Day 34: A Lengthy Week in Review

Gah, practically another week has gone by. I need to update cause so much happened, but mostly towards the tail end of the week. Wowza, can you all believe it’s already July? And that I’ve been here for a month? Time is flying by like a rabid monster.

Tuesday-Thursday: No need to expound on what I did each day, cause these days were kinda the same. My aunt was out of town still on her trip to Ireland, so it consisted of me going to work for the most part. I got through a lot of my Genesis class, I only have one lesson left, a paper to write and the last test. Hopefully I finish this week. On Tuesday I tried out Twiggs, a coffeeshop in the Kensington neighborhood I had been eyeing. It was alright, cheap but not fantastic. Will be trying out other coffeeshops before returning to that one. On Wednesday and Thursday, I went out to Balboa Park to go hiking in these trails close to the park and then chill/draw at the dog park. I saw so many Bostons, it made me miss my Otto a lot.

Oh Mr. Otto, I miss you a lot!

Friday-This day was exciting. So on Tuesday, I talked with my good from Sharon from high school. As we got to talking we realized we were both in southern California for the summer, so she decided to come down from LA and visit for the weekend. It was SO good to see her. She is definitely one of my closest friends and I hadn’t seen her in over a year. It’s crazy, we go to school less than 10 miles away but it takes us being in CA to finally hang out. She came in at 6pm. We basically did a lot of talking that night, figured out what we wanted to do for the weekend and went out to Gelato Vero Café, a great gelato place right in Mission Hills.

Saturday-This is the day we were on our feet from 8am-8pm. We woke up real early and went hiking at Torrey Pines, cause that was something I suggested doing. It was gray and overcast, but it was still lots of fun. After we went to Roberto’s cause you can’t go to San Diego and not go to Roberto’s, especially since it’s literally right next to Torrey Pines. After, we were able to go to the San Diego Zoo. It was awesome because we were all set and ready to pay for entrance, which is like $40, but Gladys had two free tickets she wasn’t going to use so she gave them to us. We were incredibly thankful. Once we got to the zoo, we were so lucky because right as we got there, they were opening up the dirt parking lot so we got free parking right away. Such good timing. The zoo was lots of fun, especially going with such a good friend. But describing the zoo I don’t really know how to do without being wordy and boring…I’ll just say it’s a good zoo and if you’re in San Diego, go see it! It’s considered one of the best zoos in the world. After, our feet were killing us, so we decided to go back home…we started making my desert for the 4th that night. I have this personal tradition where I like trying to make a new ice cream treat, so we made the brownies for this desert which I’ll explain shortly. After, we jumped in the hot tub at my aunt’s house. After being on our feet for 12 hours, it felt heavenly. Oh and this day marked my one month mark out here.

Walking along the beach at Torrey Pines.

Sharon and I right outside of the zoo entrance. A day well spent with a great friend!

Sunday-Happy 4th of July! This day as well was jammed pack! I got up ridiculously early because I signed up to do a 2 mi. fun run at Scripps Ranch. Groggily, I got up at 5:20am thinking “I am a crazy person for doing this, but I’m excited!” Anyways, the race was fun and I’m so glad I did it. It was nice too b/c about a mile of the run was downhill, so that was nice, though between that and really pushing myself my tendentious was worse than normal but it was worth it. I forgot how much fun these organized runs are. I didn't bring a camera, but here's a link to pictures from the run online: Scripps Ranch Run Pics☺ Later that morning Sharon and I walked up to this park in the neighborhood because we saw signs that there was a parade. We got there, expecting to watch a parade but instead we were in it! Apparently what the Mission Hills neighborhood does is that the neighborhood comes together and walks together to celebrate the 4th (and everyone dresses up for the 4th). It was kinda cool to take part it. Plus it was great because Paula, Colleen, Laurie, Enrique and Lulu were all able to take part in it too. After that, Sharon and I went out for sushi cause we really wanted to do that while she was in town. We went to Itto Sushi in downtown, right across Horton plaza and it was very delicious! After, we went back to the house because Laurie wanted to do a pool party, so we jumped into the freezing pool and then mostly stayed in the hot tub (which did wonders for my leg). After that, I was tired so took a nap while Sharon figured out her busing situation. Then we had our delicious 4th of July meal-we had hot dogs(and Laurie bough be Chicken dogs since I don’t eat red meat, which was very nice of her, they were tasty!), grilled chicken, baked beans, corn-on-the-cob and a lemonade/cranberry juice drink. It was delish! Then came the moment of truth, finally trying my desert. I had no idea if it was going to be good or not. Basically it was an ice cream sandwich, but instead of using cookies I made dark chocolate brownies and in between there was chocolate chip ice cream and a layer of peanut butter. And the verdict was…..everyone thought they were delicious-even Colleen, she kept on opening her mouth like a bird because she wanted more and more of it, which was quite the compliment. While eating desert, we watched Fantastic Mr. Fox. The movie ended at the perfect time for fireworks. Because Missions Hills is well, built on a bunch of hills, you don’t need to go to a specific location to see fireworks, you just need to go to an opening somewhere in the neighborhood. It was sweet, we saw about 6 fireworks shows going on all at once across the bay(and we could hear them). There were only about 20 people where we decided to watch, so it felt like we were getting our own private showing of 4th of July fireworks. This was definitely one of the best 4th of July’s I’ve had in quite some time.

Picture from the neighborhood 4th of July parade/walk.

The brownie sandwich ice cream desert. With a strawberry on top to make it classy.

Monday-Had to drop Sharon off early this morning. I was sad that she had to go, the time went by so fast but I’m very grateful she was able to come out for the weekend. Really, words cannot describe how thankful I am for the time I was able to spend with her. She’s one of those friends that no matter how much time passes between talking, we can pick up things like we had just seen each other the day before and our friendship hasn’t changed. We just click somehow. I am hoping I can come up to LA, even if it’s for a few hours, but seeing how pretty much the rest of my summer out here is planned out, I’m not sure if it’s going to happen or not. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed! Anyways, after dropping her off, I drove to work fully prepared to work. But then I got there and the building was locked and the campus was just dead. So haha, had an unexpected day off from work(guess it was a holiday today?). My aunt decided that she wanted us to go to the Del Mar fair because she really wanted to go and today was the last day it was open. I was totally up for it cause I’m really loving fairs this year. Anyways, we had perfect timing when we got there. Just as we were going to buy tickets, these people asked if we wanted tickets and we said yes and they just gave us their two tickets cause they weren’t going to use them. This saved us like $26! Seriously, so nice of those people. And it was nice because since we went to the fair so late last time, I got to experience and do new things at the fair this time around, like see the art and place where people sell things and such. I got a little backpack that I thought would be good for hiking cause I’m really into that out here. Twas a day well spent at the fair. And I’m incredibly excited for the MN state fair. I didn’t go last year, so I think that’s why.

Phew, that’s it! But really, one of the best weekends I've had in awhile. Seriously.

~Lauren