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San Diego: Day 1

up hella early, because waking up at 5:30 am Central time messes you up when you move time zones. I looked out the window, I saw gray skies and lots of palm trees. I thought to myself, OH NO we don’t have the ocean view! I went back to bed and slept a bit more because I was so frustrated about not seeing the ocean. Later in the morning, around 7:00 or so John woke up as well. I told him about the lack of ocean, and he looked and told me, “No sweetheart, the ocean is gray because the sky is gray. It’s right there!” He pointed and there it was!! I had never seen something like that before in my whole entire life!! The Pacific Ocean! There it was! I don’t get to travel all that much, so it was so new to me! We talked a bit about what we would do today and John wanted to get some of his family things done that day. So, this day I would get to meet his family when his uncle called him later in the afternoon.

The day begun with showers, that walk-in shower was prettttyyyyy nice, it was hard to be upset about the lack of bath tub. We decided for breakfast we would go to his favorite bagel place he used to frequent when he lived there. We took the scenic route and followed all the beaches. Never in my life have I seen houses so close to the water before. It was so beautiful. I wished that I could live in a place near the beach. Eventually on the way to the bagel place there was construction, so we had to take a detour.  I honestly thought we were lost, yet John managed to find the way to Crown Point Coffee. It was a small place with patio seating. I grabbed a menu from the side of the wall and had a look. The menu references were all music references. There was the “Touch Me I’m Sick” “The Elvis” “The Priscilla” John got the Elvis bagel and I got the Priscilla, of course, a couple’s breakfast but unintentionally. I also got a delicious smoothie that was named after something sunshine related. John got a London Fog because he had been craving it ever since the Tokyo Fog at Cafe Martinez. When we paid the guy behind the counter had a nerd conversation about Overwatch with John, and I took a sample of a bee pollen smoothie and tried to speak above them.

After breakfast, we went to the Walgreens, where I had purchased some eye drops earlier in the morning for eye allergy relief, for someplace to park. We walked all the way to the pier. I remember being a little nervous at first because of the creaky wooden boards. But there were little small houses? huts? apartments? cabins? that people were temporarily living in on this pier. We went out a bit further and the ocean was so beautiful. It was bright and blue. The waves were big and even at 10AM in the middle of the week there were surfers riding the waves. I got a picture of Tofu-Chan on the pier. I also caught a Pokémon on Pokémon Go in the middle of the ocean. I took pictures of the big endless ocean because I have never seen that side of the world before. I was as happy as could be to share that experience with John. I was happy until he pointed out the fact that the waves were making the pier shake a bit. Then I got a little dizzy and had to throw away my smoothie leftovers. We stayed on the pier and watched the surfers and the birds in the ocean. We left the pier and walked above the shore, as neither of us had on good sand shoes. We picked a bench and sat for a little while breathing in the air that smelled lightly of honeysuckle. We decided our next adventure for the day was to make our way to Kearny Mesa to go to Book Off and see all the Japanese shops in the area. I was so excited.

Just driving in San Diego was fun for me, I got to see so many things I have never seen before and John would point out where he lived and what happened at one place or if he would take walks down a certain road. It was so adorable. Eventually we got to the store and in we went to Book Off. I was so excited! There was an entire section of books that were completely in Japanese and I wanted so badly to be able read them all. I picked up a set of the second volume of Genki as well as The Lion King and a potty book, all in Japanese. I almost got a few cookbooks… Almost, if I could read them I would have done it. At the checkout, I told the cashier that I came all the way from Texas to buy study material because I’m learning Japanese. She told me that I must visit her home country, and I promised her I would. John’s sister Lisa met up with us at the store because we were all meeting for lunch before visiting their grandmother. After the bookstore, we went to Mitsuwa, the Japanese grocery store that was next door. It was big, about the size of a non-Plus HEB. I made my way to the snacks and there I found, Saku Saku Pandas!!! I have been searching for over a year for these guys. I bought all but two of the bags… I also found a hello kitty rice mold, some tea, and kawaii snacks that I had to have. John was so excited about the curry place in the store, but when we asked the cook he told us that beef broth was used to cook the curry. I was so sad because I knew he was looking forward to eating at that place. We went to another place in the same center and the curry was not even all that good. It was so bland I could barely even finish it. I had dessert also and even that was not that good. I was so sad, but that was okay because I knew it would be a great day anyway! After lunch we went across the lunch traffic to another store that had a Sanrio sign up front. Once inside, I felt so mislead as there were no Sanrio things in sight. There were cute things like figures and stuff, at first I didn’t see much that interested me. While John went outside to talk to his uncle on the phone, I saw the Sanrio section at last and some other cute things! There were tiny fat charm animals. I got a few for some friends. I was so distracted by the cute things, that I got lost from John and his sister! At first, I didn’t worry but then I did that anxious nervous thing and started to wonder around aimlessly until I eventually saw them. John spoke to his uncle and after purchasing my small gifts for everyone, off we were to his grandmother’s house.

I decided to get a Saku Saku Panda but it was chocolate soup already! That was okay though, it still tasted good at least. Up the hills we went to John’s grandmother’s house. We went up and up and up on the hill. His grandmother’s house was very beautiful. The rug was perfectly white and it looked like a very homey place. John told me that he had so many memories in that house, like sitting on a certain chair or laying on the floor. We sat and talked to his uncle for a while, that’s where I learned where John gets his sarcasm from! They all talked about Dunkin Donuts and why there’s no IKEA in San Antonio. Eventually his grandma woke up and we got to go in the room and sit with her. But the funny thing is, as soon as we walk into the room there is a real graphic sex scene happening on the TV. She was watching The Tudors, about King Henry VIII. So, we all sat there watching this crazy show with his Grandma. I was introduced and she asked me how I was liking California, I told her I loved it and I didn’t want to go back home to Texas! I showed her Tofu-Chan and about how John took him all the way to Japan and back and now he was in California! After a while of watching the show his grandma said something sassy about their sex lives, I chuckled but no one else said anything! She looked at me and smiled but continued to watch TV. Eventually, John’s sister said goodbye but we stayed a little while longer and I sat closer to him on the sofa where he was sitting next to her. I noticed on the bookshelf was a book of the art from Spirited Away and I thought it was super cool! Eventually, we also left and on our way, out we didn’t see his uncle so we stepped out and saw he was talking to his sister. They all had this word fight teasing him about shoes and buying me things but I didn’t understand what was going on, it was almost like there were words in between the lines, but I just couldn’t read them… John took the scenic route down the hill and he took me to see Mt. Soledad. He said it was the most beautiful view in all of San Diego, and boy he wasn’t kidding. You could see miles and miles away all around us. It was gorgeous. There was the big cross on top of the hill. I felt I could barely lift my head high enough to see it all. There were quite a few other people standing up there. And I felt like the happiest girl alive up on top of the world with the man I love most. We noticed two big tour busses come and drop some people off and we decided to head down, again taking the nice scenic route.

Back to our hotel we went, to put our things away and decide on dinner. He wanted to watch the sunset that night, I don’t remember what the dilemma was. I remember he wanted to watch the sunset on the beach but I’m not sure if we just weren’t prepared to do that, that night or if there was a conflict with dinner. We ended up deciding on having dinner at the top floor of the hotel where there was a view that looked over the ocean. And we got to see that! We went all the way up the top floor and we had ourselves some real nice food at a restaurant with an open kitchen. I had an orange arugula salad and a margherita flatbread. It was all so delicious. Then we both had dessert and I had one drink that I took all night to finish. But we got to see the sunset completely over the ocean and it was so beautiful. John pointed out that we were the youngest couple in the whole restaurant, and aside from families with kids, we WERE the youngest ones in the restaurant. I had never had such an experience! The food was so delicious. My salad was perfect with arugula, parmesan, oranges and a balsamic vinaigrette. It was amazing. The only thing that could have made it any better would have been blood oranges. The crust on the flatbread was so buttery and the cheese was perfect. For desert, I had a “Deconstructed Pavlova” All I saw was the custard and berries. I remember thinking “WHERE IS THE PAVLOVA?!” But when I bit into it… my god there it was. It was soooooo goooooood. By the time dinner was over, the sun had finally set. We saw the guy downstairs light the torches in the driveway at the bottom of the hotel, we saw the sun set. And down we went back to our room. We laid down for the rest of the night watching Chopped on The Food Network. Don’t ask me how I can stuff my face and then watch food on TV. That’s another story to tell.

[vagabondwithflowers-blog]

San Diego: Arrival

We had no trouble at all getting to the airport. We got to the airport early enough for the flight but too late for his roommate to avoid rush hour traffic while dropping us off. 

I was so excited to get out of Texas, my allergies were through the roof and I just wanted some relief! I remember being on the flight from San Antonio to Houston, where our layover was and looking out into the sky.  The clouds were so beautiful I thought it would be such a cool idea to have a world in the clouds. I remember arriving at the airport in Houston and realizing that a 40 minute layover was not enough time to get to one end of the airport to the other. John and I ran as fast as we could, me in my little pink sandals, and him tugging on me to go as fast as my little legs could take me. I remember thinking to myself, “If I would have known I was going to have to run today I would have worn a better pair of shoes.” I had packed six pairs for our trip! We got to our gate JUST as they were boarding the first group, we were group three and we had perfect timing! Also I got two compliments on my little pink sandals ;)  I suffered on the second flight with allergies. My eyes were so itchy the entire plane ride. I listened to Magic Power by Triumph just to force tears because I thought it would make me feel better. That song is my dad’s song to me, it means a lot to me.  When we finally arrived in San Diego we didn’t have to rush through the airport, we took our time. Everything was closed because it was already so late. There was a cute pink bakery kiosk that I made a mental note to come back to when we left home.

Our next tasks were baggage claim, easy look for the “bright ass pink” as John would say. Then the rental car, which was an experience all on its own. We took a bus shuttle just to get to the rental place. A man kindly took our luggage and quickly through it onto the luggage holder in the bus. Then we were off to the rental megaplex, as I call it.  We found the yellow hertz sign right away. The place was bumping with a big group of teenage(?) boys that reeked, luckily they were all in the wrong place and left. We were next in line and after the guy tried to upsell everything he could, he finally let us know that we were to go out into the garage and pick ourselves out a compact and the keys were on the dash. While heading to the garage I found a bunch of touristy brochures, even one in Japanese! John found a couple of coupons to the San Diego Zoo that we intended to use later in the week.  We got to the garage and it was HUGE!!! In case you don’t remember what it looked like, imagine a parking garage, times three and you can choose any car as long as it’s within the brand and style you rented. We got ourselves a dark gray Hyundai Accent hatchback because a Toyota Yaris could not fit my luggage in the trunk and was a bit banged up. Two bottles of water came with the car which came in handy later.

John pointed out everything there was to barely see at night time driving into La Jolla. When we entered there was a tall building, the first thing you see. Little did we know, that was actually our hotel. He was following the GPS and when we turned in all I saw was flames lining the driveway and I thought to myself, “We must be in the wrong place. This is way too fancy for me” But I remembered my dad’s words, “Make yourself belong there.” But here we were, Hotel La Jolla, Curio Collection by Hilton. A valet boy opened the door and I guess we were in the right place! Out came the big pink suitcase and blue duffel bag and we went to check in. Valet was $35 a night and WiFi was $12 a night so you know it was a ritzy place. The night audit clerk assured us we had an ocean view. I was so excited.  Up we went to the hotel room on the 6th floor. Room 601. It was all the way at the end of the hall and in it’s own little private walkway with room number 600 as well but I don’t believe anyone was staying there while we were. The room was gorgeous. A dim lit cozy room, a nice balcony though hard to see at night. BUT NO BATH TUB!!!! Only a glass walk in shower but NO TUB! I brought my bath bombs for nothin’!  We chilled out for a little while but went to bed not too long after, all the travel really wore us out.

[vagabondwithflowers-blog]

Blog Post number 1

I was told by the lovely man in my life to keep a journal about the travels that we have just completed to San Diego California. I am a San Antonio native. I was born and raised in this city and I don’t get out much. I thought of keeping a really cute diary but this is the twenty first century and typing is a lot faster than writing. And I might be able to get it all typed out faster and stuff. So here goes nothin’