In honor of Jane Emerson, long-time San Diego resident and activist
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Giraffes and rhinos
Unlike most zoo environments, one of the amazing things about the Wild Animal Park is being able to see several animals living together in a large open space. In this photo to the left under the tree there are two rhinos taking a rest. A train ride takes a tour around the whole park or you can take a long hike and get a closer look at the animals. They also offer camp-style sleepovers throughout the year. Can you imagine hearing a roar in the middle of the night right outside your tent?
I couldn't resist showing you this cute baby elephant that was born almost six months ago at the Wild Animal Park. Khosi is her name and she weighed 209 lbs (95 kg) at birth! Click here to see a slide show of the newborn.
I've shown many photos of animals from the San Diego Zoo. Now I finally made a trip to the the Zoo's sister organization, the Wild Animal Park, which is about 35 miles from the Zoo. The Wild Animal Park is on an 1,800 acre preserve with native habitats for wild and endangered animals from all over the world. That is the Balloon Safari where you pay extra to "fly high above the plains of Africa in a 30 passenger balloon". I'll show you a few more photos in the next few days.
When you think of great wines, San Diego is probably not the first place that comes to mind. Although San Diego is a big city, there are still large open spaces that make you feel like you might have got lost in the country. California wines are growing in popularity and there are more than a dozen wineries within this county.
The Chinese New Year celebration is being held downtown today and tomorrow. Happy Year of the Boar to everyone! I'm a pig, what are you? And Happy Birthday to my friend Susu!
I know y'all would rather see babyback ribs dripping with sauce and onion rings the size of your hands, but the Phil's BBQ on Goldfinch Street is still temporarily closed. They have been closed in order to prepare for the opening of a second big restaurant on Sports Arena Blvd. They had the grand opening last week and many are still anxious for the old smaller Phil's to re-open. Have you ever experienced mouth-watering disappointment? That's how I felt driving up to Phil's to find the "Closed" sign in the window.
This is not an archive photo - I took this photo at the mall over the weekend. I was surprised to see swimsuits are already on sale. A not so subtle reminder from the industry that there are only about 4 more months to get in shape in order to fit into these teeny weeny bikinis!
Here is another photo I took yesterday when they were setting up for the Hillcrest Mardi Gras party. I was thinking that taking a ride on this ferris wheel wouldn't be such a good idea after a few drinks.
Mardi Gras celebrations are just getting underway around the city tonight. The biggest celebration is in the Gaslamp Quarter downtown where there will be a parade, live bands, street performers, mass quantities of beads, hurricane drinks and cocktails, and lots of people letting the good times roll.
Today's plans to spend outdoors were foiled. We got lots of rain and more on the way. Lots of people ended up at the mall shopping or going to the movies. What do you do when you are stuck inside?
Through my eyes, this water tower in El Cajon looks like an alien space craft. And yes, that is a space craft with clouds decorated on it. There has been very little space in my brain dedicated to physics, so of course I had no clue the purpose of a water tower and thought they were for water storage of some sort. You learn something new everyday.
This is a view of El Capitan or El Cajon Mountain (3675 feet). If you've ever come to San Diego by plane and had to circle round, you might have seen this mountain and then within minutes looked outside the window to find the plane flying very close to downtown buildings as you make your landing at San Diego International Airport/Lindbergh Field.
Chinese New Year is this Sunday so I thought I'd show a local Chinese restaurant. To be honest, I haven't found a favorite Chinese food place here in San Diego. I moved here from the San Francisco Bay Area where there are lots of inexpensive delicious Chinese food places. I haven't tried the Emerald Chinese restaurant that Stu mentioned, but I heard that it is one of the best in San Diego. Any suggestions?
These little people are window stickers on a car. A more popular version I've seen is just a white outline (without color) of each individual member of the family. The other day I saw a group with the family pets (2 cats) included!
Next door to the Hong Kong Restaurant is a store called Column One that sells fountains, sculptures, and garden ornaments. Here, a goddess and god are ready for Valentine's Day festivities.
It's been one photo a day for one year for Hong Kong Daily Photo. Congratulations Lisi! Please visit Lisi and leave her a footprint. Although I've never been to Hong Kong before, I was racking my brain trying to think of what I could show in San Diego that would be a little like Hong Kong. I happened to come across this restaurant that says it all. San Diegans, what reminds you of Hong Kong in our city?
Just as Luggi of Los Angeles Daily Photo hoped, it is raining in Southern California. Which leads me to pull out a photo that I took months ago. This is from a cool mosaic wall that had several interesting areas and some parts that were still in progress. Here is a larger piece of the wall that I posted last year.
Saffron Thai Grilled Chicken and Saffron Noodles & Sate are two walk-up casual dining restaurants next door to one another. They share the same menu, but one is more of a sit down and relax kind of place and the other is for take out. Parking is hard to find in this India Street neighborhood, so they will also deliver to your car. Yum, yum, yummy peanut sauce! We had shrimp salad rolls, two little drumsticks for the kiddies, the Friday special - chicken in a coconut milk based sauce, sate chicken, and pad thai. I'm looking forward to trying their sticky rice with mango once it comes into season.
I think this past week I've been starting to feel the first hints of "spring cleaning" fever, maybe it's from the trees. This photo reminds me of this Van Gogh painting. Just a little less than 6 more weeks until spring!
The older I get the more I think that young people will wear anything and they don't realize how bad they really look. Ahh, youth. At some point you can't blame your parents for dressing you horribly. I remember an awful picture of myself when I was a teenager in a t-shirt with a neon green peace sign. I don't have that t-shirt anymore, but I do have a few that are more than 10 years old that I can't throw out. Do you have a favorite old t-shirt that has been loved to death?
There were two Aztec Bowls: one was a football stadium at San Diego State University and the other was a bowling alley. Both have been demolished. The football stadium is now an indoor stadium called Cox Arena and hosts SDSU sporting events and concerts. The bowling alley was demolished in order to build condos. BUT, as you will see in the photo above, they kept the sign and mounted it above the entrance to the condos. Here's a link to some old photos of the bowling alley.
Do you have any items that you don't use that you don't know what to do with? If I had an old non-working O'Keefe & Merritt or Magic Chef this is what I would hope to do with it. And I say hope because it would probably just sit in my garage with the other items I would like to sell on Craigslist. These neighbors put it to good use and have it on display on a fairly busy street.
I don't know if there is really a museum behind the door of this used foreign auto parts store, but I could probably put that same sign up in my garage.
Okay, I'm only going to write a few things about the City Deli. Opened in 1984, opens at 7 am everyday of the week, open until 2 am on Friday and Saturday, booths, free pickles at the table, mini jukeboxes at the table, breakfast served all day, bagel & cream cheese with lox and onions, liver and onions, Reuben sandwiches, homemade pastries, erotic cakes, and much much more.
Unlike most zoo environments, one of the amazing things about the Wild Animal Park is being able to see several animals living together in a large open space. In this photo to the left under the tree there are two rhinos taking a rest. A train ride takes a tour around the whole park or you can take a long hike and get a closer look at the animals. They also offer camp-style sleepovers throughout the year. Can you imagine hearing a roar in the middle of the night right outside your tent?
