Adios California, hello Nashville

On our return from San Diego we made the most of our remaining week and a half in California. It was very sad saying goodbye to Newport Beach for the last time.

We also enjoyed our final wanders around the church complex across the road from our apartment

And also farewelled the UCI campus

I did a final walk to Bommer Canyon

And we also made sure we took full advantage of the pool and spa in our apartment complex during our remaining time there.

It was also a little bit sad saying goodbye to our local parks. Check out the precision edges on the path below. It is incredible how well all the public spaces are maintained in Orange County, everything looks almost a little too perfect!

We did a final sort-up of our stuff and sent a 30kg bag back to New Zealand as unaccompanied luggage. Too much taking advantage of the amazing shopping over here me thinks! To be fair, the bag also contained a couple of big heavy neuroscience textbooks that Will doesn't feel the need to keep lugging around for the next 3 months.

On Sunday 18th September we left California and flew to Nashville, via Houston. Due to a medical incident before take-off on the LA to Houston flight we were nearly an hour late arriving into Houston, which was bit of a problem as we had only been scheduled an hour before the connecting flight to Nashville... We legged it off the plane at Houston and literally ran all the way to the gate for the Nashville flight which was in another terminal at the airport. Luckily we had a super-helpful United air-stewardess run along with us for a bit (in her high heels!) who checked that the gate was still correct, then gave us instructions on how to reach it. As we ran along we asked her if she needed to catch the Nashville flight as well, but no, she was just helping us out. We made it in the nick of time and raced through the gate to the boarding area where there were still a few people waiting to board. We managed to make the flight, but not surprisingly, our luggage didn't... By now it was about 6pm in the evening, and Will was giving a presentation at Vanderbilt University first thing in the morning. Luckily there was an outdoor store near our hotel that was still open, so Will could buy a new shirt, socks and underwear! Our hotel was very good at sorting us out with all the toiletries we needed.

Will headed off to Vanderbilt in the morning, and since there was still no sign of our bags, I headed back to the outdoor store for a few supplies of my own. We'll be able to claim the expenses back from the airline. I then set about exploring Nashville. We were heading out the next morning so this was the only full day I had. Our hotel was very close to the university, and just across the road from Centennial Park, so I started my exploring there. 

Very randomly, Nashville has a full-size replica of the Parthenon, which was built in 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Expo. Not your every-day sight in an American park! Centennial Park was lovely and I spent a long time wandering around. The shady trees provided respite from the heat.

I liked how there were cute little double swings situated all through the park.

From the park I walked to the Downtown area. The blocks surrounding 5th Ave and Broadway were full of small little bars, all playing live music (and this was early afternoon on a Monday!). The music was good, you could hear it well enough without even going into the bars.

If it wasn't a live music venue, it was a cowboy boot shop! There were some lovely boots on offer, with several places offering buy 1 pair, get 2 pairs free... I would have been very tempted, if only I had the luggage space.

Being Nashville, there was plenty of 'cheese'...

But also plenty of music history, including the Ryman Auditorium which used to be the home of the Grand Ole Opry where bluegrass music originated.

That night we were taken out to dinner by one of Will's colleagues and his wife. They took us to a restaurant specialising in southern cuisine where catfish is the local speciality. Now the idea of catfish doesn't really do it for me, so on the recommendation of the waitress I enjoyed some amazing BBQ ribs. Will went for the southern tasting platter. Oh my goodness, Will's meal was pretty much every stereotype of American food in one meal. For a start, it was HUGE! I'm talking at least 2 or 3 times as much food as I would consider a 'normal' meal. There was catfish two ways, cod, prawns, okra, hush puppies (a type of savoury fried bread ball) and potato. Everything on the plate had been battered and deep-fried so everything was orange... It was quite something to behold! Will ate as much as he could manage, then his hosts ended up taking home the leftovers for lunch the next day. California in general is very health conscious, and we enjoyed some lovely fresh and tasty meals out during our time there. This was a stark reminder that we weren't in California any more!

We arrived back at the hotel after dinner to find that our bags had been delivered in our absence. Just as well, since the next morning we were flying out to Chicago. It was only a fleeting visit to Nashville, but long enough to get a taste of the south. Nashville had been one of the places we could have based ourselves for the sabbatical, so I am very grateful that we chose California instead!

San Diego, California

A couple of weeks before our time in California was up, Will and I spent a long weekend in San Diego. We headed off on the Saturday morning of Memorial weekend. We had pre-booked a hire car from our local John Wayne airport, but due to the long weekend we had to wait a bit at the airport for one to become available.

Eventually we were able to hit the road, but the long weekend traffic was pretty horrendous. In normal traffic the trip to San Diego should take less than an hour and a half. We travelled for about an hour and hadn't got too far so we decided to stop for a while at Dana Point, about 25 miles away. It was nice to walk on the beach for a bit and grab some lunch. Yes, that icecream above was Will's lunch!   

I had booked a very cool 1-bedroom Air BnB apartment for 3 nights, just north of the city centre. It was also just a few blocks west of Balboa Park, so the perfect location for exploring San Diego. 

On Sunday we had a big day of exploring. We started off by walking to the waterfront. There was a maritime festival on so lots of interesting boats out on the water, as well as stalls and food trucks. There was also an international sandcastle competition taking place on one of the piers which we paid to enter. I LOVE this type of thing and the sandcastles were spectacular. Each entry was given exactly the same amount of sand and they had points taken off if it wasn't all used. We turned up about half an hour before judging so there was some frantic last-minute work taking place by some of the teams. Here is a selection of the entries.

After the sandcastles it was time for the USS Midway museum. The Midway is an aircraft carrier which was commissioned a week after the end of World War II and was the largest ship in the world until 1955. It was decommissioned in 1992.

The statistics concerning the ship are fascinating. Over 4000 crewmen worked the ship to enable 200 aviators to fly. The crewmen quarters were pretty claustrophobic. They sure stacked them up and packed them in! This was in marked contrast to the commanding officer's quarters which were relatively palatial in comparison.

I enjoyed this museum much more than I thought I would, it was incredibly interesting. Maybe it helps that 'Top Gun' is one of my all-time favourite movies! It did feel like you were on the movie set at times, especially when we explored the operation rooms. Seeing all the pilot's call signs was cool.

When in operation the Midway could hold 80 aircraft. In the museum they have 29 restored aircraft, some of which you can go inside. Some are in the giant hanger...

And the rest are up on the 4 acre flight deck.

There were several retired servicemen around the place talking about their experiences of working on the Midway. The guy below was talking us through the take-off and landing procedures of the fighter planes which was interesting.

We had a very enjoyable and informative few hours on the Midway, I can see why it is the number one thing to do in San Diego according to TripAdvisor. My only gripe would be the 5pm closing time of the museum, as we could easily have spent even longer on the ship. I think that they hold private functions in the evenings as just before closing time it looked like they were preparing the flight deck for a social function.

After the Midway we spent a bit of time exploring the city centre. There is an artist who has several big pieces around the city which are supposed to be interacted with.

We spent most of Monday exploring Balboa Park. This place is awesome! At 1200 acres it is huge, and numerous museums and galleries are located in it. We weren't in the mood for going through the museums and Will was keen for a couple of the art galleries, but unfortunately they were closed due to the public holiday. We did admire some of the cool architecture of these buildings from the outside.

Will loves cacti, so was in his element when we came across the desert cactus garden in the park.

There was also a very nice rose garden, which was full of literally hundreds of people playing Pokemon Go. Apparently it is THE place to Pokemon in San Diego... We joined them for a bit. It was pretty exciting when I caught my first ever Dragonite (one of the rarest and most powerful Pokemon there is!).

While at the rose garden we met this very cool hipster dude who was out playing Pokemon with his pet parrot Sparky...

Tuesday was a work day for Will as he was giving a presentation at the University of California, San Diego. His talk went well and it was a good chance for further networking. We are seriously considering returning to California at some stage in the future, and San Diego would probably be our pick of places. It is a very cool city with beautiful beaches and great food, particularly Mexican. UCSD is also a very good university. Being right on the Mexican border the city is practically bilingual, so it would probably help if I learnt a bit of Spanish if we do end up there at some stage in the future... I accompanied Will to UCSD and spent the morning exploring the campus. The library is an interesting building.

I then walked from the university to La Jolla beach which is absolutely beautiful.

While swimming at the beach I had a dolphin swim past me about 2 metres away which was an amazing experience.

After swimming and lying on the beach to my heart's content, I went for a nice rocky coastal walk around the headland that you can see in the pic above. This took me to Scripps Park which had rugged rocky beaches teeming with sea lions and birdlife. It was also another legendary Pokemon spot with so much action it was hard to keep up!

I spent a very happy couple of hours here catching Pokemon, admiring the view, watching the wildlife, and eventually enjoying a very nice sunset. Will picked me up at around 7pm and we drove back to Irvine for our final week and a half in California.