Catching up

Even though DS2 is not here this week, I still could not find time to blog!! I did build up some Unexpected Beauty sitings for the week though. Wednesday it was bird related again. Unexpected because this one is not seen all that often, but when it is, it is such a treat:
A belted kingfisher. Saw one driving home from work along the Penasquitos Lagoon. I love these guys!

Now a mixed bag for Thursday through today. I’ve basically been hanging out in downtown but NOT at Petco Park – amazing huh? The California Democratic Convention is this weekend. The current top story on CNN.com is about Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton’s speeches there. I took advantage of an opportunity to volunteer on Friday in order to earn an Observers pass for Sat and Sun. I had to drive down there Thursday evening for training, then worked at the registration desk yesterady. I’ll do a separate write up for that once the whole weekend’s events are over. In the meantime, I was just struck with how awesome downtown San Diego is these days. Especially the area that now surrounds the convention center which used to be bordered by just about nothing and also some really sketchy areas! Now, there is Petco Park, a totally revitalized Gaslamp District of hotels and restaurants, and condos – everywhere, condos! It’s really gorgeous though. So is the convention center itself. So here are a couple of photos I found on The Google on the places I have been the last few days:

Here is a view within the convention center. Pretty much what you see as you ride an escalator down to the main level.
Here is a view from the front entrance:

A view of the downtown skyline with the convention center in the bottom right corner totally dwarfed by the hotel towers on the left and the luxury condo towers to the east. The back side of the convention center is the bay. Yeah, it’s a pretty cool view from anywhere in that center!

Where we ate lunch today. It’s called Tin Fish and you can see that Petco Park is just behind. The fountain is what you see from the outdoor seats at the front. This is just across the trolley tracks from the convention center.
What these days downtown in the East Village/Gaslamp area has convinced me that I would love to spend some vacation time down there! Even better, the next time the August moms venture here for a gathering, we will be exclusively downtown! The trolley can take us from one end to the other. The shopping at Horton Plaza is tremendous. Seaport Village is another stop on the trolley line as well as a couple of stops where I have been this weekend. There are more restaurants than we would ever want. Each hotel has a spa on site. We would truly never have to leave and I know they would all love it.

So there is my week of Unexpected Beauty. Some nature, some art, some bustling city life. Ok, not bustling really – it IS laid back San Diego after all!