Tour of California - Stage 8 (aka Stalking Levi and Lance!)

Chasing Levi and Lance all over North County!
February 22, 2009

My brother came down to visit for the weekend and meet little Sierra. Since his visit coincided withe the ending of the Tour, we decided to check it out

We caught them at 3 locations:
-Official start at 0 Km
-In the middle, near the Wild Animal Park (we ran down the street and got there JUST in time)
-Finish in Escondido

The Finish was too crazy and we didn't get too many good shots cuz they're blazing by too fast at the end! But here of some pictures we got. I've tagged Levi and Lance where I knew it was definitely them. I may have gotten some Floyd Landis, but not sure yet.

Location: Rancho Bernardo --> Escondido

Since facebook pictures have such low resolution, I've appended the original photos of the ones with Levi and Lance below for your viewing pleasure.

At 0 KM

Levi is in the middle in the yellow jersey and navy arm warmers

Lance's butt! (He's #2)

In the middle, the Breakaway... Frnk Schleck (winner of the stage) should be here.

Team Astana at the front of the peloton

(Levi in yellow, Lance is the only one with a yellow helmet)

Finish - Levi's teammates congratulating him on winning the Tour

Levi's butt

We went home afterwards and watched the race that we DVR'd.

Fun day!

Where the Wild Things Are... and Risa!

Today I had a very special visitor, Risa. A good friend from high school who I haven't seen in 12... that's right, TWELVE... years! We last saw each other when I visited her at Wellesley during our freshman year. Crazy. Risa is finishing up a difficult program in rabbinical studies after a grueling 5 years and will soon become a Rabbi and a force in the Potomac community!

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But stupid me forgot to get a picture of the two of us. Sheesh, I'm such a dumba** at times, huh?

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We spent the day chatting and chatting and catching up on everything's that happened in our adult lives. It was very strange to be talking about husbands, jobs, and families, when the last time we talked was about college, boys, and the wonders of living away from our parents. Bizarr-o!

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While we chatted, we also walked all around the San Diego Zoo and saw some creatures:

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Panda in the tree

(Mei Sheng, the 3.5year old male. Su Lin, the baby, was not on display today)

Climbing down the tree
Risa showing us that her neck is pretty long, too

I don't remember what this little guy is, but he was cute climbing in and out of the food bin

These are for Heather:

Camel with a HUGE glob of spit hanging from his mouth

Other camel yawning

Peacock on the street!

Luxurious tail

Risa tried to get close

Dave and I took Risa to eat at an awesome Japanese place in La Jolla called Tadashi Sushi. But while walking on the streets, we noticed a mama duck with 12 ducklings trailing her on the sidewalk. It was so cute!

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Hiding from the humans....

Can you find the ducks?

It was so great to see Risa! Too bad she is leaving LA soon... :( But nice to know that good friends will always remain good friends, even with long gaps between conversations.

NEW TALLY
College - 4
NYC - 1
High School - 1

I'm looking forward to jacking up my numbers some more. Sureka's coming into town in a few weeks!

Lilly + Potential Wedding Spots in San Diego

Another friend in town for a visit! My college co-volleyball-fanatic freak Lilly was in town for a few days (the bf/future fiance was at a conference)... I haven't seen Lilly for about 2-3 years? We were crazy about volleyball back in college (this was before my obsession transferred over to ultimate frisbee) spending good chunks of the weekends and reading periods playing ball... And then in New York, we spent some time together on the ski slopes. Lilly was amazing at mastering the snowboard in one season. It blew me away how quickly she picked it up...

So we spent a good chunk of a day talking about her future wedding. :) Hee hee.... and decided to check out some local places as potential wedding spots. Here are a few pictures from some places we checked out. I guess it's good for anyone looking at this and thinking of a wedding in SoCal?

Paradise Point

on Mission Bay

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It was a cute resort on an island in Mission Bay. No high rise buildings, but rather little bungalows spread out through the resort. Apparently, in its hey day, it was a private vacation spot for celebrities, and the "lagoon" was used in the movie Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor. Huh.

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Lilly at Paradise Point

(indicating this is the first spot we're checking out)

Sunset Point
View from Sunset Point
Pine Hill
Lagoon

Pine Hill to Lagoon area
Turtles!

Estancia in La Jolla

An upscale luxury hotel in La Jolla next door to the Salk Institute. Since it was up in the hills of La Jolla, I thought it may be on top of the cliffs overlooking the ocean, but no. No ocean view. Apparently, behind the hotel are several several-million dollar homes obstructing the view of the water. However, it's a pretty hotel. We did a quick run through and took a couple snaps.

The Lodge at Torrey Pines
La Jolla

Another upscale luxury hotel next to the famous golf course at Torrey Pines. We just stopped by for Lilly to pick up some info, so no pictures. But she was very impressed with the decor in the lobby. I guess I should go check it out sometime. All I noticed was that the bellhop and valet guys were wearing kilts and we were surrounded by some oooh-la-la cars, i.e. Maserati or things of that sort.

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L'Auberge

in Del Mar

This place had a cool name and sounds kinda fancy. They have a large terrace where weddings sometimes take place. I think small receptions can take place there as well. They also have a banquet room, but we didn't have access to it as some event was going on. What is more popular (and quite beautiful) is for the wedding ceremony to take place at Seagrove Park, a park on the cliffs a block away from the hotel with the reception occuring at the hotel.

Lilly relaxing on the Terrace



Seagrove Park



You can hear the crashing waves!
Wild squirrels! (and so FAT)

NEW TALLY:

College - 4

NYC - 1

High School - 0

California snow....

We went skiing and boarding!

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day... warm enough for me to strut around in a t-shirt. Dave and Neill got off of work early, and we decided to head out for some night skiing at Mountain High. Mountain High had their snowmaking machines on during the entire week and we figured this was our best chance for some decent skiing/boarding conditions this late in the season and with the Santa Ana winds blowing in.

Mountain High is located in the San Gabriel mountains, about a 2 hour drive from San Diego. Unfortunately for us, last night was the Friday before a long weekend with tons of people heading out to Vegas and clogging the freeway. Ugh, it took us about 4 hours to get there! But dang, it was worth it! It had been 6 years since Neill's gone boarding, and 4 years for me and Dave. The conditions were great, a bit icy with a nice layer of soft snow on top.... similar to Hunter Mountain, and way better than Mountain Creek. The place has tons of jumps and fun things scattered throughout the trails. We weren't ready to go on any of them, but it's nice to know we have a decent snow park so close to us!

(My crappy picture of Dave in action)



We followed this with a midnight dinner in Rowland Heights and then headed on back to SD....

Good times.

Biking in 4S Ranch...

Dave had to work a long day today, but thank goodness he got home early enough to enjoy some of the warm weather!

Since I haven't gotten a chance to explore the trails around 4S Ranch, Dave took me out on "the loop".

Along the way, there was a big ol' orange tree, so we jumped the fence to try some organic oranges (ha ha, that was for you, Heather!).

Our bikes hanging by the trail

Dave picking an orange

Me checking out the oranges

Dave peeling the orange

Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of Dave testing out the orange. He spit it out so fast, I just died laughing. It was SOUR...

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Lastly, Dave took some pictures of me biking....