Tall tails.

San Diego 2008...

Sunday, August 31, 2008, 12:04 AM

Downtown San Diego--view from Coronado Island

SD was amazing! We had SUCH a blast, seriously. I haven't had this much fun in a long while. I'm really glad we had such a good experience. We just got back about less than an hour ago (like 11:15pm). We just got back from my cousin's wedding @ Coronado Island (which is the island across from Downtown San Diego). It was a nice, pretty wedding. I'm pretty zonked out. But I wanna blog about our weekend! We took a bunch of pictures and videos that we'd like to share :D I think I'll just blog about each day separately..makes it easier for me to remember haha.

Thursday: San Diego Zoo

It literally took 2 bars of gas (in my Civic) for our drive from Torrance to San Diego. That's not a lot! That's not even 1/4. But yeah, it was a really short drive, I'd say about an hour and 45 mins or something like that. It didn'

t feel long at all, and I loved the fact that there was no traffic. Palmdale seems farther lol. Weather was kinda overcast at first, but the sun started to come out. It was perfect. The weather down there is like weather here in the South Bay--I loved it. We got to the zoo around 11am. I really don't remember any of it from when I was younger. It's surprising. But the experience was awesome. It got hard though when I started to feel really bad for a lot of the animals, especially the ones who we believe need a wholeeeeee lot more space to roam around. It's not fair! I just started to feel really really horrible. But what can we do? Eh. Well, the place definitely made us work out. It was some extreme exercise with all that uphill and downhill walking. It was killer. One of my favorite exhibits was seeing the meerkats. I honestly thought they were bigger in real life lol. I watch Meerkat Manor and I swear I thought they looked medium sized. LOL. And this one meerkat had such a character, everyone couldn't stop taking pictures of him. He kept posing! And he kept lying down like he was sun bathing n stuff. He even sat up, and his lil beer belly was just poppin' out. It was too freakin' cute. Urgh, the pics are on my other camera.

Another favorite was the giraffes. We got to feed them three biscuits. I tried petting them while I fed them, but they backed away whenever I attempted. I didn't wanna aggravate them, but they were so cute. And HUGE. God. I'm too short to even reach their mouths while they're already bent more than half way. They have to come alllll the way down to me, haha. That was fun. I TOOK PICTURES! But they're all on my other camera and the battery is dead. Damnit. I tried retrieving the pro pictures that they took and posted on amazingpictures.com, but for some reason the website is being BOOTLEG so i dunno. I guess I just gotta wait it out.

By 2 o'clock we were seriously burnt out. We didn't wanna take the buses because we wanted that full experience, and by this time we had walked EVERY WHERE. We didn't stop for food because we believe eating at theme parks is such a waste of money. They are way too overpriced. So by 2:30pm we had already arrived at our hotel. We checked in and got our room and relaxed for the rest of the day/night . Ordered some food and just watched tv. I wanted to go out, but I was too exhausted from barely getting any rest the night before. I was too busy packing / doing laundry / all that good stuff. So far Day 1 was pretty fun.

Friday: Sea World

I woke up at 8 something in the morning, and Mark woke up about half an hour later. The breakfast at the hotel had already ended, but we weren't hungry any way. We arrived at Sea World around 11am as well. I thought our Penguin Encounter tour was at 12:45, but it was really at 1:45 so we had some time to kill. We walked around, looked at the sharks and manatee. Poor manatees and their scars. They were rescued, and they barely had the rest of their tails left. We then headed over to see the sea lions and seals. They are SO FREAKING CUTE yet so unpredictable. We got to feed 'em! Here's a video of me feeding them:

Yay. After we washed off our hands (which smelled like fish for the rest of the entire day), we headed off to where our tour group was supposed to meet for the penguin tour. We just wanted to sit any way. My feet had blisters from the day before (damn hills), and they were killing me so I had to just rest for a little bit. I saw Gloria! Damn, I haven't seen that girl since we graduated

high school. So that was nice. There were about 3 couples and a family of 4 in our tour group. Our tour guide came along after 20 mins of waiting. He looked like a typical surfer dude that you would find working at Hollister (not to stereotype or anything, but it's true!). He was really nice though. The penguin tour was so fun. Our tour guide took us to the back where the zoo keepers work for the penguins. We met a We got to meet a macaroni penguin, and we all got to pet her. There's the area where the penguins stay and it's freeeezing cold in there. If you've ever been to Sea World, you'll know what I'm talking about. When you walk through for the p

enguin exhibit, you go through the moving walk way to see the penguins through the glass, etc etc. Well, another tour guide took us INTO that room, and omg we were freezing! It was so cool to see the penguins upclose though. The emperor penguins can grow up to 3 feet tall. They look so cute. Haha. But dang, that room was pretty damn freezing. I couldn't last in there another minute, haha. That was suuuuuper fun. If you haven't done the penguin tour, go do it! It's an hour long, and you get to learn stuff about penguins that you probably never knew. Plus, you get to meet them ;) Here are some more videos we took during the tour:

After the tour, we went to go see around. The dolphins didn't start their feeding until 4pm. We went on the Sky Ride (video below)--that ride was too freakin' fast. I thought it was gonna be slow like the ride is at the OC Fair, lol. Whatever.

Then we got to take a look at the otters.

We saw the star fish (or sea stars; Mark & I argue over the name. I call 'em sea stars!) We also got to pet some bat rays! They feel kinda funky and slimy, it was weird. haha. We went on the Shipwreck ride, and hoooooly shit we were soaked like nasty. This little boy on our raft kept yelling at Mark saying, "YOU ARE SOOOOO SOAKED! DUDE, YOU ARE SOAKED!!!!!!" hahaha. He was cute. But yeah. Definitely ruined my hair. haha. I hate how my hair breaks out and becomes alive after water touches it. It's nasty. We walked around to dry off. After an hour, our clothes started to get drier. We got to feed the dolphins! I thought we weren't gonna get to because the line was so damn long, but after my

potty break, we came out and saw the line got a lot shorter. Cool we got back on time. We didn't really get to watch any shows because we were so busy walking around looking at the exhibits and making sure we got to interact with as many animals as we could. It was really fun. We had dinner and headed home around 6pm. When we were exiting, I heard someone calling out my name. It was Sergeorge! HOW RANDOM IS THAT?! I see two people from h/s at Sea World on the same day, who would've thought. Haha. But yeah, we were definitely burnt out. No energy for Atlantis or Wild Arctic. We had an extremely fun day. We were so pooped that we stayed at our hotel room for the rest of the day. Had some Thai food (their Thai iced coffee is the BESTTTTTTT, hands down), and went to sleep.

Saturday: La Jolla, Coronado Island, Cousin's Wedding

We went to La Jolla. La Jo

lla is soo beautiful. Over there they have this area called "Children's Pool" where *in season* the seals will rest along the beach, and they would be lots of em. Children's Pool was originally built for the kids, but over time the seals began to use it as their resting place. But today the beach was open to the public. We did see a seal try and swim up to this one couple in the water. It was kinda cute, but I'd be kinda scared, haha. I looked to my right, and I saw a huge rock with seals and birds all over it. That beach was so gorgeous, I loved it. We took pictures and decided to walk around and look at the shops. None of t

he shops were that interesting since most of it was just a bunch of art shops selling paintings and what not. We just bought a smoothie and headed out. We drove to Coronado Island, which is an island across from Downtown San Diego. There's a bridge off the 5 that you'd take out to the island. The island is pretty small, but very pretty. We visited the Ferry Landing and we rented a surrey! You know, it's one of those 4 wheeler bike thingies, ahhaha. It was super fun (refer to the videos). But seriously, my ass hurts so much right now because I was struggling trying to reach the pedals. I am so freakin' short. I tried my best to not leave Mark hanging, doing all the work pedalling, ahha. We cruised around the shore/bike path and enjoyed the view and breeze. It was really relaxing. Very romantic. I loved it! I'd pick that over any thing like partying or clubbing ANY DAY. I love nature. I love the view of the ocean and cities. It's really nice. I know, Mark and I took a lot of videos, but we wanted to make sure we got some good memories to look back on. Here are a couple of video links of us while we were riding our surrey:

lol. that last video is such a typical conversation between me and Mark. Always yellin' at me, SHEESH!

After we visited the Ferry Landing, we headed to the Naval Base where my cousin was having his wedding. The naval base was like a little city with its own stores and dorms. It was kinda creepy seeing everyone in their uniforms all over the place. They have their own Mc Donald's and their own bowling alley. They even have "Mc Cain Avenue

" lol. LAME. But yeah. We weren't wearing our formal attire so we had to sneak around in the far back of the parking lot to change in the car. It was so windy, and the tissue for my present was getting all over the place, UGH! But yeah. We arrived at the ceremony on time. Everytime I go to a wedding, I always wanna cry. But I kept it in this time, haha. It was really nice. They've been together for 13 years. Yes, THIRTEEN YEARS...since high school. I was like, 8 when I first saw them together. It's crazy! So I'm glad they finally tied the knot. They're a really cute couple. The reception was pretty cool. Good food, yum. And the rest of the reception was pretty organized so it was all enjoyable. By 9pm, I was pretty burnt out so we headed out to go home. I have work so I wanted to get home to catch up on some rest especially from this exhausting weekend. I had a lot of fun. It was a really good experience, and I couldn't ask for anyone else to be with me but my Markie (: We had a blast. I also give credit to our TomTom because without it, we would've probably ended up by the border or something. Useful GPS! I can't wait to go back to San Diego. We have the 2nd visit free so I am DEFINITELY going to be a part of the Dolphin Interaction program OR the Wild Arctic Program so I can swim with the dolphins or the baluga whales! And then we are definitely gonna go kayaking at the 7 caves of La Jolla then snorkel with the leopard sharks. I love San Diego. I seriously miss it already. So time to save up again! Plus, I wanna make a trip to Hearst Castle. I really wanna check that place out. Sigh.

Now back to reality. Paramore is playing at the VMAs! I really wish I got to see their performance in Hollywood, but I doubt it (plus, I work my overnights on Sundays). I won't even get to watch it on TV since I'll be stuck @ work. And Mark's birthday is coming up! Along with my dad. So there goes a bunch of presents. haha. And planning! GAH! Well, I gotta get to folding the laundry I never finished before we left lol, and also unpacking all our bags and what not. And I work at 6pm tonight for my overnight. Thanks for reading this long ass blog, you guys!

BTW: More pictures can be viewed HERE ON MYSPACE. Sorry, only my added friends can view them. I had more pictures from the zoo, but it's all on my Sony Cybershot, and the battery died (and my charger's broken lol). So maybe I'll be able to upload those pictures soon? I really want to post 'em ASAP because Mark took the cutest picture with this little monkey (they posed the same pose together). SO CUTE. Plus the giraffes and the meerkats, gah. But yeah. BYE!