San Diego Trip, Part II

With the exciting details of my training class now dispensed with (as well as the pictures of that handsome sector of industry known as "auditing") I thought I'd blog about San Diego. Pictures of my trip are still being developed; next blog entry will be about the things I did and saw in San Diego.

The plane ride: Jet Blue.



I'm a big fan of Jet Blue. Each seat has its own television and several hundred XM radio stations. Also (I don't know if all airlines do this or not) I could check in for my flight at a computer kiosk; it also let me see where I was sitting and view a map of the plane to change my seat. In both cases, I had been given a center seat; I was able to change my seat both times to a window seat with nobody sitting next to me.

Jet Blue: Huzzah!

Side note: while we were at the airport on the day I left we noticed a bunch of people who had the same courier-style carry-on bags with a purple flap. My plane was full of them. It turned out that these people had been here at a conference for some multi-level marketing health drink company called Mona Vie. Like we don't have enough of these companies in Utah already and here they are flying people in from all around the country. So look out, Amway, Tahitian Noni, Go-yen, NuSkin, Xango, USANA, Xocai, and Neways: there's a new player in town! I actually sat next to a guy at the gate who tried to sell some to the guy sitting next to him. "You know," he said, "I've been in a lot of industries in my professional career, but I've decided that the only one that makes me happy is wellness." This was about the point where I threw up a little in my mouth and went to find someplace else to sit.

Airport: San Diego International.

The San Diego airport sits right on the edge of town. As planes decend toward the runway, it seems like they skim the top of some of the office buildings on the edge of town. The poor people in their offices must hate having to listen to the planes fly by. The experience was kind of fun (from the air) but later in the week when I walked through that part of town, it was really scary to see planes flying so close to buildings.

San Diego airport: Meh!

Recycling:

I was very impressed with the recycling efforts of San Diego city. The unfortunate truth is that most people will only recycle if it's easy for them. San Diego city tries hard to make it easy for people to recycle. Recycle cans are located throughout the city alongside public garbage cans. At the Padres game I went to, there were "Green Team" girls that came down the aisles with garbage bags between innnings to take your recyclable materials.

San Diego's recycling system: Huzzah!

Crosswalks:

The city blocks in San Diego are pretty small. Here's an interesting bit of trivia about that: The original location of "San Diego" was near the Catholic San Diego Mission. An enterprising man looking to make some money bought a huge amount of land several miles away, closer to the harbor, and started building there. People thought he was crazy for building outside of the city but as more people came, he was able to convince them to buy land/buildings from him rather than near the mission. The guy planned his 'downtown' to have small city blocks because corner lots sell for more money, and the smaller the blocks the more corner lots there are. So this guy made a fortune, and ended up planning what is now the "new" San Diego. I think he died poor and lonely, though. What was I talking about again??? Oh, yes: the city blocks are small, the streets are narrow, so there are many one-way streets, and there is kind of a pedestrian feel to the area. However, I noticed immediately that about 75% of the crosswalks in San Diego have no painted lines. Come on, San Diego! Paint some lines! They make you feel better about crossing the street. I know the lines aren't magically going to stop a car from hitting me. But I think that at least it lets drivers know: "Hey, there's a chance that someone could walk here at some point!" If I get hit by a car and die, I want the police on the scene to be able to look at my shoes, still on the ground from where I was hit, and see that I was obeying the law and walking in the crosswalk when I met my untimely end. I think that would bring some kind of comfort to my family, too.
Good:
Bad:

San Diego's "crosswalks": Boooo!

Water: If you have a water softener in your house, you know how the water from the bathroom tastes kind of gross? Well, that's what all of San Diego's water tastes like.
San Diego's water: Booooo!

San Diego's weather:
The temperature in San Diego is perfect: mid-60s in the mornings to low-70s in the afternoon/evening. BUT -- the sea air makes you sticky. I felt sticky almost the whole time I was there -- not sweaty, but sticky. When you're touring the boats on the harbor, it's a nice effect. It makes you feel like a swarthy sea-goer
but otherwise, I'll take Utah's so-dry-it-makes-your-nose-bleed air dryness.

San Diego's weather: Meh!

In all, I enjoyed my stay, but there's nothing like home. There were lots of fun things to see and do -- that will be my next post.

Quinn