Freeways, suburbs, and haze...but worth every minute!

So, the rest of April was pretty boring, with not very much happening other than trying to work on The Thesis. But! May was (is?) much more fun and exciting. I took 10 days off and went to Southern California for a vacation with my family. I flew out of Halifax on May 10 and met my parents and sisters on the connecting flight to Los Angeles from Calgary. I was off to a great start, what with missing the airport shuttle in the morning and then having to deal with the insanely long line up at customs pre-clearance in Calgary -- and I only had a one hour layover! But I didn't miss any of my flights, and soon we were in LAX and meeting my dad's aunts and uncles who came to pick us up.

We stayed in Pomona that night with my dad's uncle, then off to Anaheim the following morning to do Disneyland! This time around was much more fun, less stressful and we only did the things we wanted to do! We opted for a mid-afternoon break at the hotel then went back in after supper and stayed for the fireworks before heading back to the hotel for some sleep. The next morning, we decided to check out Downtown Disney before heading back to Pomona, where a BBQ party was waiting for us. Got to meet distant relatives we never knew we had, and also see some we did know. Sunday we drove to downtown LA, where my sisters and I decided to do a two hour self-guided walking tour. Then it's off to Hollywood, where we walked down Hollywood Blvd and checked out the famous landmarks. A drive down Sunset Blvd was next, with Santa Monica as our ultimate destination. We checked out the pier and got our feet wet at the beach before heading back to Pomona and supper.

And then my favourite part! Monday we got up early and drove down to San Diego, in time for my reserved kayaking tour of the "sea caves" at La Jolla! Ariane and I had a two-person kayak, which was unfortunate because she got seasick! But thankfully, she stuck it out and I had a great two hours of kayaking on the Pacific, checking out seals, cormorants and pelicans, garibaldi fish, and leopard sharks! Afterwards, we went to the beach at La Jolla cove and lay down in the sun for some rest before checking into our motel near Mission Bay. Later on, we went to my dad's cousin's house for supper and to get some baked goodies at a couple of popular Filipino bakeshops in Mira Mesa. =)

Tuesday was spent at Balboa Park, taking advantage of free admissions to the Museum of Man, Museum of Art, and the Mingei International Museum. Balboa Park was pretty, with a bunch of old buildings from the Panama-California Exposition in 1915-1916. Afterwards we drove downtown to check out the Gaslamp quarter, which was mostly restaurants and cute shops. Nice if you're going at night and planning to have dinner, but that wasn't the case for us. The rest of the time was spent walking around Horton Plaza waiting for my sisters to finish shopping. =P

Wednesday was the crazy busy day! We spent the morning at the San Diego Zoo, first taking the tour then walking around on our own. Then it was off to the Museum of Natural History (also in Balboa Park) and the Japanese Friendship Garden before heading to the harbour for a 2hour ferry tour. Then a relatively quick drive down to the border so we can shop at the Los Americas outlet mall -- where I bought a couple of pairs of expensive jeans. Well, expensive for me, since I'm cheap and prefer to spend my money on other things.

Thursday we got up early again and went on a bus tour to Mexico! Crossing the border was surprisingly easy...I guess no one cares who goes into Mexico. The bus drove around Tijuana for a bit...we were supposed to get off there, but after finding out that we'll have to kill 5 hours there while waiting for the bus that would take us back, my parents decided to upgrade and go all the way to Ensenada. This was a great idea, since we got to drive down along the coast, stop at Rosarito (beach town), and then have a great lunch at Ensenada (which was included in the tour). Then we walked around for a bit and did some shopping (relax, all I bought was a blanket) before heading back to Tijuana and then across the border. This time around was more complicated and involved getting off the bus to go through customs and immigration. American officials -- both at the border and at the airport -- are scary in a rude kind of way! Oh well, we got through it relatively quickly (as compared to the looong line up going all the way back outside the building)!

Our last day (sigh) in San Diego, we went to the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, which is back in La Jolla, and then off to Escondido and the Wild Animal Park! Which was great! Much better than the zoo, and I'm totally glad I didn't let anyone talk me out of going! After an exhausting afternoon walking all of the park, we drove back to Pomona for a quiet evening at home.

Saturday was our last day in California. Originally, Aimee wanted to check out the Griffith Observatory and the Architecture and Design Museum, but I was too exhausted to push it and organize it (and take the blame if things went wrong), so I told her that unless SHE tells our parents that she wants to go, I wasn't going to and we'll end up not doing anything. And at that point, I could use a little "not doing anything" time. Which I got, sort of. We ended up going to another one of my dad's uncles' house in Norwalk for lunch (and later, supper), stopping by West Covina first to buy more Filipino goodies (this time, we mostly got traditional "merienda" food which consists of sweet sticky rice creations). In the afternoon, the "adults" spent their time chatting and reminiscing while the "kids" (us) watched some Filipino TV shows. =) After supper, we headed back to Pomona to pack and get ready for our (insanely) early trip to the airport and back home!

My flight was at 7am, to Toronto and then to Halifax, which was about 2 hours shorter than the Halifax - Calgary - LA trip. Got into the city around 9pm and quickly unpacked and did laundry. The following day was spent busily re-packing my (clean!) clothes and getting organized for my trip to Wolfville later that day for the Science and Management of Protected Areas Association (SAMPAA) conference. Luckily, I wasn't presenting, so I didn't need much time to get ready. The SAMPAA conference went from Monday evening to Friday afternoon, and it was an exhausting 4+ days, but the presentations were quite interesting, and I was able to catch up with a bunch of people from SRES, Keji, Acadia University, and even Axel from the Calgary Zoo Centre for Conservation Research! Immediately following SAMPAA was a 3-day EMAN (Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network) training workshop also in Wolfville, which I signed up for to learn about ecological monitoring protocols and setting up community monitoring projects. So, that was a full week in Wolfville, with long, rigidly scheduled days and staying in residence! But overall, it was a great learning experience, and I'm glad I went.

Today was my first full day back in Halifax, and annoyingly I spent most of the day cleaning the house and running errands. *sigh* And to think I was looking forward to being home. Now, it's time to get down to some serious work, if I'm going to get a chapter of my thesis done by June 12, which is when I'm meeting with Tom!

Pictures from the trip will be up as soon as I get them developed!