San Diego

I decided to go on a mini-snowbird adventure to take a break from the snow. It was hard to pick a place to go this winter, because the weather has been so upside-down, but I finally settled on San Diego. It wasn't the warmest, but at least it was green and snow-free. I chose a hotel just a couple blocks from the waterfront (Best Western Bayside Inn). This is the view from my room looking out at the full moon over the bay.

My goal for this trip was to do some sketching, since there are so many beautiful Spanish-style buildings in San Diego. Every day I headed off some place new - sometimes walking, sometimes taking the train. One day I took the ferry over to Coronado Island. You tend to see a lot of quirky things in San Diego, especially in terms of yard ornamentation 

On Saturday, I joined the San Diego Urban Sketchers at the Mission Bay Beach Club. Luckily it was right at a train stop. Their group is really active meeting up usually twice a month (much easier to do in a warm climate).

I wasn't the only visitor from out-of-town. The guy on the right side of the photo came all the way from Korea. There was another girl from Boulder, Colorado (small world). Both of them were visiting relatives.

I took a ton of pictures while I was in San Diego, but unfortunately most of them came out fuzzy (this seems to be happening a lot with my phone). But you can see from my sketchbook that I made it to a lot of different places and enjoyed some really great Mexican food.

Probably one of the best things about the trip was that with all that walking, I finally caught up with Janet on our Colorado Trail hike. We've made it up to a town called Gunnison, known for the Black Canyon National Park - kind of a mini version of the Grand Canyon. This is where Bruce would like to go hiking this summer (in real life, not virtually).