i just don't stop!!

My story continues with a week where a few days DID end a little early, and I finally got out on the longboard I borrowed from JD, Christine's husband.  It feels SO good to get out and do something active...  I think I've said that before.  I went out to the Silver Strand Bikeway, a paved trail that starts in Chula Vista and heads around the South Bay (San Diego Bay, not San Francisco Bay) and up the Silver Strand isthmus to Coronado.  The first day, I drove out to a parking lot along highway 75 not too far from the entrance to the state beach.  I skated about a mile and a quarter, then headed back to the car.  I did learn from my sore calves experience from running on the beach!  I still had energy but my feet were sore, so I went out and walked on the beach and took more photos (surprise, surprise).  The next day, I found a place in Imperial beach where I could park my car and get onto the trail earlier. I skated out to the parking lot from the previous day for a round trip of about 3.5 miles.  The third day I found the start of the bikeway and my roundtrip was 5.5 miles.  At the very south end of the bay there are salt ponds and a wildlife refuge, along with a gorgeous view of downtown san diego.

view of the south bay from the bikeway

skate in motion

not too often you see a bird of prey in flight from slightly above it

beautiful view of downtown san diego and the coronado bridge

salt pond reflections

great egret staring at me

Thursday and Friday got busier in the hospital, with Friday being the craziest day with which I'd dealt yet.  I had been texting back and forth at lunch with Renee, a friend from Sierra-at-Tahoe who recently ascertained via Facebook that we were both in the San Diego area.  She tossed me the idea of taking a free surfing lesson on Saturday - even though I didn't need a lesson, it sounded really fun, but I wasn't thrilled with the idea of wearing a rental wetsuit, and also heard that there are warnings to not go in the water the day after a rain (it rained both Thursday and Friday) because of sewage runoff.  Then late in the afternoon she texted about an opportunity to go snowboarding!  She belongs to an online meetup group for skiing/ snowboarding, and a girl posted that she was going to Snow Valley and had 4 spots in her car.  THAT sounded like an irresistible idea, so Renee was able to get one of the seats in the car held for me.  I got up at 5:30 am, met Renee, and we together headed to meet our driver, Jenny, and the other passengers Cassandra and Aaron.  The resort is a couple hours drive from Jenny's place in North County San Diego, on the way to Big Bear Lake.  It was a very relaxed group of people, so with various delays and stops, we were finally getting on the chairlift at 11:00 am.

here's where we turned off from the road to big bear

looking at snow valley from the lodge

It had snowed somewhere between 14 and 18 inches in the previous 24 hours, and most of the lifts were closed due to a transformer mishap earlier in the week.  There were only 4 lifts running, 3 of which accessed exclusively beginner terrain.  While Aaron went off and took a lesson, the four girls rode together.  We solved the problem of limited terrain by hiking up from the side of a run and discovering the elusive "Lake Run" of which Jenny (a Snow Valley passholder) had heard but never found.

view from the top of lake run

cassandra, renee, me, and jenny

We met up with Aaron for lunch after his lesson, then took a run with him before leaving him to practice on beginner terrain while we went up higher again.  This time, we hiked about 1/3 mile up the groomed snow to the top of the nearest closed lift (about 200' elevation gain).  From there, we could access a run of pure untouched snow.  BEAUTIFUL!  Not quite Tahoe powder, but beautiful nonetheless.

renee, jenny, cassandra, and me hiking

view from the top

The resort was open till 8 PM.  We rode until 5:30 or 6 pm before heading back toward San Diego.  On the way back we stopped at an In-N-Out.  It's a little hard to believe I've been in Southern California (home of In-N-Out) for over two months, and this was my first trip to In-N-Out!

in-n-out - best fast food burger and fries i know

Sunday I got together with Lisa, a friend from high school.  It'd been TWENTY-FIVE years since we'd last seen each other!  That's a long time.  She's now working as an orthopedist in the LA area.  We met up in La Jolla at the Contemporary Art Museum and strolled along the shore for a bit before stopping for a delicious brunch at the Crab Catcher.

lisa and me across the street from the contemporary art museum

If I thought last Thursday and Friday were tough, I had another thing coming...  This week has been even crazier.  More on that in the next post.

keep on keeping on...

I had a couple very busy weeks at work, with hardly any daylight time after I got off.  Two mornings after my sick day, it hailed right after I got in my car to go to the hospital.  A couple days later, you could see rain up high in the clouds at sunset.

hail!  in san diego!!

rain in the high clouds, clear and sunny below

The next weekend, I drove up to South Pasadena again and hung out with Irene.  The afternoon started with a group car wash in the driveway - Joe and Irene washed their cars while I washed mine.  Then another friend from CIBC, Lisa, came over and Irene, Lisa, and I headed out for dinner and more catching up time.  Lisa's another Cal Architecture grad who is no longer in architecture.

car wash party!

irene, me, and lisa - stuffed with dumplings and bubble tea!

The next morning, I visited Newsong Church in Irvine where I met up with John again.  I also ran into Loc and Christina and family, not knowing that Christina works there!  Christina was one of "my kids" from Ichthus, the high school group at CIBC Oakland.  After church, John, his friend Keith, and I went out to sushi for lunch before they went off to watch a hockey game.

happy post-sushi photo

While they headed off to hockey, I drove to Torrance where I met up with four more of "my kids" from CIBC.  I hadn't seen any of them in years - before there were spouses and kids in the picture at all!  Now, there are three spouses, one fiancee, and 6 young kids.  We went out for dinner at King's Hawaiian, then headed back to Jason's place for dessert.

group shot: jason & abby with micah and delaney, greg & joan, esther & richard
with noah and caleb, and andrew & tiffany with ethan and ella (and me)

Another week in the hospital with no afternoons off, and then I caught up with another friend that Friday night.  Kristin was a year behind me in Cal's Architecture program, and I got to know her at CIBC.  We met up on Convoy Street which is known as a very Asian area in San Diego.  We went to a Korean tofu place and ate some comfort food - a hot clay pot of tofu with a bowl of rice.

kris and me after dinner, tapioca drinks, and good talks

The next day I headed up to Venice Beach to catch up with one of my old mountainboarding friends, Julianne.  We walked about 6 miles - from Marina Del Rey along the entire length of the Venice Boardwalk to the Santa Monica Pier and back, and saw interesting architecture and a higher concentration of weird people than Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley.  Most of them will charge you money for taking their picture, apparently will even chase you down until you pay them.  Fortunately, I'm pretty sly and didn't get caught!  I spent the night at Julianne's place near LAX, fighting with her cat for the right to keep my bed cat-free.

some of the curious houses along venice boardwalk

just a sampling of odd characters along venice boardwalk

pretty sunset on venice beach

julianne and her crazy cat

The next morning I stopped for a quick breakfast at a Starbucks in Manhattan Beach on my way south to Mission Viejo (I had a gift card!).  I walked down to the pier and briefly watched some boogie boarders before the 24 minute time limit ran out on my parking space.  Then I met up with Diana and Cary Sun at Saddleback Church - Diana is a friend from CIBC as well.  The Suns and I went out for lunch afterwards at Pieology, a pizza place owned by Michael Chang (the tennis player) and his brother Carl (who went to Cal when I did).

manhattan beach pier

diana and me after lunch at pieology

I headed back toward San Diego to catch up with more friends from Cal and CIBC - Keith and Deanna both attended Cal's Optometry school, Keith attended CIBC, and Deanna went to Cal for undergrad and was in AACF with me.  Keith made a great Korean-style BBQ while Deanna provided the rest of dinner.  Their energetic boys kept moving the whole time!

crazy bus at a "vista point" along highway 5 (and some crazy looking lady tried to solicit a "donation" for taking a photo - i declined)) - it's unclear what is special about the view

me with keith, deanna, and their kids drew and trent

The next blog post should catch up through my last weekend living in San Diego...

plugging away!

This post can't cover everything that's gone on since my last post, so I'll just see how far I get...

First, here's a photo from Lisa Peterson's birthday lunch:

that's their son eric at the back of the table

I did some more barefoot running on the beach, but had to switch over to walking because it made my calves hurt.  It is very peaceful out on Silver Strand State Beach at this time of year, near sunset - probably because it gets pretty chilly and most people don't want to be out there!

sunset on the beach

I had to work in the hospital on Saturday, February 9.  The gate to my usual parking area was meant to be closed, so I was instructed to park in front of the main hospital.  Who knew there was a fancy entrance with a statue and fountain!

front entrance to paradise valley hospital

That night, I joined my mountainboarding friend Kody at Qualcomm Stadium for my first ever Supercross experience.  It was pretty fun, especially since Kody works for Fox Racing and could give me the inside scoop on who the riders were and which ones to keep in my sights.

kody and me with the supercross track in the background

On Sunday evening I caught up with Christine, a friend from Cal who now lives in San Diego - we hadn't seen each other in over 20 years!  It was great to catch up, meet her husband and kids, and just spend some time hanging out.

christine and me with her two boys

That Monday, I happened to look up and see the moon.  Since I have my camera with me pretty much every day, I realized the chance had finally come to catch a photo I've wanted for years.  It requires the perfect combination of moon phase, time of day, clear (enough) skies, camera in hand, and ability to be outside at the right time.  Here's the result:

fingernail moon, full circle

Since my CI and I had worked that previous Saturday, we got Tuesday off.  The Petersons were kind enough to take me to see the renowned San Diego Zoo.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch and had a good time walking around seeing the animals before we headed back.

i guess i'm less than half the size of a full grown polar bear!

ron and lisa in front of a pachyderm statue

capybaras are such ridiculous looking creatures, yet cute...

Belinda showed up Friday evening, and the two of us went to the nearby cemetery to enjoy the sunset.  It was pretty spectacular:

sunset view - looks like there's some centrifugal force acting on the clouds!

 The next day, although Belinda and I were both feeling a bit sick, we went out for lunch with her parents and then went for a walk on the bay side of Silver Strand State Beach.  There's a bit of a nature preserve there with loads of wild rabbits.

lisa, ron, and belinda - bonita is in the background on the other side of the bay

wild rabbits in alert mode

Belinda and I both ended up spending that Sunday sitting around the house, feeling pretty sick.  She fortunately had the Monday off from work for President's Day - I ended up coming home sick because it was not a good idea to be around patients in my condition at that time.  Thankfully, I felt much better by Tuesday and was back at it full force.

forty percent

I've been here four weeks now.  Wednesday of my third week I got to attend CSM - the Combined Sections Meeting of the American Physical Therapy Association.  I took the San Diego Trolley in from Chula Vista, avoiding the downtown traffic and parking hassles.  After picking up my badge holder at registration, I met up with some of the first year Emory PT students.  I am the only one from my class to attend since we are all over the country on our long term rotations.  I also got to see Cheryl, one of my mother's Taiko drumming friends who is a PT for Kaiser in the Bay Area.

We attended a couple of lectures, wandered the exhibit hall, explored a bit outside at lunchtime, and in the evening went to the Emory University Alumni and Faculty Reception.  It was great to see a bunch of familiar faces, and I ended up really enjoying the time in the exhibit hall talking to representatives of different PT clinics and companies about opportunities that exist.

i hung around with katherine all day

panoramic view from a cool pedestrian bridge

the inimitable and beloved "miss ella" - the emory DPT admin

The next day I got off a little early again so I headed to the Chula Vista Marina.  There was a plethora of shorebirds, including great blue herons, snowy egrets, brown pelicans, sandpiper types, ducks, coots, and of course seagulls.  I was so surprised to find that herons were nesting in a pine tree right at the marina that I tripped on a curb and tore open my big toe!

pair of brown pelicans

snowy egret

how many herons can you spot in this picture (there are six!)

I spent the weekend in South Pasadena, catching up with a friend from Berkeley.  Irene and I hadn't seen each other in 8 years!  The last time was on the San Francisco peninsula when they were up for a friend's wedding.  Back then, the kids were somewhat shy, especially B - the only way to get him to smile for a picture was to flip him upside down over my shoulder.  Now, both kids are talkative and fun, with M involved in band and softball and B getting me to pull out my old soccer skills to shoot goals on him.

eight years ago and now!  joe took the first photo, was off biking for the second

This past Wednesday I went out to the Chula Vista Marina again.  The tide was lower and there were many fewer types of birds, but the sun was out so I was able to see the heron nests better.  I also discovered that they were in a couple different trees.

two nests right next to each other

another beautiful sunset

Thursday I got off early again and headed out to Silver Strand State Beach again, this time for a run.  I ran a couple miles down the beach and half ran and half walked back.  The shells were much more numerous further from the entrance, and I found several whole sand dollars.

navy helicopter drills by the beach

sand dollars on the kelp

barefoot running on the empty beach

yet another beautiful sunset

Friday night Ron and Lisa Peterson returned from their travels, with son Eric spending the weekend to welcome them home.  Today we'll head out to lunch to celebrate Lisa's birthday.