On the Road

We left San Diego just after 4:00 (about three hours later than planned). The Californian mountains looked like enormous piles of boulders as we drove east for six hours, most of the way parallel with the Mexican border.



To pass the time as we drive, Paul is reading aloud the classic American road trip novel, On the Road by Jack Kerouac. There are a few versions of the book. We're reading the original unedited version which is 300 pages of a single paragraph, but the way it flows is rhythmic and perfect for reading on the road.

---photos after the jump---

Life Lesson #7 - Getting Wet

Today I thought it was odd that SeaWorld had rides. Then we went on them, and I realised why: all rides at SeaWorld exist to get you wet.

---more on SeaWorld after the jump--- 

The Emerald City

After we got back from Mexico, we headed to a place that felt like its polar opposite.

The Hotel del Coronado is ridiculously opulent and has become part of American History for three really cool reasons [putting my trivia hat on]:

1. Not only did L. Frank Baum say it was his inspiration for The Emerald City when he wrote The Wizard of Oz
2. But it's also the hotel from Some Like it Hot
3. And if that doesn't already make it interesting enough, if you've seen The King's Speech, it's also where the American Wallis Simpson met the future King of England, who gave up his throne for her.

---read more after the jump---

Life Lesson #6 - The Numbers Game

Today I learned that it's really valuable to remember important numbers, such as your room number. Because if you forget numbers like this, you might wake up an angry black man who glares out his window at you like this:

And then, by the time you remember where you live (two doors down), your access card will have been deactivated. So you'll have to go and wake up the guy who works in the office to get you a new key, and he'll look at you like this:

Not my finest hour.

Review: Little Miss Sunshine

Most people have seen the movie Little Miss Sunshine. Turns out they're making it into a musical! The La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego is a really good theatre with strong ties to Broadway, dozens of big shows have started here and then transferred to the great white way. So, the prospect of seeing the world premiere of Little Miss Sunshine: The Musical there was quite appealing.

Hippos and Pandas and Bears, Oh My!

San Diego Zoo today. We made the mistake of starting our day with the snakes, spiders and scorpions... I spent the rest of the morning jumping every time something touched me! Not so clever.

They have a baby hippo, and its mum was pushing it around the water in a way that reminded me of the opening scene from Dumbo. Too cute!

Other highlights were the Pandas (which, coincidentally, is one of my best friend's nickname for me), the polar bears and the gorillas.

It was kind of surreal actually being there, because as a kid I used to dream of visiting the San Diego Zoo! Made me realise how world class our zoo in Auckland is though, because while this one was much bigger, I wouldn't say it was any nicer or better for tha animals. Definitely worth going to see the animals we don't have back home though. 

Interestingly, I can never see the kiwis in the nocturnal exhibit back home, but caught the ones here with no trouble!

AA

Life Lesson #5 - Someone to Watch Over Me

Today I learned that you should always check for strangers with cameras. We were on Oceanside Pier in San Diego trying to take a photo of both of us in front of the beautiful sunset. We had to balance our camera on a rubbish bin and squat halfway down the wall to get a good photo. We knew nobody back home would know how dumb we looked when they saw the photo, cos they'd only see our top half.

But unfortunately a complete stranger saw how stupid we looked and snapped his own pic, then chased us down to send it to us!

Our pic.

His pic of our pic.