Thursday, November 29, 2012

Southern Comfort

Back Home

It had been three years since I had last visited home. So naturally everyone was happy to see me. This time around I also brought my Australian friend I knew from my time in Tokyo. The guy's name is Thomas and it was his first time in Southern California. I knew I had to show him a good time or he might not speak kindly of San Diego after returning home. That simply would not do.



Parent's Home
San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo is one of the city's biggest attractions and for good reason. It is among the most famous zoos in the world and has every animal imaginable from pandas to pit vipers. I had not been in years, nor was I really interested in going. But Thomas needed to see the place. It also helped that my mother had a pair of free passes.


Zoo Entrance
Lioness
Lazy Red Pand
Emerald Dove
Thomas and other Tourists
Most of what was at the zoo was the same as it ever was. For example, the pandas in the panda exhibit were asleep. The things sleep like 16 hours a day and are seldom ever active. They mostly eat bamboo and do nothing else. But there were plenty of other animals to see and I made good use of my 300mm telephoto lens. It allowed me to get close up shots. And as the day wound down we came to a recreation of a tar pit. The displays said that in California there were fossils of lions, elephants and horses that had gone extinct after the Pleoctine. Horses were actually originally form North America but spread to Asia where they continued on before being reintroduced to the New World by humans.


Fossil Recreation
Cheetah
Flamingos
Sun Bear
Sky Carts
Balboa Park

This park has been a part of San Diego since its founding for the Panama-California Exposition of 1935. The San Diego Zoo, quite large onto itself, only makes up a fraction of the park. Other attractions include the Old Globe theater which is a recreation of the original Shakespeare theater in London. And there is a Spanish style Cathedral that sits alongside the 163 highway. Aside from that it is the artistic center of the city. Shops and exhibits make up most the buildings. But the biggest of them are museums.



Spanish Style Facade
Artsy Square

The Cathedral
Jungly Atrium
Statue of'El Cid'

Tecate

San Diego is a border town. On the Mexico side is Tijuana, a large bustling city that is as seedy as it is crowded. In recent years the level of safety has deteriorated due to the turf wars between Drug Cartels. Supposedly, the amount of violence has gone down since the Sinoloa Cartel took control. But I'd still rather avoid the place.


Some 40 miles to the east in the desert is another city by the name of Tecate. It can be accessed via a separate port of entry that crosses over from the little town of Potrero which no one in San Diego has ever heard of. Well, that is where I took Thomas for his first Mexican experience. We parked on the American side and walked over. Our first destination was the Tecate Brewery. We arrived early enough to join the daily tour. Thomas an I were the only Americans. Everyone else was Mexican, including a large group from the Yucatan. After a brief movie about the Tecate Company and its beer, a guide led us into the brewery. Pictures were not permitted a this point. It's a shame because we actually got to go on the factory floor. The whole system was automated with hundreds of cans and bottles whizzing by on conveyor belts. On the way out we saw a picture of the personnel. A beer taster by the name of Alejandro was employee of the month. He had a big smile and an even bigger mustache.



Tecate Port of Entry
Tecate Brewery
Beer Garden
Brewery Theater
Sign for a Popular Mexican Group
The group that we met from the Yucatan told us they were going to perform a traditional dance show in the city's main plaza. So Thomas and I decided to stick around until late afternoon. After we finished our complementary beers we went to a restaurant that a local recommended. I had a torta sandwich with carnitas. Thomas got flautas. Then we walked around some and finally ended up in the plaza where we had a few more brews.


Tecate Stadium
Mural in the Park
Playboy Barber Shop
Two Dos Equis, Chips and Salsa
Musicians Sing
The style of dance the Yucatan group performed was 'La Punta.' I had never seen nor heard of this dance before so I was quite curious about the whole thing. As we waited the performers changed into costume. Then they began. I got up close and snapped photos with my camera. And it took hundreds because the dancing kept going and going. The group changed costume several times inbetween. Finally, Thomas and I decided we had seen enough. We left and walked back to the border. That was where US immigration officers hassled me for half an hour because the did not think I was the person shown in my passport. After asking about 50 questions and taking my prints, they reluctantly let me through.


Plaza Stage
Dancers Come Out
La Punta
Traditional Wear
Little Mexicanos
Dancing with Trays on Head
Medieval Times


Medieval Times is exactly what it sounds like. A show that is a recreation of what went on in the Middle Ages. I had never been, nor had Dan. So we decided to take a trip to LA to check out this spectacle. After we arrived at the appointed time we were ushered into a waiting area. A bearded knight told jokes and informed us of the upcoming festivities. Then he at one point singled out a couple from the crowd. The guy got down on one knee and proposed to the woman. She said 'yes' and everyone cheered.

The Guests Gather
The Evening's Medieval MC
We've Taken Our Seats
After we had taken our seats servers came and started us off with soup, bread and a drink. There was no silverware so we had to eat everything with our hands. The knights then came out and there were six of them. Each one represented a different section of the audience. Our knight was Valiente Del Mar. The Knights competed in a series of challenges that were meant to impress the King's daughter. This included armed combat which eliminated several of them from contention. But before they could finish an evil emissary from a neighboring kingdom stirred up trouble. Our champion rose to the occasion by defeating the thug and thus won over the Princess. As we watched all this unfold we chowed down on the various dishes the servers brought. The meal was nothing fabulous, but I did like the chicken breast and roast beef.

Our Champion, the Blue Knight
The Knights Assemble
Man to Man Combat
The Bad Guy
LA Day Trip 

Since we were already in LA for the night, I decided to take thomas around the city the next day. First we stopped off in the Downtown area. There was not much to see there aside from the City Hall Building and Little Tokyo. So we walked around and took our photos. It was interesting to see the shops in Little Tokyo and how they failed to measure up to the one's around the corner from where I live in Japan. Even the prices we saw were considerably higher than what we had been accustomed to paying.


Downtown LA

City Hall
Miscellaneous Japanese Goods
Little Tokyo Mall Entrance
Our next stop was a few miles north in Hollywood. I managed to find a free parking spot on a side road and we walked to the Chinese Grumman Theater. Last I had visited some ten years ago the area was run down. But in that time a new mall was erected and the surrounding buildings renovated. Moreover, there were people dressed up as Super Heroes, Disney Characters and the like. They posed with tourists in exchange for a tip. One such person in a Darth Vader costume scoffed at Thomas for the meager 1 dollar tip he offered.

Hollywood
Star of the Walk of Fame


Hollywood Mall

Me and Marilyn

Beaches

The last place we went to was Santa Monica Pier and nearby Venice Beach. There were plenty of beach goers out and about. And I was tempted to go into the water myself but did not have a proper bathing suit. I made due taking photos. There was also a feisty Pelican at the edge of the pier. A fisherman flung it a mackerel but the Pelican could not pick it off the floor with its beak. So me being the animal lover that I am, I took the fish and tried to hand feed the giant bird. This was a bad idea. The bird snapped down on my arm and left behind large and painful scratch.
Santa Monica Beach


Police Truck with a Surf Board

Beneath the Pier

Venice Beach had its typical mix of tourists and weirdos. But unlike the times I went before the boardwalk now had a bunch of clinics that issued licenses for medicinal marijuana. People stood out in front trying to draw in potential clients. So I had to ask what the deal was. One man explained that if I had been suffering from some kind of ailment for over a three month period I qualified, whether it be migraine, back pain or a tooth ache. For 40 dollars a doctor would then issue me the license which I could use to buy marijuana at legal dispensaries. It all seemed very simple and straightforward.


No One Working Out Today
Ice Cream Shop and Weed Clinic

Venice Boardwalk

In Conclusion

That was it for our my trip home. We did the rounds in Southern California. And there was of course that giant road trip we took as well. In the end I asked Thomas what he thought of America.


"I'm impressed with the place," he said. And I knew then that I had done well by him.