San Diego

This morning we got up and left the house at 8am and arrived at Coronado Island at 9:30am. This whole time I kept thinking that my aunt was saying that we were going to go to Colorado Island because that's what it sounded like she was saying. When we got there we went into a famous hotel that was built in 1808... or was it 1888? Anyway, the main lobby had one of those old school elevators with the gate, like in Titanic :) We wanted to ride on it but there was an elevator guy so I don't think he would've appreciated it if we told him to take us up and then right back down. So we sat around the lobby, used their washroom and then left. Of course. We walked around Coronado Island which was nice and full of tourists. We walked around the beach and saw lots of beach resorts and also a wedding being set up on the beach. That ought to be pretty. I could've enjoyed the place a bit more except I was STARVING. 

Next up we drove to Balboa park which was really really neat. It used to be a University and was built in the 1600s. The architecture is fully Mexican since it was built such a long time ago and hand carved in stone. It was gorgeous. We took some pictures and that was when my camera died! I was really upset. I attempted to reserve as much battery life I had left but it was no use. While we were in the botanical garden, my camera failed me. In the garden there were varieties of orchids I had never seen before and many other plants. It was a nice and sunny day, as usual. For lunch we went to a International food festival, which was awesome. There were different countries from all around the world, except my aunt and my grandma didn't seem to appreciate any of it. Of course they don't eat standing. That would be monstrosity! We went with Tara, Darren and his parents and they tasted 3 different countries. I had to have a perogie from Ukraine but they called it a varenyk or something like that. Then I had a falafel plate from Israel. I really wanted to have paella but the line up was too too long. They had different performers from different countries perform. There were Chinese kids doing some Chinese dance and then belly dancers etc. When we left we found my aunt and my grandma being cozy underneath the shade at some crappy Japanese 'restaurant'. 

After lunch we headed over to Old Town, which was my favourite part of San Diego. So many cool shops and old museums. I adore looking at stuff like that. Again, my aunt and my grandma spent most of the time trying to find places to sit. Sigh. I can understand that my grandma is old so I'll give her a break, but I wasn't going to miss out on anything. I walked ahead of the pack and did my own thing. I think I went into all the shops and tried to go into as many museums as I could in the amount of time that I was alloted. I somehow got the camera to work a couple more shots before it REALLY died out on me, and then I spent another 10 mins moping about that. We spent a few hours there and I bought a carving for my mom that was carved out of a tagua nut, which is 'vegetable ivory' according to the little card next to the carvings. It does kind of look like ivory when it's carved. I like it. The one I bought has a full nut as well as the carved ivory looking part. I spent $30 on it! It's something different though. 

We left Old Town at around 5pm and we were originally supposed to go to another beach but my aunt decided that she had had enough, and suggested that we head in the direction back home and stop by at the outlet along the way. Tara and company decided to do the same and of course I ended up shopping :( I couldn't help it. I bought swimsuits on sale at the Gap. I do need them for Hawaii so I guess they're necessities! My aunt bought my 70 something year old grandma a Juicy Couture bag. I thought that was funny. We left the outlet at around 6:30 and headed back to Irvine for a late dinner. We didn't get a seat until 8:30pm and it was close to 9:30pm by the time we finished eating. It was a long day but eventful. I think it's time to relax tomorrow.