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This last Thursday, I went surfing again. It was a really nice day. I thought I had gone early enough that I would not be affected by the day's low tide. I went about 2 hours before low tide was supposed to set in, but the tide was already going out when I got there, and it definitely cut the area to surf in down a bit. I still tried though! I caught a couple of good ones right away- but then the water started to get too shallow where I was landing, so I tried to go out deeper and work on catching the wave before it breaks. I actually did it on one of the smaller ones, but all of the bigger/steeper (probably waist-chest high) flipped me. If at the end of my surfing day, saltwater drips and flows out of my nose when I bend over- that's how I know it was a day where the ocean probably beat me! This was one of those days. I caught a couple of waves in the end, but I kept falling in the 6 inches or so of water.. I decided that since I am too clumsy to jump off of my board at that point and land on my feet, that it was probably time to hang up the rented surfboard for the day. I crashed into the beach and smacked my head... good thing I have a hard head... and then I jsut decided to carry my board and look for shells. :) I found a really sweet yellow one!
Then, on Saturday- we met up with our friends Bryan and Sandy. They drove down from LA and we drove up and met in Laguna Beach. We ate at this mexican restaurant called El Callejon. Laguna Beach is a really neat town with lots of cute little shops. The restaurant was really good, and I tried a "Laguna margarita." it was not bad. We spent the evening talking and laughing. I do not even know what we talked about, but we had a great time! I am glad that we got to see them one last time before we leave the wonderful state of CA! Bryan is also from Niles and maybe, just maybe we will meet up with them when we are home. They are leaving Niles about the same time we are getting there, so we shall see. Anyways, we had a good evening out in an area that we had not been to in about 4 years.. so I am glad that we went.
On Sunday, we went to San Diego Wild Animal Park. The park is located outside of San Diego in Escondido. Once again, James came through, and we had free tickets! The park was pretty cool. it is designed to feel like an African safari/preserve. We got to see tons of elephants.. including a few babies! I love elephants. I think their trunks are so cool. The baby was picking out all of the sweeter pieces of hay when we were watching him. The elephants we saw were actually rescued from Swaziland, Africa. In Africa, they have preserves, but the preserves are limited in size. The elephants are doing well there, but the size of the land cannot support their growing population. Due to this, 11 elephants were going to have to be killed. Instead, the king of Swaziland, let the elephants come to some zoos in America. Seven of these elephants reside at the Wild Animal Park. The other cool animals that we saw were the California Condors. There were two here and one had been born at the Park. I learned that the brighter red the head of the condor is, the older it is. The birds were so big and we even got to watch them fly a little. Their wingspan is at least 10 feet. Other animals that they featured were giraffes, lions, tigers, cheetahs, flamingos, and rhinoceros. It was a really neat park. You could actually take a "safari ride" through the park and get up close to the animals.. for a hefty price..so I will just wait for a real African safari someday :) I am glad that we went and we had fun walking around the park together.
On the way home, we went to this cool mall. We both bought a few things, ate in the food court, and people-watched.. The boots are out again in full force. I swear every girl there was wearing some sort of silly boots. We saw one girl wearing skinny jeans, with black knee socks over them, with black boots over the socks.
Once it got dark, we visited the "Holiday of Lights" at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. There were about 400 light displays set up around a horseracing track. We drove past the exhibits and listened to Christmas music on the radio. Some of the highlights were a dancing T-rex, a surfing Santa, squirting whales, and elves making a snowman. It was a fun thing to do.
All in all, we have had a great couple of days!