they serve breakfast too but unfortunately for me they had stopped that about an hour before we got there. i like breakfast. then we finished off the day as planned. although the spanish village artisan area closed at 4 (when we got there) and not 5 like we thought, so we didn't get to see much there. but we walked around, and there are some really cool replica buildings and gardens there, so that was neat. i think i saw a dead turtle. i have a picture of him too.
we left just after 5 to head back. the first 90+ miles of the drive were no problem. no rain, no traffic, and we made excellent time (it helps that i drive 80 miles an hour... come to think of it, i haven't driven on the freeway much recently. i guess i did coming home wednesday night, but i took the canyon into the valley. which i must say... mullholland and coldwater are so much fun to drive, as long as no one is riding your ass pressuring you to go faster. i got onto ventura that night and felt like i had just gotten off of a roller coaster. and i need to go up on mullholland in the daylight when i'm not driving so i can look around. there is such a view there...). but then just after disneyland things crapped up. and i was hitting 20 mph for short amounts of time when i was lucky. we took what milage wise was a long detour by cutting off at the 605, but except for this asshole that i kept ending up behind there was really no issue with the drive and we probably made it back in about the same amount of time and didn't have to worry about the stop and go shit.
so yeah, that's this weekend. i'm rather exhausted. luckily i told my boss i'm not coming in tomorrow. not that he will be there anyway. but i'm supposed to go help my grandmother with some stuff. although she doesn't want me there until noonish. which means i can sleep in. or rather, get up and have time to start studying for my midterm that is on wednesday. at least i already put together my discussion notes for tuesday...
so we get up today and it was raining again. it stopped after a while, but unlike saturday the sky didn't really start clearing. our initial plan then got modified to going to coronodo to check it out, then going to the balboa park/museum/zoo area to see what was there. we got kind of a later start than we meant to, but sleeping in a little was good. so we decided to go the southern route to coronodo, which is by going on the road that is on the little spit of land connecting it to the mainland. as we get off, we realize we are at exit 5, and realize we are darn close to the border. so we say what the hell, and drive down to mexico with the intention more or less of just driving over and driving back. well the driving over wasn't so hard, although the road splits pretty quickly in all sorts of directions, and we ended up on this senic drive road towards ensenada, which was not going to take us back to san diego. and at first there is no place to even pull off the road, let alone turn around and go back the other way. so we keep going. and eventually we find a place to turn around and head back. but then things aren't labeled so well. we start heading in the right direction, and then get stopped at a traffic light where this kid comes out and washes our windows even though i told him no and to go away. then of course he wanted money. as we made the turn when the light changed, i ended up in a lane too far to the left to get back to the road to san diego. which actually turned out to be ok because there were tons of cops blocking off the ramp and so all the people in those lanes were stuck. i don't know for how long, 'cause we kept going. i missed i think three turns that would have gotten us back, but did finally make one. so we got to go through some of the down town of tiajuana. and then eventually made it back to the border crossing road. which was packed with cars and people trying to sell all sorts of food and random crap. we had noticed right as we came over that the getting back was rather traffic-y and that it might not be as easy as we thought... it didn't actually end up being that difficult, although it was slow and i had to make sure not to hit any of the kids running between lanes asking for money. that was a little un-cool, but they are obviously out there all the time.
we eventually made it out, and made it over to coronodo, adding only about an hour and fifteen minutes or so to our initial trip... we found this cool little hole in the wall restaurant for lunch there. they serve breakfast too but unfortunately for me they had stopped that about an hour before we got there. i like breakfast. then we finished off the day as planned. although the spanish village artisan area closed at 4 (when we got there) and not 5 like we thought, so we didn't get to see much there. but we walked around, and there are some really cool replica buildings and gardens there, so that was neat. i think i saw a dead turtle. i have a picture of him too.
we left just after 5 to head back. the first 90+ miles of the drive were no problem. no rain, no traffic, and we made excellent time (it helps that i drive 80 miles an hour... come to think of it, i haven't driven on the freeway much recently. i guess i did coming home wednesday night, but i took the canyon into the valley. which i must say... mullholland and coldwater are so much fun to drive, as long as no one is riding your ass pressuring you to go faster. i got onto ventura that night and felt like i had just gotten off of a roller coaster. and i need to go up on mullholland in the daylight when i'm not driving so i can look around. there is such a view there...). but then just after disneyland things crapped up. and i was hitting 20 mph for short amounts of time when i was lucky. we took what milage wise was a long detour by cutting off at the 605, but except for this asshole that i kept ending up behind there was really no issue with the drive and we probably made it back in about the same amount of time and didn't have to worry about the stop and go shit.
so yeah, that's this weekend. i'm rather exhausted. luckily i told my boss i'm not coming in tomorrow. not that he will be there anyway. but i'm supposed to go help my grandmother with some stuff. although she doesn't want me there until noonish. which means i can sleep in. or rather, get up and have time to start studying for my midterm that is on wednesday. at least i already put together my discussion notes for tuesday...