Where in the world is Karmen? San Diego!

San Diego: Home to a zany news team and mi amiga Noelle; namesake of the globetrotting villain who inspired the name of this blog.

Dinner with Noelle

For dinner we met up with Noelle, another one of my friends I met while studying abroad in Spain.  She couldn’t stay out late that night, so we got dinner in Coronado.  Not-so-funny story: Noelle is a teacher at a school where the other teachers went on strike.  Rather than break her contract, she abstained from protesting.  That means in order to avoid any potential harassment from fellow teachers; she had to wake up early to cross the picket line before the teachers on strike got there.  She said she might go incognito, à la Carmen Sandiego (there's a theme in this post, if you couldn't tell).

Me and Noelle

Mission Beach

We were delayed with our mini tour of San Diego on Friday due to a waterworks problem at Gwendy’s house.  If you've been keeping track, that's three houses Gwendy and Josh have in California.

Unrelated to the waterworks issue, but I was happy to see the Federal Hill couch at Gwendy's.

Outside seating at Gwendy's

Local wildlife

Once we fixed the issue best to our abilities, we headed to Mission Beach, which is only a block away from her place.  It was chilly, to San Diego’s standards, but we walked around anyway.  Anything's better than the -20F in Minnesota.

Saying good-bye to the Pacific.

Attempting to look like Carmen Sandiego with my scarlet jacket.  Since I was missing a fedora, I thought popping my foot would make up for it.  It didn't.

La Jolla

One of the many places that Noelle recommended, La Jolla is an upscale neighborhood with lots of shopping (squeal!).  We had no time to shop, but the best part was the location.  It sits upon the cliffs overlooking the water.  Nearby are sea lions just hanging out on the cliffs next to the crashing waves.  This was our last stop before we headed to Joshua Tree to camp that night.

Sea lions