(#22) Hotel Del Coronado

Today my friend Bernie and I went to our 4th Salsa lesson (Cha-Cha-Cha), and once again we lived to tell about it. It's so much fun and one of these days I may actually get good enough I wont need the teacher to call out "1-2-3-4" as I dance. We decided after class we would go do something else on "the list". Since neither of us have ever been to Hotel Del and it's only about an hour away we decided today would be a beautiful day to do just that. It was an absolutely gorgeous day on Coronado Island. The Architecture of the grand old hotel was wonderful and we had a great time (as usual) trying to make each other laugh. The History of the Hotel is varied and interesting. They've had several movies made there over the years and they have that posted. The also were the first Hotel in San Diego to have Electricity. We Snuck past the "Register Guests only" areas and looked through all the shops, that was fun. We especially like the gourmet Chocolates, and gave in to a few cravings. They had a great old fashioned Ice Cream parlor there too and we mustered up the strength to just say "NO", although that was after the Chocolate so we were somewhat satisfied with our bad selves already :) Well, have a great week and do something new or old, as long as it's fun! Go ahead and eat the Chocolate, no one is looking :) Sue

(#21) And the Oscar goes to ......

Hi Everyone, Today my son Doug and I went to Hollywood to get up close and personal with the Oscars. No, not the ceremony, just the Statuettes. They've finally come up with an exhibit that allows the public to "Meet The Oscars!" at the Kodak Theater in the Hollywood and Highland Center. I was surprised at how heavy they are. I think we had about an hours wait to get in, it's a small space so they only let a few people in at a time, but it's FREE! (Unless you count the $12 for parking). They have a very nice presentation of the history of the Oscars and how they make the Statuettes, a short film presentation of the history of the Oscars too. They have all this years nominees up on the walls and an original Statuette from the 1934 Oscars next to one that will be given away at March 5th's awards show. It was a nice day and the weather cleared up beautifully just before we got there. Hollywood actually had blue skies today after the rain washed all the smog away. My favorite part of the day was when I went up to get my photo taken with an Oscar Statuette (it's chained down so no one runs off with it) and gave a rather loud 'acceptance' speech; "I'd like to thank all the little people who stood behind me in line today" and then of course I got applause (from all the little people in line behind me) and gave another;"You like me, you really, really like me!" while my son took a picture. I think he was a little embarrassed, he almost sprinted from the building when I said "Ok honey your turn". Teenagers just don't know how to have a good time. Well, I hope you all have an award winning week! Sue

(#20) Happy Year of the Dog!

Gong Hay Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New years everybody!

I apologize right now for the misspelling of Happy New year in Chinese that I'm sure I did. But then again most of you probably don't know how to spell it either. Today I went up to L.A.'s China town with a friend to see the Chinese New Years parade. It was very interesting and they had lots of different martial arts demonstrations in the parade and the Chinese Lion dancers to scare away the evil spirits for the up coming year. They set off a million fire crackers and I think we were standing a bit to close. It was about an hour later that I fully regained my hearing. I think I also may have developed a smokers hack from inhaling smoke after they were set off (also to scare away evil spirits). They had something there for everyone, lot's of food booths and great stores. The Lion Dancers are what I mostly went for (although I've never been to a Chinese New years Parade before either). The Lion Dancers climb up on each others backs to make the Lions taller, sometimes 4 men high, and of course run around in unison with it's mouth opening and closing to appear like a living creature. It's very impressive to watch. China town has a lot of great bargains too! I found a store that had cloth covered flip flops for 2$, Wow! I'm in heaven, I bought one in every color :)

Well I hope you all have a great Year of the Dog!

Tomorrow is my next Latin dance lesson, Cha-Cha-Cha!

Have a great week, Sue