Downtown San Diego and the 626 Night Market

Last weekend (before we'd gone camping) we went to a party for the international scholars. It was held at a member of staff's house which was very nice of her, and she'd made loads of Turkish food to share. We all brought something, so we had some French crepes, Indian samosas and more. We brought the very English veggie sausage rolls. I got to meet some more people, we did some dancing, got bitten by some mosquitoes, and had a fun time. We left quite early because we were going camping the next morning, but apparently other stayed until the early hours of the morning!

We also met a friendly cat

We then went camping, which hopefully you read about in last week's blog. 

And then this weekend, we took some of the other international scholar who don't have a car to San Diego. We planned out a pretty comprehensive day to see all the sights in one. We started with La Jolla, where the sealions live. We arrived at 10am and found parking a lot easier than when we had visited in the summer last year. We went out to the shore and found them exactly where they were last time, and just as noisy! It's pup season, so we got to see some small sealions too. The ocean was very blue and very pretty, and we all got some nice pictures. 

Kaiser, May and Sara

We stopped at a cute little cafe for some coffee and a pastry, and then it was on to the next stop. 

We drove over to Balboa Park to look at all the Spanish inspired architecture. It really is very impressive with the giant organ amphitheater and all the bug museums. My favourite part is the Spanish Art Village, which is so bright and colourful, and filled with little studios and shops. 

Outside the folk art museum

We walked all around and went to the rose garden too, which is very pretty and still had some roses. I was worried they might have finished for the season, or not survived the scorching summer heat, but they were still there and smelt lovely.

After this, we made the walk from the park to the Downtown area of San Diego, which is an area we haven't been to yet. The first part is just a nice city area (it kind of looks like LA, but clean and safe looking), but then after a while we got to the Gaslamp quarter, which had lots of bars and restaurants and market stalls set up in a pedestrianised area. It was very cool and filled with fun things to look at. 

Once we'd reached the end of this street, we carried on past the ENORMOUS convention centre, and took the marina walk. We started in an area that was filled with big fancy boats and walked up the coastline, going past little seafood cafes on the side of the marina. We'd been walking for a little bit when we got to the Carousel District, which was a little collection of quirky shops (including a Christmas shop) and a carousel. They had some fun decorations around too, and was a cute little area. 

We then carried on even further, going past an aircraft carrier which had been turned into a museum and a ship being overtaken by a Kraken! 

We eventually got to Little Italy. This was an area which claimed to have great Italian restaurants, and we had taken an Italian with us for the ultimate test. Sara was very happy to see all of the Italian flags everywhere, and I think recognised some Italian chains. We chose a place that was behind a grocery shop, and was very dark as we entered, covered in grape vine decorations, and really reminded me of some of the places we'd visited when we went to Italy a few years ago. 

We got some pizzas to split between us all, and while she claimed they weren't as good as the real Italian pizzas, I think Sara begrudgingly agreed that they were ok. We did get tiramisu afterwards, which she said was very authentic. 

We took a final walk around the area, and got finally got some proper coffee for the Italian, and then took a taxi back to the car, as we'd walked for miles and were all very tired. 

I drove us all home, and I think all of our passengers in the back fell asleep! We wore them all out on an Emily and Mitchell sized adventure!

We did sleep very well that night, and called a friend in the morning. We had a relaxing day, but left in the afternoon to go to a night market in Arcadia. The 626 Night Market is held on occasional weekends during the summer, and is a huge Asian inspired market with some art stalls, but lots and lots of food! 

We got plenty of dishes, and shared them all, so that we could try as much as possible. We got steamed buns, onigiri rice balls, noodles, a Japanese cheesecake tart (which I got for free for posting on instagram with) and a banana pudding. We both agreed that the cheesecake was best (and not just because we got it for free). It was so soft and light, and bright purple because it was ube flavoured. 

That was it for our exciting weekend, but this September is service animal month at the libraries, so I'm going to be visiting a lot of dogs, and I heard rumors of miniature horses too!

Lots of love,

Emily and Mitchell

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx