More beaches and baseball

This past weekend we headed to San Diego to visit some friends and see some of the sites we missed the first trip down.  Saturday we spent the day in Coronado.  We headed to Ferry Landing to eat lunch and walk around some of the shops.  From there, we took Bogey to the dog beach which is located right next to the Naval Base.  Bogey enjoyed running through the sand and along the water chasing the waves, and Tim enjoyed watching the F 18 jets take off and land.  We enjoyed watching him until Bogey decided that he wanted to run through the fence and check out the base  on his own (see exhibit "A").  You would think the fence separating the dog beach and the base would be doggie proof. When Bogey did not return after Tim repeatedly called his name, Tim had to crawl through the fence to retrieve our dog from the Base.  As he climbed back through the fence the speakers began shouting, "Warning, you are trespassing on Government property."  We quickly left after that incident.

On Sunday, we ventured out to see a Padres baseball game.  They played the Mariners that day and neither team has a great record, so we saw a lot of hits and a lot of errors.  Luckily we had great seats to view it all from.  Tim was thrilled to check another Major League Baseball stadium off of his list.

Here are the rest of the pictures.

Doc Visits

Back in March when I turned 30 Jodi gave me this:

Thanks to Jodi and Doc's parents, the golfing extravaganza and visit came to fruition this past weekend when Doc flew in from North Carolina.  Since Doc had to take the red-eye back on Sunday night, we made sure to fit in as much as possible every hour that he was here.  The first stop on Friday after picking him up from the airport was to a local golf course to play a warm-up round before we attempted to conquer Torrey Pines.  Friday night we loaded up the car and headed south to San Diego.  Doc got a taste of the Southern California traffic while on our way to San Diego, as we were stop and go through L.A. at 10:00 pm.   After checking in to the hotel around Midnight we set the alarm for 4:00 am to make sure we could secure our spot in the cue to get on to Torrey Pines.

For those of you who don't know, Torrey Pines is a municipal golf course on the Pacific Ocean in San Diego which hosted the 2008 US Open.  Since this course is along the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, as well as hosted a US Open and is not only affordable but also accessible to the general public; it is a popular place every day of the week let alone the weekend.  To ensure you are able to get on the course the day you want to play, you have to arrive at the course before daylight to get in line. Since the course doesn't open until daybreak the line-up occurs in the parking lot and is run by the honor system.  The last person to arrive leaves their headlights on in whatever parking spot they choose.  Once you arrive you knock on the window of the car with its lights on and ask them what number they are.   You then get back in your car and keep your headlights on until the next person arrives.  When the golf course opens just before dawn, everyone lines up in front of the pro shop in the order they arrived in the parking lot.  You then either pay the greens fee to get on the course immediately or you make a tee time for later on that day.  Doc and I chose the latter and made a 2:30 tee time not only to save some money (since the rates in the afternoon are almost half of what they are in the morning) but to also go back to the hotel to try and get some sleep.

Doc and I knew the basics of how the pre-dawn line up works, but we learned most of this on the fly as we were #5 in line with our 4:15 arrival.  We didn't learn of the whole keeping the headlights on rule until the #6 person rudely pointed this out to us.  When we arrived the guy parked next to us, pointed to a car behind and said "they have the sign in sheet."  As you can see the sign in sheet that day was a piece of cardboard.  These nice Asian gentlemen handed us the piece of cardboard to us and said that they were #4.  So we got back in the car with the piece of cardboard and waited for the next person to take it from us.  About 10 minutes later the next patron arrived, so I opened the door told him we were #5 and offered him the sign in sheet, to which he quickly and rather angrily responded "I don't need it, this is why you leave your lights on."  It was at this point Doc and I realized the sign in sheet was worthless and was most likely just used by the guy who arrived at midnight so he didn't have to wake up and tell the next person what number he was.

We got back to the hotel around 6:15 am and got right back into bed.  Before we headed back to the course for our round we made our way to La Jolla to see the Seals.  Since we knew that we wouldn't be able to adequetly capture our once in a lifetime round, Doc and I convinced Jodi to join us as our official photographer.   Doc and I had a great time playing a US Open course with breathtaking views. Thanks to Jodi we have amazing pictures to remember it all by.

Doc felt it would be crazy not to pay homage to Wally World, so Sunday morning we went down the street to ride some roller coasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain.  That evening on our way to LAX we made a stop at the Griffith Observatory to take in the views of LA and the coast at Sunset.  It was great laughing and golfing our way around Southern California with Doc.  As usual the weekend went by too quickly, but it is one that will never be forgotten.

Disneyland & Tributefest

Last Saturday and Sunday we celebrated our 3rd Anniversary with a weekend at Disneyland.  Thankfully Disney has a kennel located at the entrance of the park so Bogey was able to join us for our festivities.  Every few hours we stopped by the kennel to take Bogey out for a break.  We had a great time hopping back and forth between the Disneyland and California Adventure parks.  We rode the Tea Cups, Alice in Wonderland, the Matehorn, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World, Space Mountain, Tower of Terror, Soaring over California and many more.  We made sure the ride the ones that were specific to Disneyland.  We both agree the most amazing part of the weekend was the World of Color show at California Adventure on Saturday night.  That show alone was worth the price of admission for the entire weekend.  Both parks have a lot to offer, but it is easy to tell that, unlike Disney World in Florida, property is at a premium here in Southern California as they pack a whole lot in a very small space.

This Saturday (thanks to Mom & Dad Friedberg) we did something local and went to the Santa Clarita Tributefest.  There we heard tribute bands play the likes of Elton John, Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, Journey, Dave Matthews and The Who.  Journey was the best band and they sounded exactly like the "real thing."  We enjoyed both the live music and the unlimited premium draft beers!

As always the rest of the pictures are on Picasa.  

Beaches and Baseball

This week we had our 3rd Wedding Anniversary.  To celebrate we went out to a nice dinner, and scheduled plans for a weekend at Disneyland at the end of the month.

Saturday we drove up the coast to spend the day in Santa Barbara.  We walked along the beach, down the pier and along the State Street Historic Downtown shopping area.  We have heard that Santa Barbara is a nice place, but we were surprised by how much we loved this quaint beach town - Bogey included.

 

Sunday we decided to catch an afternoon game at Dodger Stadium.  For you Baseball buffs you may find these factoids as interesting as I (Tim) did: Dodger Stadium is currently the third oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball (behind Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago) and is the largest ballpark by seating capacity.  Since the game started right around lunchtime we purchased tickets in the "all you can eat" Right Field Pavilion.  Despite no respite from the California sun, our 1st row seats in the outfield were almost as fantastic as the unlimited Dodger Dogs.  The game was uneventful (offensive wise) until the 9th inning where the Dodgers won by a walk-off home run. It was a great ending to a wonderful day at the ballpark.

As usual, here are the rest of the pictures.

Here and There

We have had a couple of pretty laid back weekends since our last posting.  Two weeks ago we went to the neat town of Orange CA to visit one of Tim's former teammates from Greensboro College.  We spent the day walking around Historic Orange and visiting with Lawren, his Wife and their 3 children.  Last weekend we headed down the street to Six Flags  to ride a few roller coasters before the Final Four.  

Yesterday we went to The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley.  The Museum was quite remarkable, it definitely exceeded our expectations.  Unknown to us, we ended up timing our visit to the Library very well, as it was the last weekend the Miniature White House exhibit would be on display.  Unfortunately flash photography is not allowed, so our pictures will not do justice to this phenomenal replica. But I was able to track down more in-depth pictures of the model here.  One of the highlights of The Museum is the pavilion that hosts President Reagan's Air Force One, Marine One and his motorcade.  We were able to board the Air Force One, but have no pictures since photography is not allowed while on the plane.  The 80's state of the art communication center on Air Force One is now laughable, but it was really cool seeing President Reagan's Nuclear Football sitting in between the seats of the communication center.   Also featured at The Museum is the suit worn by President Reagan when he was shot, a section of the Berlin Wall, a full-sized replica of The Oval Office and President Reagan's final resting place. 

For our Sunday outing we went hiking at Runyon Canyon Park in the Hollywood Hills.  This 4 mile hike had amazing views throughout its 1000 ft. of elevation change.  

As usual, for the rest of the photos visit our Picasa page.  

For those of you who are interested, the folks at Google have created new ways to view blogs.   For a dynamic look at our entries visit the following link - Dynamic Views for Readers.  

The Friedberg's Visit

This weekend, Jodi's parents came to visit us for a long weekend in SoCal.  Friday we spent most of the day in Malibu.  We got an early start and drove a short distance along the Pacific Coast Highway around Malibu.  We made one stop along the water and it didn't take long for a wave to soak Mom and Dad's legs past their knees.  If was quite funny for us, but Mom was less than pleased.  They had to spend the rest of the day in wet jeans with wet socks and wrinkled toes.  We then took a 2-hour Whale Watching tour that left from the Malibu Pier.  Of course, we did not see any whales, but we did see plenty of dolphins and seals.  The tour also showed us a handful of celebrity homes that are located along the water in Malibu, including Cher, Dick Clark, Barbara Streisand, and Olivia Newton John.  One of the coolest things we saw were the enormous starfish attached to the legs of the pier.  After the tour, we ate lunch outside at The Beachcomber on the Malibu Pier.  We made a quick stop at the Cornell Winery before making our way home.  For dinner, we headed across the street from our apartment to BJ's where we enjoyed a great dinner and had our first star sighting.  We saw 2 soap opera stars (formerly on Port Charles and General Hospital), Erin Presley and her husband, Brian Presley.  After dinner, we saw One Night of Queen at the local performing arts center.  Gary Mullen and The Works spent the evening covering many Queen songs as we sang along.  Gary Mullen looked, sang and entertained just like Freddie Mercury.

On Saturday, we spent the day in Hollywood.  We started at the Griffith Observatory overlooking Hollywood and downtown LA.  After taking pictures of the Hollywood sign, we walked along Hollywood Boulevard looking at the walk of fame and the handprints in the cement in front of the Chinese Theater.  We think Mom and Dad enjoyed it more than they thought they would.  We then ate lunch at the Original Farmer's Market at the Grove where we had another star sighting.  While Mom and Jodi were looking for something to eat, they saw Anna Kendrick of the Twilight movies and Up in the Air.  After lunch we drove through Beverly Hills before heading back home for the day.  Later that night we headed to downtown LA to the Garrett Morris Downtown Comedy Club for an evening of stand up comedians.  We saw about 10 different comedians in about 3 hours including Garret himself.  It was much more entertaining than we first expected and we all had a great time (including the $1 Ring Dings and Twinkies they sold at the bar.)

Sunday, we spent the day at the apartment, relaxing, mostly because it rained the entire day (yes it actually rained here).  We received about 1 inch of rain every hour and this literally dampened our plans.  However, we needed the day to recover and relax from the previous event-filled days and Tim was happy to finally be able to watch some of the NCAA Tournament.

On Monday, we spent the day at Venice Beach and Santa Monica.  Venice beach is not as lively on Monday as we assume it is on the weekends, but we walked by the gym on Muscle Beach and got to see the Pacific Ocean.  The waves are much bigger than we are used to from the Gulf of Mexico.  We spent some time walking along the shops along the sand and seeing the people who post up along this strip.  It was interesting!  We then drove up to Santa Monica and walked along the Promenade.  We ate tacos and enchiladas at Wahoo's then walked up and down the many blocks of shops along the Promenade of Santa Monica.  We then walked along the Santa Monica Pier to see the Ferris Wheel and other rides.  We then met Jodi's dad's childhood friend, Steven Middleman who is a local comedian.  Mom and Dad left with Steven to spend the afternoon with him and he then took them to the airport to close out their trip to Southern California.

All in all, we think they enjoyed their visit to LA and we were glad they made the trip.

Check out picasa for the rest of the photos.

The Big 3-0

On Thursday, Tim celebrated his 30th birthday!  To celebrate his Big 3-0, we ventured into downtown LA on Saturday.  We ate dinner and watched the Duke/UNC basketball game at Big Wangs, a restaurant/bar that is as good as its name!  Tim couldn't resist the 25 cent wings and the PBR special to celebrate his birthday.  Despite Duke's loss, we had a fun time at dinner.  After dinner, we went down to LA Live and to the Staples Center to watch the Clippers vs. Nuggets basketball game.  This was Jodi's first live NBA experience and we had a good time.  We were very excited at the potential of witnessing one of Blake Griffin's ridiculous dunks, but as our luck would have it, he didn't even attempt one.

On Sunday, we drove to UCLA for the women's gymnastics meet against Georgia and Arizona at Pauley Pavilion.  Given that UCLA won the national championship last year and Georgia has also won in recent years, we knew it would be a good competition to see.  We also knew there would be some previous Olympians in the competition. We saw Samantha Peszek (2008 Olympics) and Shayla Worley (who trained at Orlando Metro but missed out on the 2008 Olympics due to injury) compete for UCLA and Georgia, respectively.  It was also cool to see Chris Waller (1992 Olympics) on the sidelines as a UCLA assistant coach.  While their routines are   quite watered down from Olympic material, we still saw some excellent gymnastics.

It was another successful weekend of memorable adventures in LA.  We haven't yet made any plans for next weekend, but we are positive we will not have any trouble coming up with something.