Murphy's law

Yesterday since I moved to San Diego in April, we had the first 'heavy' rain.
The local TV & radio news alerted drivers to be careful since San Diegans are bad at driving in rain. In the evening news, they reported car accidents occurred owing to the rain, and it reminded me of the news after heavy snow accumulated in Tokyo.

I felt a little guilty, for I wanted to water my plants and came up with the idea that if I washed my car for the first time since I lived here, it would rain and rain would help me watering my plants, and I washed my car on the weekend :(

Saguaro National Park in Arizona

As it's getting near to Thanksgiving, the frequency that people, even store cashiers, ask me about my plan for Thanksgiving was getting higher. I felt as if I had to do something special in addition to the holiday shopping. That's not the only reason, but on the spur of the moment, my partner and I decided to visit the Saguaro National Park in Arizona where the Saguaro cactus is growing concentratedly.

We hit the road at 5am on the very Thanksgiving day. Seven-hour driving on the way to the park was not bad because we came across the stunning sunrise which was the best I've ever seen in my entire life.

The Saguaro National Park is located near Tucson, Arizona and it consists of two areas, Saguaro West and Saguaro East. Both of them are approx. 30 min from the center of Tucson, and also from our hotel - we booked a room at Sheraton the day before the departure and there seemed to be some empty rooms. This may not be a popular place to go during Thanks giving holiday -

On the first day, we visited the East park. The first thing we usually do at the national parks is to drop by the visitor center and ask park rangers of the best place to have lunch and the best trail we stroll. However, once looking at the park map, we realized there is nothing to ask. Cactus Forest Drive in East park is the only loop path we can drive, and it's about 1 and a half hours course. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves watching Cactus and even taking a nap for a short while.

The next day, after exploring a shopping mall to see Arizonian people striving to holiday shop and to look for bargains for ourselves, we visited West Park. Although the area of the West park is less than half of the East, there were many things to see including Desert Museum which is famed for its massive live exhibition. With its uneven landform around the West park, the spectacular cactus fields overwhelmed us. I will undoubtedly recommend the West park if some of my friends go there without enough time to spend and have to choose one.

We stayed there until sunset. Again, it's the best sunset I've even seen!!! Though it's almost the end of November and the beginning of winter, it was just like a perfect paradise-like summer weather in San Diego.

Splashy cars

Here in the U.S., it's not unusual for people to put some messages on their car. Someone who wants to sell his car puts a 'FOR SALE' sign or directly scrawls the message with his phone number on the window. In my neighborhood, there are constantly more than 5 cars parked with 'ON SALE' sign on it, and most of these cars are still being used by the owners.
Also, the license plate is the other way of conveying messages. The popular type of license plate includes a heart-shaped or a star-shaped, or even a baby hand's-shaped symbol with a loved one's name or initials.
Yesterday, while driving in a mall parking lot, I ran across a parked car with a message saying "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!" on its backside window.
It's cute and ostentatious, and I couldn't help taking a photo.
If the owner was there, I would have said to her "Good job and happy birthday!!"

Click

Adam Sandler is one of my favorite actors. In addition to being a comedian, he is also a singer, a writer and a movie director. I enjoyed 'Wedding Singer' and '50 First Dates' which Drew Barrymore added value to, but all his films are worthwhile and it's difficult to decide which one is the best.

This time, I rented a DVD of his latest movie called 'Click' which was displayed in front of the store all around the register counters conspicuously. My partner watched it on a plane and thought it's the kind of movies I would enjoy watching, so he recommended it too. He is fond of foul language but not in a strong level, and I am fond of uncomplicated comedy movies, and we both love Adam's smart sense of humor.

Here it's a brief.
Michael Newman, played by Adam, has a beautiful wife and two kids. He works hard as an architect and neglects his family. One day, he happened to obtain a remote controller with which everything can be controlled. He started using it and getting the hang of fast-forwarding the annoying part from his life. As he uses it, his life turns to be harsh to him.

After watching the entire movie, I reflected my behavior and somehow regretted just like Adam did in the story. I felt like being grateful to everybody around me.
It's teaching us "family comes first".

Thanksgiving is just around the corner

My parents are back in Japan , and now, my life came back to normal.

It's holiday season here. I don't know for sure the exact period of the 'season', but it seemed to be considered to begin with Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday of November) and end with New Year's day.
Shops and supermarkets exhilarate us with their decoration for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and TV and radio programs spur us to put in a merry mood. People talk about how they're gonna spend their 4-day Thanksgiving weekend, and it encourages us to make a plan too. We haven't decided it yet, but got some ideas ;)

10th day - Departure

My parents left SD for Japan today early morning, and this time, didn't miss their flight at LA. Overall, their first trip to San Diego seemed to be impeccable!

For my dad, the community pool & Jacuzzi was the best thing here. For my mom, everything was new and curious, so it was hard to tell what's the best thing, but I know the worst thing for her was my poor driving skill which came near to having an accident.

At any rate, I'm happy that they enjoyed a lot :)

9th day - Balboa Park

Having a curious mom is sometimes hard to handle with. She bought a cactus pear, a few apples, a box of cheese cake and a big ice cream cup at Albertsons just to try or get to know the difference between the American's and Japanese ones. However, since we ate out all the time, all these consequently remained in my refrigerator. Take it upon yourself, mother!

On their last day, we visited Balboa Park in downtown. This park holds 15 museums and San diego Zoo. While my parents were spending time in San Diego Museum of Art, I was relaxing on a bench reading a book since I visited there 3 weeks ago.

Swanky paella at The Prado restaurant in Balboa Park

8th day - Fashion Valley

My mom and I gave my dad one day off. His hobby is 'GO' which is Japanese board game of territorial possession and capture according to Oxford English-English dictionary.
During his stay in San Diego, he was bursting to fight GO, so my partner prepared a GO room for him to play 'GO' game on PS2.

His day started with a cup of coffee at Peet's coffee, swimming in a pool as usual, reading GO magazine at a pool-side table, and then had lunch at Pickup stix (everywhere is within 1 min on foot). After lunch, he came back home, took a nap and played GO. Perfect vacation!

While he was indulging himself, my mom and I went to Fashion Valley mall for shopping. She needed to buy something for my sister and brother in-law.
We bought some clothes at Abercrombie & Fitch. This is very popular even in Japan. Japanese people who started living here go there first and then notice the fact that the most Japanese have similar clothes from this shop. But we still bought some and I believe it should be no problem as souvenirs.

The photo is our lunch at UNO Chicago Grill. My mom said she wanted to eat something like American food, and again, she couldn't stop laughing at the big size of plate of salad.

7th day - Wild Animal Park

Whenever I go to a zoo, I feel sorry for animals. They have to behave in front of human beings (which is slightly different kind of animal) without escaping out of cage, they have to show any kind of idiosyncrasy and they need to answer a call of nature in front of gallery.
Wild Animal Park is a little different type of zoo. Their purpose is to protect wild animals and they have enough land to rear animals. Animals can move all over the place and it should ease animal's stress. (Some animals such as gorilla, lion are being kept in limited small spaces, though)
The railway called 'Wgasa Bush Line Railway' is going around the park and we can take it to see the animals. It's about 60-min. course and a guide explains the animals' nature and so on.

There's no end to what we want, but I wanted to see animals up close. The park provides a special tour which allows you to go closer to animals, but it costs $130 additionally and I gave it up this time :(

6th day - Free time & Carlsbad outlet mall

Attending a tennis class Saturday morning, I decided to leave my parents alone. My dad's morning routine is to have a cup of coffee at nearby Peet's coffee and to go to a pool in our community. He looked happier when he was swimming in a pool than doing anything else.

My mom likes to take a walk around my house seeing plants and flowers. She poured water with watering pot over plants around my townhouse (but still common area). It's not required actually because controlled sprinklers water periodically. Everybody knows it, so my neighborhood must have wondered at her behavior　＾＾; 　Anyway, they seemed to have enjoyed their free time!

In the afternoon, I took them to the outlet mall in Carlsbad for shopping, then to Costco to show them how everything is big, and also to buy some chocolate box. A little bird told me that the chocolate from Costco is delectable plarine just like Belgian chocolate. It was not a very delicate flavor, but pretty good for the price :)
One of the food I wanted my parents to try was Vietnamese. They can eat it in Japan of course, but it's different. The restaurant in Japan is neat and the customers are Japanese. Here it's more like the restaurant in Vietnam. Vietnamese waiters serve dishes with plenty of fresh leaves and most of the customers are Vietnamese family. We can feel authentic Vietnam.

5th day - Joshua Tree National Park & Palm Springs

Most of the seeing spots we visited were 15 to 30 min. away from my house, and today, we extended our trip to Joshua Tree National Park. It lies 140 miles east of Los Angeles and 175 miles northeast of San Diego. It took 3 hours driving from SD.
I've read somewhere, maybe on the internet, that once we stepped into this park, we would feel as if we were on another planet. And it was true. It seemed that dinosaurs were about to appear from the behind of rocks.

BTW, can you see a person standing on the top of the rock in above photo? With plenty of not-too-high rocks, this park seemed to be a paradise for rock climbers.

What mesmerized me was the concentrated area of beautiful cactus called 'Cholla Cactus Garden'. It was so cute that I couldn't stop taking pictures. However, when my partner came close to the cactus, he got into hot water. A small piece of cactus was folded down and clung to his right knee. The harder I tried to pull it away, the more it's stuck. We struggled to remove it from his knee at the front of the sign showing "Cactus is hazardous! Keep away from them!"

4th day - Old Town, Coronado, Point Loma

Old Town is the place Spanish first settled in California in 1769. 'The Old Town State Park' was established here and the heritage is being preserved. There are some historic buildings, museums, Mexican restaurants, souvenir shops. Since we visited there in early morning, the park was peace and quiet. Unfortunately, we didn't come across Mariachi guys. Only a few elementary students were visiting there for a field trip.

Next place we visited was Coronado island in San Diego bay. There is an old luxury 'Hotel del Coronado'. It's set in famous movies, and notable guests such as actors and presidents stayed there. The hotel is facing the Pacific Ocean and the Coronado beach is stretched just in front of the hotel. I wish to stay this hotel in the future without worrying about any costs ^^;

Lastly, we drove to Point Loma which is a head of a peninsula. Spanish explorer, Juan Cabrillo arrived here in 1542 when he first came to California. There is his statue overlooking San Diego bay, and on the top of the hill, a lighthouse is being preserved. It was actually used in old days.
From Point Loma, we could see almost 360°of ocean. It's too beautiful for words in the twilight.
We stayed there until sunset, and when driving back home, we got lost in darkness. Being at a loss somewhere on I-5 or I-8 (freeway), I was almost crying....
But other than that, it was a perfect day for tourists.

3rd day - Del Mar vs La Jolla

<***** Del Mar -------------------------------- La Jolla *****>>

We started our tour from 'Del Mar' & 'La Jolla' today. Both Del Mar/La Jolla are names of a city respectively and located next to San Diego along the Western coastline. Both has its ravishing beaches and sophisticated restaurants and cafes. It's hard for me to choose which is more beautiful, but for my parents, La Jolla seemed to have lead because of the seals lying about. Moreover, one of my mom's hobby is painting and the galleries in La Jolla were beckoning her. Any guide books introduce La Jolla but no mention on Del Mar. Therefore, you will see less tourists in Del Mar.

We had lunch at my favorite place, George's at the Cove (Be careful! This page comes with music) .
My mom couldn't stop laughing looking at a big plate of salad she ordered. Blood will tell.