Over the past weekend, I took my car in for service. She's been great with taking me to and from work everyday, so it was about time to give her a well-deserved spa treatment. In the meantime, I took advantage of getting not any loaner car, but a hybrid loaner. Specifically, the Lexus CT200h. I usually get the identical car, but this time they gave me options. And what do we do with options? We explore! I've been in the Prius before, but never have I actually driven one.
I've been very tense for the past few weeks, so I'm trying to fully utilize my weekends by finding something relaxing to do. I decided to take a day trip down south to San Diego.
We were playing around with the CT, trying to find what speed is the most conservative. It took us under 2 hours to get to San Diego. All I have to say is that the second I drove the hybrid off the lot, I regretted it. It had absolutely NO power for acceleration. Going on the freeway was a PAIN! The big rig behind me even high beamed me and went around me. I was still trying to figure out how exactly this little hatchback was supposed to work in both the city and highway. Yup, so our drive consisted of a lot of people passing by me... The only car that I had to pass was a Prius who was clearly enjoying the scenic drive of views of the Pacific.
The first time I've ever driven a hybrid vehicle, I have to say I was impressed by how incredibly silent it is (almost like a creeper vehicle, great for spying! Just kidding...). I did not like how it felt like it was constantly struggling to accelerate. But I did LOVE taking it to the gas station for a fill up!
First stop: Balboa Park
This is one of the numerous beautiful architectured buildings. Balboa Park is quite large, and is great for strolls and visiting museums. For some reason, this picture really reminded me of the church at Stanford and the pond reminded me of The Oval.
One of the first things I noticed about San Diego is it's humidity. Humidity is one thing that I am not a big fan of. I despise the "stickiness" my skin develops from excessive sweating. Gym sweat I'm okay with, but not humidity sweat.
I really enjoyed admiring the fine details of the architecture. These days, less and less homes have such intricate detail. Everyone is always in a rush and faster is better. These designs really reminded me of how sometimes it's nice to slow down and pay attention to the details. Little details truly make a huge difference!
Next stop: San Diego Zoo
The Skyfari:
The Skyfari is sky lift that brings you well above the zoo to observe the beautiful scenery of the city and Balboa Park. The breeze was really nice (as I mentioned, humidity is a no go for me. Breeze = outdoor AC.... kinda?)
We got to see polar bears! There were two. One was extremely lazy and lying on his back and flopping from one side to another. And the one pictured was very friendly and walked around.
I'm not kidding about being friendly! Isn't he cute??
Below is one of my favorite pictures...
If only she turned around and the glass was removed... hahaha
Next up: Pandas!
How relaxed is this panda? He's even using one elbow to prop himself up. If you look to the left of the tree, you see a giant fan blowing in his direction. He was taking a nap up above in the tree with the fan blowing. Then he woke up, propped himself up by the elbow, and slowly climbed down to walk around. There's actually a camera all over the Panda exhibit for researches to observe and study pandas and help protect these endangered species.
Doesn't he look like Kung Fu Panda?
There were actually two tigers. They were very playful. I've never seen super duper professional DSLR's that looked like telescopes. I'm not kidding. They're even wrapped in waterproof-like-cloth material. They snapped at least 10 pictures or more per second. No joke! There were a lot of people with them, camping out at the tiger exhibit, taking endless pictures of the tigers playing in the water, fighting, and action shots.
This little bear was hibernating earlier. We finally got to see him when we were on a double decker bus tour. He reminds me a lot of myself. Loves to eat, be lazy, has a bad hair day.
There was a papa giraffe, and a couple baby giraffes. The papa giraffe was extremely tall and dark. The darker the giraffe spots are, the higher level of testosterone.
Armor Rhinos. They are not even full grown yet.
Mama Jaguar and two jaguar cubs playing. The mama jaguar was a bit scared of one of the feisty little ones.
The two baby jaguars
The elephant exhibit made me a bit sad. As you can see, the electric wired fence really tore my heart. The elephants are also under observance by researchers.
Lion King sleeping. Very lazy that day.
For dinner, we wanted to try something different. Something we don't have at where we live. Moroccan food! We had dinner at Kous Kous. The food is definitely one of the most flavorful and heavy ones I've had. It's very good, but very very heavy.
We had a long day, so we ordered right away. We ordered the Chicken Tangine and the Berber Lamb Shank. Both are very savory. I'm VERY picky when it comes to lamb, and we both agreed that the lamb was made fairly well. While we were waiting for our entrees, they served "spiced" carrots, which were surprisingly good. You can probably guess the orange plate that is empty was where the spiced carrots were. After a few bites, you get very used to the spice. This is probably one of the only ways I would just eat carrots, straight up.
They make their own spice sauce (in the plastic container). It went well with the carrots. Again, flavor bursting in your mouth. It really prepared us for the entrees.
This is the Chicken Tangine. The sauce went really well with the bread. Alone, it was a bit too much flavor for me. The chicken just fell right off the bone. Tangine is a dish that is marinated for at least 48 hours and cooked in a personal sized clay dish that it gets cooked in. It's dome like and really retains all the flavor.
This is the Berber Lamb Shank. The meat also just fell right off the bone. Great dish.
Any recommendations on what relaxes you? Great places to spend the weekend here in Southern California?
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