The Gaslamp District [San Diego, CA]

I snap a photo of the city with one hand as my body reaches to hurry back with the crowd and visiting Liz Lemon who’s a few steps ahead of me.  It’s a Saturday night in San Diego and we’re in one of my most favorite parts of town: The Gaslamp District.  

It’s a robust night with a crowd of beautiful people in their club best roaming the streets laughing amongst themselves or smiling at us as they walk past.  Bicycles toting passenger carts wiz past and one of them is blasting Kesha’s “Tik Tok” as the twentysomething girl occupant dances in her seat and the boys on the street holler if they can join her cart.  

Two plates of lobster come at us in view as Liz Lemon and I spy into the trendy restaurants as the patrons nimbly eat their sizzling Thai, Mexican, Irish, and American food.  All of the colors of the city burn bright with various music adding to the crowd’s excited mumbles about drinking, partying, eating, and many many exclaims of congratulations to the numerous brides-to-be out tonight.

We glide down 5^th Street stopping only once to get a bite at Ghirardelli’s Ice Cream and Chocolate shop whose sign is lit up on the outside like a marquee.  A chocolate expert greets everyone at the door, handing a chocolate square to each person.  The décor is 1930s ice cream parlor with tons of framed nostalgic posters of chocolate and of old San Francisco (where the factory is located).  The massive sundaes and floats come out in cylinder glass cups by waiters dressed in white.  Liz and I notice that a group of girls seated close to us are celebrated a birthday.  “I’d totally have a birthday at an ice cream shop,” Liz says looking at their delicious sundaes.  “Of course,” I say, enjoying my chocolate with rainbow sprinkles, “Why not?  It’d be awesome.”  A future birthday plan I wonder?  I finish my cone and off we go. 

 We pause a few times at interesting looking venues like The Tipsy Crow bar, Babycakes cupcake shop, and the movie theater which is ironically called Reading Cinemas, and once we pass by Croce’s jazz bar and restaurant we make immediate plans to return here for a double-date one day.  The rich jazz notes fill the air as continue walking down the streets of the Gaslamp into the night.

We discussed the inexplicable popularity of overpriced cupcakes and fondue as we admired the chic architecture of the high rises and lofts.  No matter how long I’m in the San Diego I can never get over how beautiful the city really is at night.  It’s an unusually clean and safe place city considering it’s the 8^th largest city in the United States, not to mention how the soft paint tones and hundreds of street lights make it one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever visited.    

We ended up at the Convention Center where Comic Con will be hosted in a few weeks, which is right next to Petco Park where the San Diego Padres play.  Due to the arch of the streets, on game night glance down 8^th Street and you’ll be able to see straight into the park.  It was closed when Liz Lemon and I walked past, but the mini park (a grassy hill near the bleachers) was hosting Twilight: New Moon.  We could hear Edward discussing his moody immortality all the way few blocks down on our way back to the car.  

A good night in the Gaslamp.  And a real treat to be able to share it will a good friend. 

The street in Arizona that leads to OZ

Lombard Street, Rodeo Drive, Bourbon Street, Telegraph Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue.   Anyone says the names of these streets and there is an instant connotation, perhaps even a memory.   Around 11:52pm last night My Friend In the Purple Dress and I were driving down my favorite street in Arizona, the blase unassuming construction part of University Drive.

It was the very first street I drove down when I moved here from California.  My Charming Fellow and I had driven 13+ hours straight from the Bay Area to Phoenix and when we got here that August night it was in the high 100s despite being past 2am and it was pouring warm rain.  We were tired, cranky, and this was my new home.

That first impression will always be how hot, flat, and strange this desert place was and that nagging trepidation about living here.  Could I manage to live here for 4 years?  Was this the right school for me?  Would my months-old relationship survive long-distance?  Was it going to be a party school?  It was both nerve-inspiring and exciting. 

Traveling for butterflies in the Phoenix Desert

Four more days until the Butterfly Exhibit Closes at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, so I wanted to post my review of the experience (written for my review writing class) while y'all still have a chance to see it.  Enjoy!  

Traveling for Butterflies in the Phoenix Desert

A blue spotted Pipevine Swallow tail butterfly is about to land on my shoulder and like a little kid I’m yelling “Mom Mom, take my picture!” My Californian mom gets her camera out in a flurry as my visiting grandaunt Aunty-Em looks on bemused.

We’re currently inside of the Spring Butterfly exhibit in the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, and if you’re from Arizona and seeking to take out-of-towners to an intriguing part of desert, this exhibit should not be missed.

The Spring Butterfly Exhibit is put on annually, this year from March 6 through May 9 inside of the Marshall Butterfly Pavilion.  This large mesh enclosure hosts the hundreds of butterflies amongst desert plants, and (thankfully) has a mister system that sprays every few minutes to maintain a humid temperature for the butterflies to thrive while also keeping the patrons cool in the desert heat.

There a sixteen species of butterflies in the exhibit, such as the green and black Malachite butterfly, the orange tinted Painted Lady butterfly, the bright yellow Cloudless Giant Sulfur butterfly, and the reddish brown Buckeye butterfly.  The main attraction of the exhibit is the chance for one of the pretty creatures to land on a tourist, which delightfully happens often.  

The Living Room Cafe

Over the weekend a companion and I were driving through Point Loma on the way to a favorite breakfast spot when we drove past this cute cafe transformed from a white Victorian home.  At nearly the same time we said we should turn around and promptly made a U-turn along Rosecrans Street.

It's nearly as cute on the inside as the white paned outside.  There is an abundance of richly colored green and red Victorian chairs with small wooden tables all about the place--literally a living room like its moniker. There is also an outside which was quite popular Saturday morning, as well an upstairs where several college students were typing away on the old fashioned furniture and art lined walls.

The menu was quite extensive, as it serves as both a cafe, a breakfast place, a lunch place, and a beer and hooka joint after dark.  Can I just say that I have a weak spot for places that write their menus in chalk?  Something about it just makes it a little more quaint.  Nothing's quaint about the price, however.  My egg/bacon meal and small hot chocolate and his Mexican egg breakfast with a small coffee set me back about $17, but for the vibe, it was well worth it.  It's hard to find a place that offer syrup choices like mango and apricot as well as the usual vanilla and mint.

The last pay phone in America

A few weeks ago I was walking around the ASU Tempe campus when I spotted this pay phone. I think I might have literally done a double-take since I had thought that pay phones had left with the 90s along with the giga pets and dial tone.

I've walked that stretch of space (close to the fountain, near the Farmer building) hundreds of times and yet I had never noticed it. Then again it seems like I'm always running 3 minutes late to any class in that building so it's possibly that I'm too busy speed walking to class with homework in hand to ever look of the scenery. Anyway I began to nickname it "the last pay phone in America" in my head each time I passed it and inevitably forgot to tell anyone about it once it was out of eyesight.

So imagine my surprise when a week or so after my little discovery that I heard the tail-end of a conversation where a guy was looking for a pay phone and was nearly laughed at by the people he was asking. I knew I had to prove to someone that they still exist so I took a friend of mine one day to check it out. It's out of service by the way, though you can still hear the metal sound a key makes in the earpiece. Pleased by my adventure I began to leave campus when I spotted another one near the Discovery Building! Are they secretly everywhere? Why haven't I noticed this before? Has anyone else?

So if you spot a pay phone anywhere on the Tempe campus or around your area let me know. I'm on a hunt to find as many as possible before the end of the semester.