Once a California girl, always a California girl

Every person has places where they feel completely comfortable, where they feel at home...for reasons I will never entirely understand, coastal California is one of those places for me. I mean, sure, I lived there for five years, but it's deeper than that. So this past weekend, when I got to spend four days with an old friend in San Diego, it felt a bit like a homecoming. It was such a fantastic weekend, it's hard to know where to start...I guess we'll do this chronologically, so settle in.

Thursday, we started my little vacation with a trip to the beach... because really, what better way to start a long weekend in California than wading in the Pacific Ocean?! The water was beautiful, and it was such a neat thing to see wads of kelp forest scattered along the shore, and imagine what it had looked like before it was torn from its roots and thrown onto the beach.

After wiping the sand off my feet, it was off for a tour of the Gaslamp District, where we ate lunch at Hard Rock and saw "Wallace and Gromit" (sorry, Dave!!). It was a very cute movie, and the short film beforehand with the Madagascar penguins was amusing.

Then we headed over to Balboa Park. Can I just tell you that I'm in love with this place?! Bart had told me it was one of his favorite places in the area, and I totally understand why. It's this amazing spread of park areas, museum buildings and who knows what else, with architecture that is absolutely stunning! (especially when the sun is setting!) What was really cool is that Balboa Park sits right outside of the city, and yet is so peaceful and relaxing...loved it, loved it, loved it!

Friday, after a yummy breakfast at this neat little cafe down the street from Bart's apartment, we went hiking on Cowles Mountain, which is apparently the highest point in the San Diego area. To the top and down is about two and a half miles, so the hike was invigorating without being overwhelming...that, and it was a beautiful sunny day. It was quite the sight to stand at the top of the mountain and be able to see the ocean! And that peak behind the sign? That's the top!

After a long afternoon nap, we met up with a couple of his friends for dinner at CPK, and then they introduced me to the world of Dave and Buster's. I'd never been, but had a great time...I even managed to kick some ass in this funky kickboxing game! I think the final tally was Bart - 3, Colleen - 6. What can I say? He won't admit it, but I rocked!

Saturday, I got to see his ship. And let me tell ya, I got the grand tour! I got to see the computer room where he works, the communications room, the room where they store all the weapons, the helicopter hangar and landing pad, the engine room, the bridge...it was so cool! Although I have to admit something...there were all these buttons and switches everywhere - in the offices, the hallways, the staircases - and I couldn't help wondering how much fun it might be to just start pushing buttons and flipping switches. I mean, I didn't know what they did, but it would be fun to find out, right? But with my luck, I would have flipped the worst possible switch, and I really didn't want to get anyone in trouble, so I refrained.

After the grand tour, we visited Old Town San Diego, which I loved for its quaint, artsy feel. There were lots of neat little shops, some more touristy than others, that were fun to explore for a few hours before we had dinner at this Mexican restaurant with a whistling parrot. Yes, a whistling parrot, who had apparently been trained to whistle at the people walking by...it was highly amusing to listen to as we ate dinner and drank margaritas (which were absolutely huge!).


Dinner was followed by a couple of hours of hanging out, trying to decide what we wanted to do next...finally, we decided to see another movie, "Jarhead". A very good movie, with an interesting blend of humor and drama...although we both agreed that most of the people in the theater probably didn't understand half of what was going on.

And lastly, there was Sunday. We ended up back at Balboa Park, where we toured the botanical garden and the Japanese friendship garden, and listened to the Sunday-afternoon organ concert for a while. We also had our first-ever picture taken together. I know that's an odd thing to note, but consider this - Bart and I have been friends for fourteen years. Yet somehow, in all that time, we'd never had a picture taken together...so we decided to remedy that little situation.


And then we stopped by Seaport Village for a little while before retrieving my bags from his apartment, and heading to the airport for what turned out to be a very late flight home.

All in all, it was an absolutely amazing weekend!! We had the best time hanging out, and you never would have guessed that we hadn't seen each other in ten years. I guess some friendships are comfortable that way...no matter how much time passes, there's a rhythm that never goes away.

Pictures added 13 November 2005, with many headaches and threats of throwing the computer out the window...hopefully, they show up and look pretty...but if not, blame it all on the computer!