theatre

In addition to several museums, Balboa Park has the Old Globe theatre - a complex that has three stages, including an outdoor one that hosts a Shakespeare series during the summer. Last year we got to go to a play thanks to Chelsey's aunt and uncle. We saw A Midsummer Night's Dream, and quite enjoyed it. Although it's San Diego, and so quite nice on a summer evening, Chelsey could see why they had a decently busy blanket rental service at the theatre. It was also nice to be able to order a hot chocolate before the show and have it ready at intermission. We really enjoyed the performance, so for my birthday Chelsey offered to take me back again this year - we just need to decide on what show to go see.
-Jason

sailing

Last summer our friends Aaron and Wendy took us out sailing from Oceanside. Aaron is a fairly avid sailor and borrowed a friend's boat to take us out. It was my first experience with ocean sailing, but it went pretty well. Aaron did the tricky part to get us out of the harbor, but once we got out on the ocean he gave me a turn piloting the boat. I think you can see from the pictures that I did an excellent job of it. It was a pretty calm day and we did have a good time sailing off Oceanside, although the lack of wind did make the sailing tricky a couple of times. We always recovered, though, and made it back into port safely.
-Jason

Mission Beach roller coaster

Many of you may be familiar with the Giant Dipper rollercoaster at Mission Beach. It's an old wooden coaster that is something of a San Diego landmark. Chelsey and I have been by it many times, as we often park there when we go to the beach. We had never ridden it, though, so we finally decided to give it a try. It was pretty fun, it's a good coaster - but the old wooden tracks sure leave feel shaken up by the time you're done. There are some nice views from the top, too, if you have the time and the stomach to look.

-Jason

Mission San Diego festival

Last summer we went and visited Mission San Diego de Alcala, the first mission established in California. It's not as famous as other missions, largely because it was mostly destroyed and is still in kind of a state of disrepair. It has been somewhat preserved however, and we were lucky enough to go during the Festival of the Bells, a weekend festival with food and dancing. It was a nice evening, until Chelsey tried to send me to jail. She couldn't make the math work, though (see the sign).
-Jason

Reeses pancakes

Last summer, while we were in Phoenix, we went to Over Easy (a good breakfast place) with some friends. They and Chelsey seemed to think it was funny that I ordered the Reese's Pieces pancakes, as if that were not suitable for someone on this side of 30 (or maybe 15). It didn't matter, they were still delicious.
-Jason

Summer Nights track and field

Over the summer I ran a series of three track races. After running longer races in the previous year it was fun to get back on the track again.

The first race in the series was a mile. There were a lot of competitors there and they broke us into three heats, which was good because I would have been left behind by the really fast runners there. The middle heat turned out to be perfect for me; I got pulled along to a time that was almost as fast as I had hoped to go by the end of the series.

The second race was an 800, a distance I'd only run once before since graduating high school. I was a little nervous about this race; I was never that fast at it to begin with and I have lost quite a bit of raw speed over the last decade or so. I almost chickened out of the race and ran the 3000m instead. Chelsey found it quite amusing (or confusing) that I would opt for the longer race, but that's more of my comfort zone. I stuck with the 800, though, and it turned out better than I hoped. In fact, the first lap was fast enough that I didn't even care too much how the second went - I was just happy to learn I was still capable of running that fast! Of course, I did slow down on the second lap, but I passed someone else and was closing in on another runner. A definite success.

The last race was a 1500m. I was hoping to improve on my (adjusted) mile time from the first race, but the race makeup was different this time: I was in the fast heat. Consequently I got pulled out a little too fast with the leaders (including a woman who had just run in the U.S. championships) and barely hung on to the main pack. It was a good thing I managed to hang on at all, as it was no-man's land behind me. My time ended up slightly slower than I had hoped for, but only because my first good race had raised my expectations.
-Jason

zoo

We have passes to the San Diego zoo this year and have gone several times. My favourite animals are the hippos, but we also really enjoy the enclosure with monkeys and river otters, although the otters are pretty good at hiding. It's a big zoo, of course, and nearly impossible to see all in one trip. In fact, we just explored the reptile corner for the first time on our most recent trip. Our passes also allow us to ride the Skyfari, the ropeway above the zoo. It was an interesting and different way to see the zoo.

-Jason