Friends - This will be my last note on this version of the site. Please visit jimmyjia.blogspot.com for the continued update on An Infinite Number of Monkeys!
Jimmy
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Sand, I Ego
Jimmy Carter is a lot shorter than he looks on television. That was one of the more unexpected conclusions while visiting friends in San Diego. I am embarrassed to admit that this was my (mostly) first time to the city even though I grew up in California. The “mostly” comes from the fact that in high school, I was participated in a college tour of UCSD, but we were literally bussed in and out of the university with no time to see the rest of the city. This time, however, outside of a few hours in a biomedical laboratory, which looks like every other biomedical laboratory in the world, I had a chance to really get to know the place.
I left Seattle early in the morning, after a short drive to the airport in the cold rain on Interstate 5. I was welcomed by a warm sun in San Diego before being whisked away on The 5. The similarities between the cities were striking. Both cities have strong aerospace traditions with Boeing in one and Lindbergh the other. Both have a vibrant downtown and personality driven neighborhoods. Both enjoys microbrews and both serve really good ice cream, but only one has a climate suitable for eating it in winter. Both also have strong maritime traditions with large naval bases for air craft carriers. We toured the Maritime Museum with submarines and tall ships amongst the collection. My favorite part of the museum was touring the boiler room of the steam ship Berkeley. The three-hour whale watching tour also had many sights that we would not normally see in Seattle, namely fighter jets take off and landings, helicopters flying in formation and tall ships sailing in and out of harbor.
The highlight of the trip was meeting Samson and Delilah, the Saint-Saëns version. Delilah had a nice voice but the tenor, we all agreed afterwards, didn’t start truly singing till the 3rd act when he was forced to push a giant mill stone as punishment by the Philistine. As Samson belted his remorse at his own failures, he begs God for one last chance to redeem himself and save his people. He gets his wish. During the last scene, he is chained to two large pillars near the altar of the Philistine temple when God returns his enormous strength. With his new-found strength, he destroys the pillars, bringing the roof down onto the worshipers, thus killing the oppressors and freeing his people. As we left the opera, the humor of life did not escape us. We had parked under the Church of Scientology, a building that is held up by pillars to enable street-level parking underneath.
Running into Jimmy Carter was perhaps the most unplanned part of the trip. We were walking down a sidewalk on our way to the Hotel del Coronado, a well-known seaside resort, when we passed a contingent of men dressed in black suits and wearing ear buds. Typically, when one passes a contingent of men in black with ear buds, it means that they are escorting someone of importance. A quick glance at the person walking in the middle proved that theory correct, with the former President holding hands with his wife.
Indeed, our the trip was full of the sights and sounds of San Diego interspersed with speakeasies, Mary’s chicken, gelato, aircraft carriers and Jimmy Carter. Perhaps the only thing we did not get to see was whales. Sadly, I was also denied the request to tour the engine room on our vessel – and was told that no one had ever requested to tour it before. Those experiences will need to be rectified on future visits!
I left Seattle early in the morning, after a short drive to the airport in the cold rain on Interstate 5. I was welcomed by a warm sun in San Diego before being whisked away on The 5. The similarities between the cities were striking. Both cities have strong aerospace traditions with Boeing in one and Lindbergh the other. Both have a vibrant downtown and personality driven neighborhoods. Both enjoys microbrews and both serve really good ice cream, but only one has a climate suitable for eating it in winter. Both also have strong maritime traditions with large naval bases for air craft carriers. We toured the Maritime Museum with submarines and tall ships amongst the collection. My favorite part of the museum was touring the boiler room of the steam ship Berkeley. The three-hour whale watching tour also had many sights that we would not normally see in Seattle, namely fighter jets take off and landings, helicopters flying in formation and tall ships sailing in and out of harbor.
The highlight of the trip was meeting Samson and Delilah, the Saint-Saëns version. Delilah had a nice voice but the tenor, we all agreed afterwards, didn’t start truly singing till the 3rd act when he was forced to push a giant mill stone as punishment by the Philistine. As Samson belted his remorse at his own failures, he begs God for one last chance to redeem himself and save his people. He gets his wish. During the last scene, he is chained to two large pillars near the altar of the Philistine temple when God returns his enormous strength. With his new-found strength, he destroys the pillars, bringing the roof down onto the worshipers, thus killing the oppressors and freeing his people. As we left the opera, the humor of life did not escape us. We had parked under the Church of Scientology, a building that is held up by pillars to enable street-level parking underneath.
Running into Jimmy Carter was perhaps the most unplanned part of the trip. We were walking down a sidewalk on our way to the Hotel del Coronado, a well-known seaside resort, when we passed a contingent of men dressed in black suits and wearing ear buds. Typically, when one passes a contingent of men in black with ear buds, it means that they are escorting someone of importance. A quick glance at the person walking in the middle proved that theory correct, with the former President holding hands with his wife.
Indeed, our the trip was full of the sights and sounds of San Diego interspersed with speakeasies, Mary’s chicken, gelato, aircraft carriers and Jimmy Carter. Perhaps the only thing we did not get to see was whales. Sadly, I was also denied the request to tour the engine room on our vessel – and was told that no one had ever requested to tour it before. Those experiences will need to be rectified on future visits!
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