Apr 30 2012

One Last Dinner In Old Town

After our visit to the Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park, I drove up to Old Town with my former classmates, Ron and Barbara, to have one final Mexican dinner for Ron before he flies back home to Pennsylvania.

We decided to try a new place that even I had never eaten at called Fred’s Mexican Cafe. The wait staff was friendly, the decor was colorful and festive and the service was quick and polite. But it turned out to be not your average Mexican restaurant. A lot of items I expected to see on the menu just weren’t there, most importantly for me anything with shredded beef. They didn’t even have a chimichanga. The two half salads that my friends had came out without any dressing and we had to ask for it. Very surprisingly, they also didn’t have one of the most popular beers in San Diego, one of my favorites, Negra Modelo.

All that said, my combo meal of a Baja fish taco and shrimp enchilada with rice and black beans was really very good.  If I had to eat there again I wouldn’t say no, but it also wouldn’t be my first choice.

Now if they could just make the home page on their website a little less awful.

After dinner we walked around a bit so Ron could find nice gifts to take back for his wife and daughter.

Apr 29 2012

Humble Beginnings of Comic Fest

Went for my first organizational meeting of volunteers for the brand new San Diego Comic Fest to be held this October at the Town and Country Resort in Mission Valley. Technically it was the second meeting, but I wasn’t here for the first one. It is being organized by many of the same individuals who started the hugely successful Comic-Con as teenagers and who miss the casual intimacy that has been lost at the larger comic conventions. We met up at Twiggs Bakery on Adams Avenue along Antique Row. We’ll need to find a larger venue once more volunteers start coming onboard.

Names were dropped, ideas were proposed, notes were taken, preliminary duties were assigned, and I had some hot chocolate.

In the heart of Antique Row
Twiggs Bakery
Inside Twiggs
Our ragtag gang

Apr 28 2012

Surprise In The Sky

After finishing up weeding the milkweeds, I came inside the house for a little while when I heard the deep and heavy rumblings of a plane I am not used to hearing. Living under a regular flight path you get used to normal, every day plane sounds. I quickly glanced out my bedroom window and to my joy and amazement I saw a Consolidated B-24 Liberator, an American bomber much used during World War II, flying south over our backyard. By the time I grabbed my camera and ran outside it had already banked to the right and was flying out over the Pacific, heading west into a clichéd sunset. At least I got this shot before it flew away.

Apr 28 2012

Weeding The Milkweeds

So I did some more gardening today. A couple of days ago I discovered a Monarch larva on one of our milkweeds. Figured it was time to clean up the area so it can crawl on the ground from plant to plant easier. Really glad I did because I ended up finding an additional five more larvae.

Someday they’ll thank me.

Last picture is what I saw from our backyard and am so grateful that I wasn’t stuck in. So much better doing yardwork for butterfly larvae.

Apr 27 2012

Darth Peter

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Apr 26 2012

The Beauty Of Pollination

Absolutely stunning slow-motion photography. The barrel-rolling hummingbird is my favorite part, but the massive number of Monarch butterflies is mesmerizing.

Apr 25 2012

Corvette’s With Ron

After our museum visits and walkabout in Balboa Park, my buddy Ron and I headed over to Corvette Diner at Liberty Station in Point Loma for dinner. (The restaurant used to be the Officer’s Club at the old Marine Corps Recruiting Depot.) Love the teal and white 1958 Chevy Corvette behind the hostess station. Even though we got there right at the 5:00 dinner time we didn’t have a wait. Ron had a burger hankerin’ so he ordered the jalapeño burger, and I got to have my Ike and Tina Tuna Melt with a cherry Coke. Corvette’s was celebrating their 25th anniversary so for each adult entree we also got a 25 cent milkshake. For entertainment (besides the live DJ playing oldies tunes) we got to see the wait-staff do their little hand-clapping dance routine.

It was a fun and highly distracting meal.

Apr 25 2012

On The Right (And Cute) Track

Went over to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, the largest operating model railroad in the world, in Balboa Park with my visiting friend, Ron. We got there at 3:30, half hour before they closed the doors at 4:00. Instead of the regular $8 per ticket price they were nice and charged us only $1 each. Most of the trains weren’t running anyway.

The designers and craftsman have done an incredible job at recreating miniature dioramas of everyday life, adding some humorous and even occasionally ridiculous elements (like a shark in a swimming pool or a train delivering a dinosaur). The amount of detail is nothing short of amazing.

They also have created existing, historically accurate routes including the Tehachapi Pass Loop, which is still a work-in-progress. It was there that Paul,one of the many skilled volunteers, took some time out to chat with Ron and me about the museum and exhibits.

Half hour was definitely not enough time to thoroughly enjoy the museum. I’ve been before and I will absolutely go back again. It’s a fantastic place to forget about the real world and bring back the smiles and dreams of youth, except for the visiting youth who still have the latter and just end up smiling.

Apr 25 2012

Exploring Balboa Park With Ron

After picking up my buddy Ron from his downtown hotel, we drove over to Balboa Park to meander around a bit and to go see the Titanic exhibit showing at the San Diego Natural History Museum. It was my second time (so far) seeing this particular exhibit. Since no photography of the displays was allowed, you will have to either use your imaginations or just ask Mr. Google to show you. (We also visited the Model Railroad Museum, and even though we only had half an hour to see the dioramas and displays, I was able to take more photos and will post that as a separate entry.)

Ron was very impressed with the Park, especially when I told him that most of the beautifully ornate Spanish Revival buildings we saw today have been around (albeit rebuilt or refurbished) since the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. We will be coming back here again in five days for his final visit this month and will then be focusing more on the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition portion of the Park, mainly the old Ford Pavilion which is now the Air and Space Museum.

Spanish Village Art Center
Botanical Building
El Prado Hallway
El Prado Visitor Center
Only pic of exhibit I could get
Museum Atrium
Natural History Museum
Grabbing a snack
Ron Flight Route

Apr 24 2012

Lunch With Old Workmates

After many false starts and more than a few schedule changes I was finally able to get together with my friends and old workmates, Terry and Lorena, from my days working with Multi Image Productions.

We decided on meeting at Lit’l Pepper, a local delicatessen favorite, which is a just a short walk from Multi Image and a place we’d eaten at many times over the years. Hany, the friendly owner, even came out and sat with us for a while.

My meal of choice was the same thing that I have been ordering for years: a tuna melt on a flakey croissant. Really good.

Of note was the fact that the cracked portion of a molar I’ve lived with ever since eating at China Moon with my brother in New Mexico a year ago finally decided to give way, let loose and pop out. I quickly and stealthily placed it into my pocket for later photos. (Apologies to all for the disturbingly disgusting images. I knew it was rotten inside, but OMG…)

Apr 23 2012

Réflexion

I love both the idea behind this as well as the way it was animated. Very creative.

Apr 23 2012

Vegetable Plantings

After my mom reworked a portion of her vegetable garden to make room for some new additions, she planted the three tomato plants (Black Cherry, San Marzano Heirloom and Golden Gem) that I brought from the Earth Fair at Balboa Park yesterday, as well as the small, pickling cucumbers that the Tapias had given her. We should be having some tasty salads in a couple of months.

Apr 22 2012

Earth Day Begins At The Zoo

For me Earth Day 2012 began with a one hour visit to the San Diego Zoo, mainly because I needed to go down to Balboa Park early to find parking before the crowds for Earth Fair hit. Ran into my friend Steve who works in admissions.

Since I knew it would be a short visit I planned for some of the most interesting animals to photograph. I first went to see the Malayan Tigers being released into their enclosure, which happens every morning at 9:20. The three tigers ran out to find the piles of breakfast meat the keepers left out for them. All my photos of them turned out a bit dark or blurry.

After that I walked further down Tiger Trail to see the hippos, Funani and her fifteen month old son Adhama. They were both snoozing against the glass so I got some good close-ups of Adhama.

Once I got my three million shots of Adhama I headed over to the Giant Pandas. Unfortunately, Gao Gao was sleeping, facing away from the viewers. Bai Yun on the other hand was sitting facing us, chomping away on a large bamboo stock. She was a bit farther away than I like but I still took plenty of photos.

Then I walked down Panda Canyon and went to see one of my newest favorite animals, the Babirusa. It looks like a bizarre hog but acts just like a curious dog. There is a half wall separating the two of them from the visitors walking by. If I stop and show interest in them at least one will come by, jump up with its front hooves on the wall and stick its snout out to be touched. Last time I didn’t reach over so as not to be a bad example to anyone nearby. Since there was no one else around this time I reached out and let it smell the back of my hand. Since it spends a lot of time burrowing in the dirt it left a muddy snout print on my hand. But I didn’t mind. I had a cool encounter with a very different-looking wild animal. Kind of like shaking hands with Lady Gaga.

I walked back up the hill to visit the newest cats at the Zoo, the extremely rare and critically endangered Amur Leopards, of which the Zoo has three. In the wild there are fewer than fifty left. Unfortunately photos of them today just weren’t working out.

Then I headed up to see if the Gorillas were active. Luckily they had just been given pine cones and were having fun trying to pick treats out of them, so I did get a few shots in.

From the Gorillas I mozied on over to the Orangutans who were a bit too far away for any decent shots.

So ended my one hour at the Zoo. Overall a pretty good visit.

( z o o   p i c s )

Apr 21 2012

New Flickr Group

In an effort to make it easier to communicate about a photog meet-up (hopefully the first of many) that I wish to organize with multiple other photographers who post their photos from the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park on Flickr, I created an invitation-only group…because I don’t already have enough online stuff to curate.

Cool thing is that two others have already accepted their member invites and the Social Media Director for the zoo, who I mentioned this to, has said he would like to join us for the meet-up.

I am the Admin of a curated Flickr group of other photographers. Let the eye-rolling and snickering begin, and best prepare the runway foam.

Apr 20 2012

Fourth Of Six Dinners with Ron

After the few hours we spent walking around at the Zoo my friend Ron and I headed a bit north, back to Old Town, to once again enjoy some great Mexican food. Our first choice was to try Fred’s across from Café Coyote since neither of us had ever eaten there. Because we arrived at dinner-time on a Friday night we couldn’t find any parking close by. So our second choice was Casa de Reyes because we both liked their food very much. Unfortunately we couldn’t find parking close enough to it either. Not even at my normal, less known spot. So we drove over to the Bazaar del Mundo and parked across the street in the Caltrans lot and just walked across the street to eat at choice number three, Casa Guadalajara. Turned out to be a half hour wait. Since it was already getting late in the evening, and Ron being on east coast time, he thought that might be getting too late for him.

That’s when I had my Willow “Aha!” moment. Next door to Casa Guadalajara can be found another Mexican restaurant called La Piñata that I’d been fortunate enough to have eaten at once before with my Whedonverse friend, Lisa (shout out!), and her family. A bit more low-keyed and simpler than Guadalajara but with food that is just as good and the wait staff is extremely nice. Best thing was there was absolutely no wait for outdoor seating. Fourth choice turned out to be the charm.

Ron, being married to a Colombian beauty, had a nice conversation in Spanish with Christian, the wandering balladeer. He must have also enjoyed our friendliness because he started to play and sing (both very well) the Spanish classic, “Guantanamera.” He told us that the song was about a women from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Who knew? Well, we do now. And so do you.

I was having some dental issues so I didn’t want to order anything too crispy for dinner, so I ordered the shrimp enchiladas with white sauce. I was not sorry. It was fantastic.

Maybe it’s the Negra Modelo talking, but the whole afternoon and evening turned out to be a pretty great adventure.

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