Weekend Update

This weekend I officially signed up for two big San Diego events coming up in August. One is the AFC (America’s Finest City) Half Marathon. This 13.1 mile jaunt begins near Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma, wanders on the coast line near the airport, through downtown San Diego and finishes uphill to Balboa Park. It should be a good time but I’ve heard the last several miles are killer. I’ve boldly claimed I would like to run at an 8:20/mile pace. Hopefully that’s not too ambitious.

I also bought my tickets to San Diego’s Street Scene, a music festival at the end of August. This year’s Street Scene features The Black Eyed Peas, Modest Mouse, M.I.A., The Dead Weather, Silversun Pickups, Band of Horses and Ra Ra Riot, amongst others. It should be fun. I’m excited for the return visit to show. Last year, I thoroughly enjoyed The National (and I’m sad they’re not returning), Vampire Weekend and TV on the Radio.

The SeaWorld Visit

SeaWorld San Diego…what a wonderful place to spend an afternoon! By purchasing a “SeaWorld Fun Card” for just $65, which, ironically, is the same price as a day’s admission to the park, I can return for free until December 31, 2009. I plan to go several times. There are some quality shows – including the Shamu show, the dolphin show, the sea lion and otter show, and the Cirque de la Mer Show, which I think is for aspiring Cirque du Soleil performers who didn’t quite make the cut.

The Shamu show is the highlight of the park for a good reason – it is truly amazing to see an 8,000 pound animal glide through the water and splash fans sitting in the “Soak Zone” on command. The show we saw featured four of the orcas performing although a SeaWorld worker informed me that SeaWorld San Diego has seven orcas. Wow. I had to fight the urge to dive into the tank and swim around with them because it looked like a ton of fun. However, I heard that one of them got angry with its trainer over the last year and pinned him to the floor of the aquarium. That would be horrifying.

The dolphin and sea lion shows were also very entertaining. Dottie the dolphin can jump like 16 feet and the stunt they pull with the little kid feeding the dolphin (and then wiping her fish-dirtied hands all over her shirt) is also a hoot. The sea lion and otter show featured spoofs on TV shows including American Idol, Rachael Ray and Survivor. All in all, it was very creative and entertaining.

In addition to the shows, we checked out the Clydesdale horses, the Manatee Rescue, the Shark Encounter, the penguin and beluga whale display, and got to observe the dolphins up close and personal. Although it is a fantastic place to spend the afternoon, it’s hard to believe that SeaWorld was started by a group of four UCLA graduates in the mid-1960s whose initial idea was to start an underwater restaurant. Can you imagine trying to pitch investors on the idea of building an amusement park showcasing giant whales and dolphins? Only in southern California…

I’m still a bit unclear to SeaWorld’s future. It is owned by Anheuser-Busch, which was recently acquired by InBev for $52 billion. I’ve heard that InBev isn’t too keen on keeping SeaWorld. Hopefully Shamu finds a new owner soon. SeaWorld San Diego is a great place to spend the afternoon and needs to be kept alive so that future generations can come enjoy the wonderment of the sea life there.

The Parents Visit La Jolla…

It was a wild and crazy end of last week and weekend. Mom and Dad flew in from Virginia to hang out for a couple of days and meet Reggie. Reggie, of course, was a huge hit. We spent some time at Fiesta Island and the Budman worked with her on her retrieving skills. Her skills are much improved but we still have work to do.

One of my favorite parts of their visit was our trip to SeaWorld. I will write more in a later blog on SeaWorld because there is just too much to write here. The orca is a fascinating creature and SeaWorld San Diego has seven of them. Each of the orca each eat 250 pounds of fish a day for a total of 1,750 pounds of fish a day. That’s 638,750 pounds of fish a year. Yikes.

My parents also checked out the San Diego Zoo, Fiesta Island, Pacific Beach, La Jolla, the Gliderport just south of Torrey Pines State Park, and Del Mar. It was quite a packed trip and by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, they headed to the airport and I headed to the couch. One note for visitors is that May and June tend to be gloomy in the mornings (which my parents thought was “cold”) but we actually had good weather for walking around in – not too hot, not too cold, but “just right.” It was great to get to spend time with them and hopefully they return to SoCal soon!

Are We Done Yet?

This is Reggie at City Dog after I washed her and dried her. She was relatively well behaved but is very scared of the stairs and not too keen on the drying machine. This is at the very tail end of the drying experience...

New Best Buddies: Reggie and Hagar

My Plants Are Surviving "May Grey"

"Bride Wars": A Surprise on the Upside

One of my friends highly encouraged me to watch "Bride Wars." Although this is not a movie I'd typically rent, she was insistent she didn't usually like these kinds of movies either but really enjoyed the movie. After debating between several other choices I decided to go with "Bride Wars" based on Christine's recommendation and was not disappointed. It is pretty funny - Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway are both really cute in it and I think if I could find a guy like Bryan Greenberg out here in San Diego, I'd probably be willing to get in a bride war of my own.