Thursday, February 9, 2012

Introduction



Dear Family and Facebook Friends -

At the urging of my mother, brother and a couple other people I have decided to start a new blog! I also decided emailing everyone pictures is too time consuming - this way all of you who aren't on facebook can see what I'm up to.

Life here in the desert has been great thus far! I am making the most out of my free time and going for hikes, weekend adventures and whatever free entertainment I can find. Work is keeping me busy and due to that I will not be posting nearly as much as when I was in France. I also used wordpress for previous blogs and as blogspot is new to me, bear with my wierd layouts and errors as I make sense of it.

Although it would likely be wisest to start my blog at the very beginning of my adventures, but I had a great time in San Diego this weekend, so I really feel I need to share that first!

I have spent both my "weekends" In the Manchester of San Diego with the other management trainee of my hotel. The first time we went on our own dime so we could experience the downtown nightlife of San Diego. We stayed at the hotel for a discounted rate, but with food and gasoline it ended up being a fairly pricey getaway. This time my room and food was paid for by my HR department because I went for a meet and greet with other management trainees! It was so nice to be able to spend the night there and eat without worrying about the cost! The other management trainees were nice and boy there are A LOT at the Manchester!!! There are so many some even thought I was from their property. It makes me thankful to work at a resort small enough I can get to know everyone by name.

After our meet-and-greet the group went out to a restaurant/bar in the gaslamp district called "La Puerta".

(Margot and I showed up a bit late because I wanted to go have a drink and dessert at the top of the restaurant in a bar on the 40th floor!)



The view is beautiful and the drinks are good too = ) I would have loved to be up there at sunset, but on future trips to San Diego I anticipate staying at other hotels in the city, so you should go see that for me one day!

Margot and I then socialized at La Puerta for an hour or two before going to find Double Deuces a western bar I had seen previously with a mechanical bull. We were derailed on the way by an Irish Pub with Swing Dancing blasting through the street! Of course I had to go in for several dances - gosh it was fun -I need to find a dancing place in Palm Desert!

(Thankfully no pictures of my rusty dancing were taken)

After I got my dancing fix we did go to the western bar and I rode the bull twice! At this point in the recap, I would like to let you know I was sober the whole time. Which really didn't provide an excuse when I saw ghiradellis and we went in for hot cookie sundaes on the way home! They were so damn good. No pictures were taken sadly, but it sure hit the spot!


The following day Lauren hooked me up with a free ticket to the oh-so-expensive San Diego Zoo!!! Our concierge also gave Margot and I his VIP pass for being employees and we got to go on a trolley tour all around the city for free. Margot explored the town while I got off at Balboa Park and went to the zoo to use my free day pass.


The aviaries were my favorite places! This bottom picture shows a Victorian Crowned Pigeon!!! THEY ARE HUGE!

Some other awesome animals:







After my zoo time I caught the trolley Margot was on and we briefly stopped in Old Town to walk around, eat some hot homeade tortillas and soak up the culture of San Diego! We only were there for half an hour, but we did walk over to the Whaley House. This place is deemed one of the most haunted places in the US. A man named Whaley bought this for a steal a couple hundred years ago. He ended up finding out why he got such a good deal on the property his first night there. The house is built where Spanish gallows used to be.



And that was my second trip to Sunny San Diego! Write more soon - thanks for reading!




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