It snows in wordpress but not in San Diego

i’m now at gate 4 of terminal 1 san diego airport waiting for my (delayed) flight to san francisco. free wifi courtesy of google. interestingly, my mac did not detect free wifi at san francisco airport.

anyway, this is the good time as any to blog about the san diego leg of my US trip. i wouldn’t visit san diego if my family isn’t here, so i’m glad to have had the opportunity to explore this part of the country. san diego is spacious, open, relatively safe, and a breath of fresh air.

my time here consisted of a good blend of sight-seeing and bumming at home with high-speed internet broadband and abound with family time interspersed with pockets of babysitting here and there. sharing a room with my mom and 1 year old nephew gave me a preview into parenting i.e. sleep interrupted by baby feeds nightly! the night with 2 feeds and 1 nightmare was particularly restless. nonetheless my nephew is a joy to be with and play with.

the attractions in san diego are not located in one central area. fortunately i had the family car to be driven around in. all the places i visited are situated within 45mins driving radius from my accommodation at coronado island so getting around is pretty fast and easy even when we pack in 6 people and a whole lot of baby stuff.

i visited the famed san diego see world to see shamu and friends, the less famed but also lovely san diego wild animal park, the quaint little town of julian in higher altitude, bates nut farm in the valley, the rustically touristy san diego old town, took a 1-hour cruise at san diego bay area, enjoyed more scenic lookouts at cabrillo national monument and even participated in a 5km thanksgiving walk/run for charity and had really amazing food in between all that like cheese cake factory, kansas city bbq (location of the bar scene from top gun), international house of pancakes and scrumptious american breakfast at nice little cafes.

the highlight of my time at san diego has got to be the shopping. i happened to be around during the crazy thanksgiving sale. retail stores across america open their doors at 5am to kick start the black friday sales. i did not take part in that stampede but managed to find good deals at the outlet malls.

the malls here are not self-contained high rise buildings with units of retail space sublet out. the malls here are organised as clusters of individual stand alone flagship outlets so the arrangement is very spacious. the service provided by their staff was impeccable too.

i pretty much got myself a new wardrobe for 2010, especially work wear. Bring it on!

san diego wild animal park

san diego sea world

julian

bates nut farm

san diego old town

harbour cruise

cabrillo national monument

5km thanksgiving walk/run

coronado-san diego bridge

hotel del coronado

looming ahead

i think its gonna be strange week of the working folks because its a transition from the partying hype and the beginning of a new work year. and we are now right in between that spectrum.

its a sunday afternoon, and i’m here in my room working from home. there are a thousand and one loose ends tie up before the work year begins tomorrow, but i’m not whining about it because i’ve got a good dose of rest, feasting, merry making and fabulous quality time with the geek.

and there is still that new year’s eve dinner to look forward to.

so bring it on!

Kids kidding around

noelle isn’t always cooperative when posing for photos. today in particular, she was restless and mucked around.

noelle ‘hanging loose’

noelle pinching david’s nose

Love came down at Christmas

the olive branch was offered to me in a reconciliary manner by the fear factor of my life concerning the love of my life.

i’ve always doubted if a day like this would ever come to pass.

Babies at Bars

noelle says, “fix me my poison”

if not for a solemnisation party at Klee yesterday, we would have – family in tow – barged into the funky town of wessex square village which would have otherwise been not a family friendly place.

Klee is a quaint and cozy place for a drink, dinner can be had at the other colonial buildings nearby. i had a drink, it was a m.a.t.e.r.i.t.i.n.i mocktail – a harmless concoction of juices.

because it was a private function we attended, we could defy all bar etiquette and plomp baby bottoms on the bar counter and let the kids run amock.

we didn’t stay long. we moved on to our the family’s christmas event of the year at PS Cafe at Dempsey. the christmas feel of the place was cranked up and the food was better than i expected, and the cakes were humongous! i think its worth checking out again for dinner.