In March this year I had a fabulous 3 day trip to San Diego. I was visiting my sister, and decided to make the trip by myself rather than with family as we usually do, so we could get some quality 1-1 sister time before her long summer travel to England and other places for a string of conferences. It was completely worth it! It was like years back- just the two of us. And the three days were packed with a lot of fun things- going around places, sitting in cafes at the university and working together, and attending some concerts. I have been to San Diego, and the university before when my sister just joined university, but I hadn't got to spend much time during the last visit. So I was all set to make up for it this time!
It was my first time away from my son, so I was nervous about it, but the boy was an angel, and didn't particularly give his dad a hard time. And thanks to the husband for agreeing to manage the little one for that period. It wouldn't have been possible otherwise!
The trip was really fun. I left on a Wednesday afternoon and worked from there for the next two days. I am glad my current job gives me that flexibility! During the four nights I was there, I stayed with my sister in her 400 sq ft student housing, got a glimpse into student life from her and her roommate, which was especially a nice feeling as it took me back in time to my student days!
On the first day, after working from home for half a day, we went to the university campus. UC San Diego is located in La Jolla, a very beautiful little town that has an extraordinary beach. The campus is a nice large, sprawling one with a lot of eucalyptus trees, and a very strong smell of manure. :-) On the first day I worked from the library in the afternoon. After that, my sister showed me around her department building. We generally walked around campus, which was nice. Here is some of the graffiti on the walls of the stairwell in the Philosophy department.
We then walked around campus a little and had lunch at a different restaurant on campus. The sandwich was quite awesome. We sat very close to this statue. This is supposed to be the UC San Diego mascot. My sister said that they're embarrassed about it. All I could say was "Dude, I understand!"
When we were returning from lunch he had a Red Bull on him. Unfortunately I missed taking a picture.
After finishing up our work for the day, we went to the La Jolla beach in the evening with a very nice friend of my sister's. It was a beautiful evening and we were happy to catch the sunset while we were there. La Jolla beach, as I said earlier, is simply lovely. You get to see a lot of seals there too. Reminded me of the Sea Lion Caves in Florence, Oregon. This place was even prettier as it was all out in the open. We walked around the beach and then had some amazing Italian dinner at a nice restaurant right across from the beach.
A nice view of the beach
Not sure what sea creatures these are. There were a lot of these all over the sand.
And, more beach pictures-
Early that morning there was a kids' performance which my sister had to attend since her student was to be singing in that group. We woke up quite early that morning and went to the show. I had really not expected much since she'd told me it was a kids' performance, but I must say, it was quite stellar. Well technically, it was a mix of adults and kids but the group size was huge and yet, they were in perfect pitch, perfect harmony and the Gamakams had crystal clarity despite the huge group size.
My favorite piece was Maestro Lalgudi's composition, the Thillana in Raaga Maand. It still rings in my ears! This is the composition for anyone interested-
After the show, my sister had some work to finish up, so we sat at a coffee shop and did some work for about a couple of hours before heading to the city. :-)
Then we drove to Balboa Park. Though the last two days had been kinda cold, that afternoon the temperature had gone up. We were driving in the hot sun for a long time, since the traffic getting into Balboa Park was awful that day. But once there, we had a great time, so I'm not going to complain too much.
Balboa Park is a beautiful park in San Diego city. It's got a very Spanish feel. It has beautiful botanical gardens, ponds, a Spanish Village kind of area with art stores, a hotel and restaurant, and an IMAX theater. There's also an huge organ but it wasn't playing at the time we went.
I had a wonderful time walking around the park. The botanical gardens are beautiful.
The orchids, of which there were so many different varieties, were exceptional.It inspired me to buy another orchid plant although I have killed two in the past. Somehow I find orchid plants so difficult to keep. Is it just me? They seem so finicky. Elusive beauties!
There were some carnivorous plants in the botanical garden too! Apparently they are native to South East Asia. They grow in places that are so starved for nutrition that they have to consume insects and other stuff. The acid these plants release can actually burn you if you touch them-
And not sure if you can read this, but the sign that hangs says something like "Do not touch. Violators will be fed to the plants!" Reminded me of Life of Pi!
We then walked back out through the Spanish village. It had been a day well spent!
And I cannot wrap up without telling you this- the next time you're in San Diego, do not miss the local 'Chuao' brand of chocolates. Oh my god! Even thinking about them makes me swoon. This nutty dark chocolate one was vegan too, and so so so wholesome and delicious! I'd kill to have it right now! I got a whole bunch of these back home too. I bought them from the UC San Diego bookstore, but you get them in other places as well. I saw a Chuao store in the UTC mall in La Jolla.
Like all good things, the visit had to come to an end. I flew back home the next day. I had missed my son even through all of the fun. Once I got back home he had an expression of extreme happiness, so much so that it was muted with surprise and he just froze where he was standing. Then after a couple of seconds he came to me running and gave me a hug. :-)
It was my first time away from my son, so I was nervous about it, but the boy was an angel, and didn't particularly give his dad a hard time. And thanks to the husband for agreeing to manage the little one for that period. It wouldn't have been possible otherwise!
The trip was really fun. I left on a Wednesday afternoon and worked from there for the next two days. I am glad my current job gives me that flexibility! During the four nights I was there, I stayed with my sister in her 400 sq ft student housing, got a glimpse into student life from her and her roommate, which was especially a nice feeling as it took me back in time to my student days!
Day 1
By the time we got out of campus it was time to go to a concert by Malladi Brothers. I had not heard them live until then, so I was looking forward to it. Needless to say their voices were perfectly pitched and synchronized and their delivery was flawless. The only gripe we had was of their choice of raagas, in which there was not enough variety.
The concert ended in the night, so we just had dinner and then went to bed after that.
Day 2
The next day, we left together earlier in the day and worked out of a cafe on campus. My sister had some exams to grade and I had my work to do. I also had a good time shopping at the university bookstore. I didn't know this earlier, but apparently the famous Dr Seuss is from La Jolla. He and his wife have even made generous donations to the university. The university bookstore has a lot of sections named after him and a ton of souvenirs with characters from Dr Seuss' books, etc. My son loves The Cat in the Hat, so I got him a cat-in-the-hat hand puppet, and also shopped for other things for my boys who had so graciously stayed back and let me make the trip. :-)
We then walked around campus a little and had lunch at a different restaurant on campus. The sandwich was quite awesome. We sat very close to this statue. This is supposed to be the UC San Diego mascot. My sister said that they're embarrassed about it. All I could say was "Dude, I understand!"
When we were returning from lunch he had a Red Bull on him. Unfortunately I missed taking a picture.
After finishing up our work for the day, we went to the La Jolla beach in the evening with a very nice friend of my sister's. It was a beautiful evening and we were happy to catch the sunset while we were there. La Jolla beach, as I said earlier, is simply lovely. You get to see a lot of seals there too. Reminded me of the Sea Lion Caves in Florence, Oregon. This place was even prettier as it was all out in the open. We walked around the beach and then had some amazing Italian dinner at a nice restaurant right across from the beach.
A nice view of the beach
Not sure what sea creatures these are. There were a lot of these all over the sand.
And, more beach pictures-
This one is special- captures water, rocks, seals and flowers!
After dinner, we headed to the concert for the evening. It was supposed to be a Jugalbandi between Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty and Dr. Balamuralikrishna. The latter couldn't make it though, but I was kinda happy about that. :-) The concert was good, but somehow I felt that I didn't get enough juice out of it. One of Pandit ji's students sang with him and he was amazing. It's always nice when you see singers let their accompanying students explore and improvise in concerts.
The concert had started late, so it was quite late by the time it got over. I was really exhausted that day, so went home and crashed, looking forward to going around San Diego city the next day.
Day 3
This was the last day of the trip as I was going to leave early morning the next day. The agenda for the day was to visit San Diego city and go around, importantly to visit Balboa Park.
Early that morning there was a kids' performance which my sister had to attend since her student was to be singing in that group. We woke up quite early that morning and went to the show. I had really not expected much since she'd told me it was a kids' performance, but I must say, it was quite stellar. Well technically, it was a mix of adults and kids but the group size was huge and yet, they were in perfect pitch, perfect harmony and the Gamakams had crystal clarity despite the huge group size.My favorite piece was Maestro Lalgudi's composition, the Thillana in Raaga Maand. It still rings in my ears! This is the composition for anyone interested-
After the show, my sister had some work to finish up, so we sat at a coffee shop and did some work for about a couple of hours before heading to the city. :-)
Then we drove to Balboa Park. Though the last two days had been kinda cold, that afternoon the temperature had gone up. We were driving in the hot sun for a long time, since the traffic getting into Balboa Park was awful that day. But once there, we had a great time, so I'm not going to complain too much.
Balboa Park is a beautiful park in San Diego city. It's got a very Spanish feel. It has beautiful botanical gardens, ponds, a Spanish Village kind of area with art stores, a hotel and restaurant, and an IMAX theater. There's also an huge organ but it wasn't playing at the time we went.
I had a wonderful time walking around the park. The botanical gardens are beautiful.
The orchids, of which there were so many different varieties, were exceptional.It inspired me to buy another orchid plant although I have killed two in the past. Somehow I find orchid plants so difficult to keep. Is it just me? They seem so finicky. Elusive beauties!
There were some carnivorous plants in the botanical garden too! Apparently they are native to South East Asia. They grow in places that are so starved for nutrition that they have to consume insects and other stuff. The acid these plants release can actually burn you if you touch them-
And not sure if you can read this, but the sign that hangs says something like "Do not touch. Violators will be fed to the plants!" Reminded me of Life of Pi!
Here's a picture of some fish in the pond outside the botanical garden-
We then had a nice lunch at the restaurant inside the park, and then continued the walk around the park. We decided to watch a movie at the IMAX. Unfortunately the only show that would work for us timing wise was one about butterfly migration. Neither of us was as interested in it as the one about polar wildlife. But we saw it anyway. It was alright. It was about this scientist couple, I must say quite eccentric (they fall in love because of their common love for and curiosity about butterflies), who put labels on monarch butterflies and had hundreds of thousands of interested people around the American continent volunteer to track their migration. The butterflies would migrate from the Texas heat in the summers, go all the way up north to Canada, and then migrate back south again, giving birth to new generations on the way. Their challenge is to escape the most disastrous weather conditions and find a safe place to lay their eggs. The newborns then continue the same migration pattern. Anyway, once they migrate south from Canada again, the scientists couldn't track them easily as they seemed to disappear mysteriously. Years and years later a young couple spot a whole bunch of butterflies almost huddled in a forest on top of a mountain in Mexico. Hoards and hoards of them are all there in one place, almost piled on each other so it looks like a huge leaf or something.
It is in a way fascinating but the film was overdramatized and some parts of the photography/videography looked artificial. We got out going "Meh".
We then walked back out through the Spanish village. It had been a day well spent!
And I cannot wrap up without telling you this- the next time you're in San Diego, do not miss the local 'Chuao' brand of chocolates. Oh my god! Even thinking about them makes me swoon. This nutty dark chocolate one was vegan too, and so so so wholesome and delicious! I'd kill to have it right now! I got a whole bunch of these back home too. I bought them from the UC San Diego bookstore, but you get them in other places as well. I saw a Chuao store in the UTC mall in La Jolla.
Like all good things, the visit had to come to an end. I flew back home the next day. I had missed my son even through all of the fun. Once I got back home he had an expression of extreme happiness, so much so that it was muted with surprise and he just froze where he was standing. Then after a couple of seconds he came to me running and gave me a hug. :-)
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