Having fun at Belmont Park, Mission Beach

(The content of this post happened on June 8th, 2014 PDT)

Time flies. A year of international exchange was almost over. On the last weekend of the year, just 4 days before my school ends, my host family took me to a really historical place in Mission Beach, San Diego called Belmont Park. According to Wikipedia, Belmont Park is an oceanfront amusement park opened on July 4th, 1925 as the Mission Beach Amusement Center. The park itself is so old that all the buildings and rides there looks so “classic”! We didn't spent our all day in Belmont Park , but also the whole Mission Beach area. There are many fine shops there as well as some great restaurants.

A wooden roller coaster in the park. Can you believe that it is one of the oldest wooden roller coaster in the U.S.?!

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Visiting Old Town San Diego Historic Park

On June 1st, 2014, the second last before I leave San Diego, we decided to go visit a place that we haven’t visited before. If you know San Diego well and have been continued reading my blog you should know, this place is “Old Town San Diego State Historic Park”. The Old Town Historic Park is located in the Old Town neighborhood of San Diego and it is a state protected historical park. We thought it might be kinda fun to visit Old Town in the morning and have lunch there, and then we can take to trolley to Downtown. The reason why we’re also going to Downtown is actually because that my host family asked me where I want to go and I answered Downtown so they wanted to bring me there. My host family is really nice!

Cover Photo - Old Town San Diego

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Watching a Real MLB Baseball Game

Time files. Unbelievably, it’s May already. In just about a month, my family are coming to visit and I am going back to my country, Taiwan. Since I don't have much time left in here, my host family wants to take me to as many cool places as possible. This weekend, we went watching a baseball game in San Diego Petco Baseball stadium, it was a real baseball game! I was very excited because I ever been to a real stadium to watch any kind of sport games.

Beautiful view in the stadium!

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Dining in the Gorgeous Hotel Del Coronado

Today, April 11th, 2014, is the last day of Uncle Paul’s third visit. We of course all don’t want him to go because he is also so kind to take us to cool places or nice restaurants, but it’s impossible for him to stay for too long since he also have people to take care of in Chico. The good thing is, he will visit here again in June when my family comes, so my dad can will be able to see “His host dad”, and I am very looking forward to it! On his last day in San Diego, we decided to go to a really beautiful place to do some shopping and have lunch, that is, the Coronado Island. It is an affluent resort city located across San Diego Bay from downtown San Diego, I have actually been there once with my host family, it’s about 5 months before when I first got here, and we were just there for dinner. But today, we are going there in the morning instead of afternoon, I believed that we will see another beautiful side of the Coronado. 

Hotel Del Coronado and the beach.

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The Tour of Redit data center

Later today (April 10th), Jason brought boys, Uncle Paul and me to see the data center of the company that he works in. I was surprised because it is so close to our house! I don't know that there are a professional data center just around our house! This data center trip was really special to me since I am kinda like an "IT guy", and I have my own website as well, so I can learn a lot more thing about servers and internet by visiting a real data center, and there is a person giving us a tour, too. (Jason's co-worker) The data center we were visiting today was held by a web solution company called redIT, this data center was not like Google's, it is not as big and this one have many clients (companies) renting and using the same data center at one time. When we first arrived there, we couldn't even find where it is, there are no any signs or directions, I guess it's because they don't really want people to know where they are (as one of their data center protection). And people are unable to look in from the windows as well. 

Data Center (Image from Google; this is not the one we went.)

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Beautiful Beaches and shops: Point Loma

Time flies, today, April 10th, 2014, was already the fourth day of Spring break, also the penultimate day of Uncle Paul’s visit… Uncle Paul took me to many cool and new tourist places the past three days and also today, I love them all, and I really hope this week will never end so we can go even more places! Haha Fortunately, there is one more day tomorrow, the last day we can go out to somewhere together. The place we went to today was Point Loma, it is a seaside community within the city of San Diego. There are many beautiful beaches, nice restaurants, and fine shops in Point Loma, and of course, the best thing about going to Point Loma is that you can enjoy the fantastic view of Pacific Ocean and the California Coast.

A street in Point Loma.

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The Hero Ship: USS Midway Aircraft Carrier

Today, April 9th, 2014, was the third day of Spring break. Uncle Paul and I decided to visit the USS Midway Museum. According to Wikipedia, The USS Midway Museum is a maritime museum located in downtown San Diego, California at Navy Pier, it consists of the aircraft carrier Midway. We have walked past it or even parked in its parking lot before, but I never actually got on it before, so we think it would be a really interesting place to go. It is just in the downtown area, and people are able to see it from very far away, I think it is definitely a landmark in San Diego.

This picture was taken in the control tower on USS Midway.

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Birch Aquarium & La Jolla Cove

Today was the second day of Spring break, just like yesterday, Uncle Paul took me out to some famous tourist places in San Diego. Before we go, Uncle Paul and me went to a coffee shop to read newspaper, relax and have some drinks. I woke up at 7 o'clock today, just like the normal school day. We first took boys to their school, and then go straight to the coffee shop. The coffee shop we went to is call The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, it is located in 4S common center. There was only one person in the shop by the time we got there, so it was kinda nice. I had a cup of Latte and Uncle Paul had some tea. I felt really relaxed just sitting in the coffee shop and read some internet articles or play games with my iPad, or even to chat with Uncle Paul. We should definitely go there everyday!

(For cover photo) The spectacular view of the shore, the ocean, and the sky. Looking down from the Birch Aquarium.

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San Diego Seal Tour Adventure

Today, April 7th, 2014, was the first day of our Spring break. Uncle Paul, again, flew down from Chico and come visit us. Unfortunately, boys' school has their Spring break two weeks after my break week, so I have a week off while boys don't, it's kinda bad since we can not do activities together, but on the other hand, Uncle Paul can take me to some places that boys might not want to go, so it's also nice! Yesterday, before Uncle arrives, Jason took Ethan and me (Brennan was feeling sick) to a huge electronic store called "Fry's Electronics" just to look around, that store (or let's say, mall) was incredibly big, it even has a restaurant and a small aquarium in the mall! And it sells everything as well, from speakers, TVs to electronic parts, it's just unbelievable! Well, maybe it's just another "American size" thing, nothing too special Haha. After looking around at the electronic store, we went to a place called Invasion Laser Tag to play a quick Laser Tag game. We actually went there before once, and it was still fun this time! We then had lunch in Southern California Style fast food restaurant - In-n-out. Although it's my... 4th time having In-n-out (and having the exact same food), their classic cheese burger still tastes so good!

(For title picture) We saw a aircraft carrier drove by when we were on the boat tour

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Disneyland Trip - Day 3: California Adventure - Pt. 1

How time flies, it was last day of the trip already. Just like yesterday, we packed our clothes, had a quick breakfast, and headed to Disneyland. But today, we were not going to the original Disneyland Park, we were going to the new California Adventure Park. The park opened in 2001, and it is the second of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort Anaheim. I think there are more "old-kids" rides in California Adventure such as California Scearmin' and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Just as usual, both Disneyland park and California Adventure entrance were very crowed, we had to wait for a while to get into the park.

One of the most popular attraction in California Adventure: The California Screamin' Ride!

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Disneyland Trip - Day 3: California Adventure - Pt. 2

(Please read the first part of this post first: Disneyland Trip - Day 3: California Adventure - Pt. 1.)

We visited Cars Land today! (I will mention it later)

After this quick but awesome trip around California, we went to one of the most famous attraction (but it's not in the video...) in California, Hollywood! Well, of course, not the real one, we are still in Disneyland, we went to the Hollywood Land! This area are inspired by the 1930s Golden Age period of Hollywood, I really love it since I kinda like some old-fashion buildings, that's why I also love Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland so much, it is inspired by the 1920s of Los Angeles. The reason why we were here was because we are going to get ready for Elisa's "Disney Junior's Live on Stage" show at 2:30, this was the only time when she could take a small rest. Before lining up for the show, we just walked around the Hollywood Land. There were not too many rides in this land but some nice gift shops and maybe some stages. When we finally got into the show theater, we were surprised because we have to sit on the ground, there was no chairs in this theater, I guess it's because this theater was designed for kids to dance and sing. But we were actually expecting to sit on some nice, soft chairs and take a rest during the show... I have to say, the actual show was pretty good. Although it was designed for little kids, I still enjoyed it a lot, I love the decorations on the stage and the music of the show, plus, seeing all small kids dancing, singing and replying silly answers to the host was really interesting. I remember that there was one time when the host asked something like "Do you want to discover Mickey's clubhouse?" (which, of course, she expect kids to answer YES), and I heard a kid behind me answered NO really loud. That was just really funny!

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Disneyland Trip - Day 2: Disneyland Park - Pt. 1

Yeah!!! This day was finally here! It's day for visiting the world happiest place, Walt Disneyland! Disneyland opens at 9 today, so we woke up at 8, and had a simple, quick breakfast. Our hotel offers free breakfast, it was very basic, and there has not place for us to eat so we have to eat in our room, but it's actually a good thing since we can finish it fast have save time to have fun in Disneyland! As we were on our way to Disneyland, we could see some rides in California Adventure Park such as California Screamin' and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, that make boys and me even more excited! By the time we arrived Disneyland entrance (about 8:45), there were already lots of people waiting there to get in to the park, it took us at least half an hour to go through all processes and got into the actual park, processes including backpack check, which can make this 40,000-visitors-per-day park much safer.

One of the rides in Disneyland, the Space Mountain

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Disneyland Trip - Day 2: Disneyland Park - Pt. 2

(Please read the first part of this post first: Disneyland Trip - Day 2: Disneyland Park - Part 1.)

Disneyland Mickey's Soundsational Parade (I will mention it later)

Buzz Lightyear, one of the main characters in the movie "Toy Story", even has its own ride, called Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. We went on it after riding Matterhorn, it didn't take us too long to wait. I remember that I have played this in HK Disneyland, we basically just have to use laser guns to shoot wherever targets are. I got 13000 points at last, but Ethan and Jason got much more points than me, I guess they know the trick... At the exit of the ride, we can send the photo of us on the ride to our own e-mail for free, I of course did send it, but I looks dumb in the picture. Ha ha.

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Disneyland Trip - Day 1: Downtown Disney

Where is "The happiest place on Earth"? I believe most people would say it's Disneyland. I've been looking forward going to Disneyland for months since I moved to California, and today, Feb 8th, was like dream come true, we were going to Anaheim for 3 days during the break! Anaheim is where Disneyland Resorts California located, including the original, oldest Disneyland Park, California Adventure Park, and Downtown Disney District. We planned to go Downtown Disney to have dinner and do some shopping on the first day, and visit the parks on day 2 and 3.

A restaurant in Downtown Disney- Rainforest Cafe

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Chinese New Year Festival in Downtown San Diego

Chinese New Year is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated at the turn of the Chinese calendar, in 2014, Chinese new year was on January 31st. There are all kinds of Chinese New Year celebration around California during this new year season, since Chinese population have a large percentage in California. Today we went down town to attend the "Chinese New Year Food & Cultural Fair", according to the official San Diego website, this is a event fun-packed with various cultural performance including lion dancers, martial arts demonstrations and acrobatics, children's crafts, lantern parade and a wide variety of Chinese and Asian food booths.

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San Diego International Auto Show

(The content of this post happened on Jan 3rd, 2014 PST)

The San Diego Auto Show is an annual auto show held at the San Diego Convention Center in early January. As other cities and countries, this season seems to be a great time to hold auto show, because at the same time, Taipei also has a auto show going on. San Diego auto show is not a real big auto show, unlike the one in Los Angeles or New York. We planed to watch the auto show and have lunch in downtown, my mood was really good that day because the weather was nice and I was really looking forward to seeing the show.

In the Auto Show.

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Coastal Beauty of San Diego - La Jolla

(The content of this post happened on Dec 27th, 2013 PST)

There are dozens of beautiful beaches in this Southern California coastal city, San Diego. From the shores of Del Mar to La Jolla Cove, all of them are the downtown's historic towns. On uncle Paul's last day in San Diego, we went to the famous La Jolla cove, it is a perfect place to spend the vacation. La Jolla is only a few minutes from downtown San Diego, but it is very quiet and nice.

The La Jolla Cove

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The San Diego Zoo Adventure

(The content of this post happened on Dec 26th, 2013 PST)

Thursday was the Zoo day! Boys and me were all very looking forward to go to the zoo, especially me, because it was my first time visiting the world-famous San Diego Zoo. According to Google, the San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park housing over 3,700 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies.

Elephants in the world-famous San Diego Zoo

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Science Center & The Prado at Balboa Park

(The content of this post happened on Dec 24th, 2013 PST)

Our plan today was to go to the San Diego Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, it is a science museum and planetarium in Balboa Park, there is also a IMAX theater in it. We did not watch the movie because the first movie of that day started at noon, and that was way too late, we had Christmas eve church service to go at afternoon. We went to their regular science gallery, it have many instrument that show science principles for both kids and adults. Although I have visited this kind of places many times in Taiwan, I still like it very much, I love to watch and understand how things work.

The Prado at Balboa Park

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The San Diego Harbor Boat Tours in Downtown

(The content of this post happened on Dec 23rd, 2013 PST)

Today was uncle Paul's second day in San Diego, he said that he want to take boys and me to many places and good restaurants in San Diego during the break, so I was excited everyday morning, waiting for new experiences. Our plan today was to go to the Downtown San Diego and take a harbor boat tour.

The view on the boat of the harbor tour.

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