Birthday action My birthday was last weekend; I was fortunate enough to be able to spend it with my lady friend (okay, okay, okay, I'll admit it, my "girlfriend"). Since my birthday always falls during finals week, it's impossible to plan anything around it, as finals time is always kind of haphazard. We enjoy traveling, and for times like this the best option is usually somewhere within driving distance. Last year it was Vegas, this year is for real southern California.I was able to get Friday off (my actual birthday), so we woke up and decided to head down to San Diego. It was truly on a whim, as we had no idea what we were going to do. On the way down, we considered going to Disneyland, but after learning that was going to cost us over $100 just to get in we kept heading south. We ended up settling in a portion of downtown that seemed pretty popular (I think they called it "Old Town"), which allowed us to get something to eat and walk around for a while. In the brief time we spent there, San Diego seemed kind of like Philly: a big city with a small town feel. A lot of people say they like it better than LA, but I'm still not sure why. The next day we decided to hit up Mexico. However, I wanted to see the Padres stadium first (for no particular reason other than to say I've seen it). When we get over there, there's some charity event going on. As an attraction, they had snow for the kids to play in. Picture this: a 30ft. by 30ft. patch of artificial snow on the side of a hill (palm trees in the background no less), full of kids and parents with video cameras - only in Southern California! And the kids were really dressed like it was snow weather (meanwhile I watch on in my short sleeve shirt). These kids had hats, gloves, snow pants and boots. Some even brought sleds to slide down the (90 sq. ft.) patch. For a guy who grew up in Michigan, this sight was sad, yet hilarious :) Anywho's, we came to grips with what had just seen, we hopped on the highway and made a run for the border. We stopped at this little town just south of Tijuana to have lunch, and then drove down highway 1 to Ensenada. Highway 1 is a really pretty drive cause it's right along the coast. We'd taken it on our last leg of that road trip we took back in the September (from San Fran to about Santa&Barbara), so it was kind of cool to take it even further south. While the drive was pretty, the destination wasn't :/ Ensenada's a real shit hole, probably the worst beach town I've ever been to. Needless to say, as soon as we hit it we turned around and headed back to TJ. We walked around TJ for a while: met some locals, checked out a street market, and walked up and down their main street. TJ is kind of out of control. That is, I can imagine all sorts of illegal shit goes unnoticed down there. It was all good though; at the very least I got to practice my Spanish. We came back here to Pasadena that same night (Saturday), completing yet another (great) birthday extravaganza.
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