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

Future Jammer HB!

When is comes to comparing San Diego to New York City, I think my friends prefer the West Coast. Either that or EVERYONE has conferences in San Diego...

Since moving to our new home in December, we've already had several visitors! Not including relatives, the tally we have going is:

College friends - 2 (Neill and Gary)
New York friends - 1 (Paul)
High School friends - 0

As of this weekend, College friends get another mark! My good friend/ex-college-roomie Helen was in town for a conference and visited us. We spent a nice afternoon at the Wild Animal Park checking out gazelles, rhinos, and okapi... The next day, we introduced her and Christian to Guitar Hero. Uh oh, this is like DDR revisited. Back in the day, Helen stayed in our apartment in NYC and mastered Dance Dance Revolution in ONE day... Well, she didn't get the opportunity to perfect her skills, but she certainly managed to define her style (and flying hair) while Christian was mastering his facial expressions. Check them out!

New tally:

College - 3

NYC - 1

High School - 0

San Diego Yale Alum Mixer

Today, Neill, Dave, and I decided to go to the Yale Club of San Diego Annual Mixer. As Dave and I have never gone to any Yale Club events anywhere, we figured we might as well go to something where we plan on settling. It also helped that Neill wanted to go, because at the very least, we'll have somewhere else to talk to. In case you didn't know, Dave and I are big introverts at heart...

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So the event was at an alum's house out in Point Loma. What a beautiful location! It was on top of a hill with gorgeous views of San Diego harbor. I took a picture from the street, but the views from the house were even more amazing (I was too uncomfortable to whip out the camera and snap away in the house).

It was an interesting event. The house we were at belonged to an alum that graduated in '47. Ha ha... I'm guessing half of the people there were from the 40s. One guy told us a bit about fighting in Italy during WWII. Wow. I briefly met one guy who graduated in the 50s, a Yale Law alum from the 70s, and then there was a small contingent of more recent grads: one '87, Neill and Dave '96, me '98, two kids '03, and one '04.... We also met a couple with a great story: The husband was a Yale Med professor during the '50s-'70s. He came to Yale Med for a fellowship in the 40s. First of all, the wife was born and raised in New Haven. Her father was an administrator at Yale. Apparently, they were super chummy with the higher-ups at Yale, that when the couple got married, they were gifted a huge plot of land in New Haven from the President of Yale (or someone big like that, I can't remember). Cool, huh? When we got home, I googled them and found a Scientific American article on the husband! Wow, I'm totally impressed.... I didn't really get a chance to ask what the other alums did with their lives, but it wouldn't surprise me if a bunch of them did amazing things.... Oh, and one of the kids that graduated '03? Well, his great great grandfather graduated '03, too. 1903 that is. Wow, talk about Super Legacy.... Anyways, I do have to say that I dreaded going to the Mixer thinking that it was going to be full of stuffy old geezers (it didn't help that Neill just went to a Harvard Alum Dinner event in San Diego which WAS full of stuffy old geezers, and was no fun), but I was pleasantly surprised. The people were SOOOOO nice and genuinely friendly. The older ladies were so vivacious and fun. I gotta schmooze some more and see if there are any Yalies in the biotech industry. ;)

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A picture of the house with the MASSIVE Yale banner in front (as we were leaving)

Afterwards, we decided to stop at Neill's workplace for him to pick up some stuff. Of course, I had to take some shots of PROFRESSOR Neill's office.

Neill in his office

Neill's walls are super boring since he doesn't have anything up, but at least he has some cool pictures of him surfing in Hawaii.

We get such a kick out of this since it's hard to imagine a peer being a Professor. Ha ha ha....

Roomies

i just received some cool pictures of us from helen's Flickr site.

here's a picture of the Bingham 1069/ES3114 threesome on helen's 30th bday!

(me, eva, and helen)

it's been a long time. can you believe we've known each other for 12 years?!? we met back in 1994 as naive freshmen in a teeny tiny squalor of a suite in Bingham Hall.

helen and i shared a double that was ~50 square feet (no joke!) which became a single the year after us. grrr....

helen also captured an image of me in, uh, "Death Bunny" action on September 29, 2004.

!!!!!
helen or eva, do you remember what was going on?!? i have no recollection whatsoever of this event.

it isn't a surprise i sometimes goof off like this. some examples:

(with migs, our honorary roomie!)

ahhh, good times....

a simple mind, a simple life...

i guess i should explain...

it doesn't take much to make me satisfied with life:
an experiment that works-


a good meal-


a nice glass of sangria/margarita/mojito/bubble tea-


good friends-


an afternoon of disc-


sweet loving from the furballs-


a nurturing and supportive family-


and spending time with my hubby-


wouldn't you consider this a nice simple happy life?
that's all i ask for...