Here and There Blog

Istanbul airport turns out to be harder to navigate than Kuwait, easier than Russia, and right on par with Indonesia. The Visa line was a 50 minute wait (don't even try to use a credit card and then point out the credit card sign when you're refused) and then on to Passport Control. The taxi queue is fast and one of those operations that you have to go on faith that you will get to where you want to be. As we drove along the harbor, the rocky waves on the sea were matched by my increasingly rocky taxi ride.  There's nothing like pretending to ignore the cab driver as he waves his hands at the windshield and shouts at the driver in front of us. It's one of those times you are glad for a continual flow of email on the BlackBerry. Here's the view. I'll take it again tomorrow when it's daylight so we all can figure out what I'm looking at.

In support of World Water Day, I decided to attend the exhibit at the Agua Hedionda Lagoon. I see the lagoon almost every single day but had never ventured tot he Discovery Center. The foundation is to support the natural ecosystem and the Center has exhibits geared mainly for children ages 8 - 10 although I saw younger ones having as much in the dirt and rocks so don't hesitate to bring them. The Discovery Center is free, there's a small donation box on the counter and the hours are mainly 10- 4, Saturday less so and Sunday closed but the trails are always open. Fans of the Torrey Pine will be happy to see plenty of them around the center. For more info go to:  http://www.aguahedionda.org/Default.aspx

Rain again? I woke up this morning to see rain drops randomly happening and another storm over the ocean waiting to roll on in. Still, a good start to the day!

Rocks on the beach. As I hit the sand and stairs along the shoreline I tried to think of various creative metaphors for rocky sand, choppy surf, the crazy world and my ever changing schedule but came up with nothing. It was too hard to be annoyed when the sun was warm, I didn't need a jacket, and the parking lot was empty.   I am not in Panama today as I wanted to be. But as I constantly remind myself, if you have to be at home, this is about as good as it gets. Even with the rocks.

Paul , with Simon Pegg of Shaun of the Dead fame, green aliens, and tributes to Spielberg, is a movie where all the right elements go wrong. I was going to pass on Paul until I saw the trailer which was pretty funny so off I went to see the whole 100 minute expanded trailer. Quick synopsis - aliens do exist, one was caught, developed a side job, escaped, and wound up partnering with two SF geeks straight from Comic-Con who then agree to help Paul go home. What I learned in this movie is that one-liners and tributes to SF fandom do not a good movie make. Rated R for profanity which wasn't that effective as a comedic tool, Paul has a few laughs, some smiles if you're a SF fan and two guys on a road trip with the usual jokes.  The best part of the movie for me was the Comic-Con sequences, filmed on location at the con. The only person laughing in the theater was the one pre-teen boy and had this movie toned down the language and gone PG-13 it would have reached a more apprecia...

The Adjustment Bureau is pretty much what you would expect from the trailers, no surprises, no disappointments. In this world, all of our lives are kept on path by non-human although very human looking men.  If we steer off course of our written plan then an adjustment is made (car accident, missed phone call) to get us back on track. That works well enough until David and Elise (Matt Damon and Emily Blunt) and fall in love in an instant and are then thrown apart by the adjusters. Somehow David manages to catch the adjusters in action and they have to reveal their secret then threaten to destroy the people he cares about if he reveals the secret. So this coincidence we have to ignore otherwise it will be annoying that our protagonist is one of the rare people that find out about the Adjustment Bureau. In a Matrix-y manor the movie goes about the two lovers finding and losing each other until one adjuster takes pity on David and helps bring them together. Lots of drama and then ...

5:15 pm. Head straight to the beach after work and instead of the sunset it's warm and summer season! This made up for the one hour of lost sleep!

Rancho Bernardo is not known for much of anything but olive trees, golf, and unbelievably slow drivers. If you grew up there, you understand. So it was surprising that a beerpub opened up and since fun is not allowed in RB, we had to get there before it eventually disappears. Which is sad because the beer on tap offerings are impressive, especially with the local brewery spotlight this week on Ballast Point and Green Flash. The beer in my hand is a Ballast Point Piper Down Scottish Ale. Not something you get to try often. The most impressive thing?  The beer menu was updated at 5:38 pm and redistributed to everyone so that you knew what had run out and what was just added. Nice touch! The food was okay. I had fish tacos with sweet potato fries. I liked the bar side better than the restaurant side, more life even though the dining room was full. For those of you in the area that want to check it out go to: http://urgegastropub.com/

Tourist season arrives with the first bloom so the bus loads are upon us. Only one of the Flower Fields has color while the remaining are still plain green. If you want to see the full bloom, wait a few weeks then it's worth the $8 (free if you are on the street).  Still, nothing can stop the tractor from running and the trailer was full.

I've had my Dad's truck for 6 years now. When I drove it home there was 43K miles on the odometer. Farmer's Insurance questions me every year on if I really only drive it 3600 miles or less (super low insurance) and I don't admit that I barely get 200 miles a year on it. But as all things change, so did the odometer. Last week I hit the 44,100 mark. Not too bad for a 1992 Toyota.

Life besides the beach does exist in Carlsbad. Surprising but the city does have small parks and off-road hiking available. One such pocket is Veterans Park Trails near Legoland. I decided to go exercise here and this is the first thing you see at the trailhead. Since snake season isn't for a few more weeks and the day was perfect and the short trail inviting, I went in.  And found cactus and lots of mud, but no snakes.  Somehow the wildlife all knew to be on the other side of the fence.  At the top was the great Pacific view.