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 

Honey Badger Homage

If you have spent more than 10 minutes talking to me in the past two months, I have probably told you about the Honey Badger – the Chuck Norris of the animal kingdom.  Ayk has probably heard me talk about it at least a dozen times (Ayk’s note: That’s a conservative estimate).

This obsession slightly bordering monomania seems misplaced, since girls always fall for the cute and cuddly animals.  What makes this stubby and vicious creature so fascinating?  Simply put: it’s pure, unadulterated badass.  Watch this video and you will be overcome by its sheer awesomeness:

I have been antsy and giddy to see the Honey Badger ever since we planned to visit San Diego on this trip.  I’m fairly certain that I told almost every friend we saw on this road trip how much I wanted to see it.  Sadly, we didn’t realize that the SD Zoo is so massive that it has several different parks.  The Honey Badger, as cruel fate would have it, is located at a completely different park than the one we visited.

With only one and a half days in San Diego, my mother’s hometown, it was either take a brief tour of the city, or see the Honey Badger.  We went with the former.  It was hard holding back the tears.

Some day, Honey Badger, I will see you.  Some day.

SDZ: 3

Sundry Animals

Singing Dog.  No, not Susan Boyle.

Napping porcupines

Capybara - the world's largest rodent.  No, not David Spade.  

Otters

Plants

I didn't find a loquat tree that my mom talks about all the time, but we did find a banana tree!

 Mini La Brea Tar Pit

Not real tar.

"I have an idea for a picture ..."

 Om nom nom nom

Mastodon Tooth

Skyfari

San Diego Zoo: Success!

SDZ: 2

Cats

Danger zone.

Primates

Peek-a-boo, motherfucker!

Bears

 Haaai!

  

Bear fight! 

PANDA

YAY PANDA!! 

Pandas are going extinct because they have no sex drive to repopulate.  That makes me a saaad panda. 

They might not have an appetite for sex, but least they still have an appetite for food.

Om nom nom nom.

Arial view of the panda.  Still noming.