Sunset Cliffs, a taste of Los Angeles, and friends!

Two days ago marked a full month that I have been in San Diego, and it has been one heck of a month! I started and finished an online summer class, and biked over 100 miles (for an out of shape beginner I think that's not too shabby!).

Anyway, I am going to cover a lot of ground in this post (the past two weeks) so I am just going to dive straight in!

So my last post left off with me showing off my new bike basket (heavy duty milk crate ziptied to a rear rack).  The next day I went to the mall to swap out a swimsuit, and it was the first time I have ever been in an inside out mall:

The stores just opened out to thin air, and the escalators didn't have any coverings over them!

It was weird to see, but seeing as SoCal barely ever has rain, I can see why this is practical! I didn't realize that I should have put on sunscreen though, so my nose is now a different color from the rest of my face. After the mall, I took the Ocean Beach bike path to Dog Beach:

Dogs could just run around without a leash! It was amazing! <3 Didn't realize how much I missed Phoebe until I got to this beach - will definitely be going back soon. :)

I walked around a little, petted a few dogs, and then continued my trip after I saw a dog poop right in the water. D:

Check out the surfboards!!

I then cycled up through Ocean Beach (or O.B. as the locals like to call it) until I got to Sunset Cliffs:

I didn't get to watch the sunset because my bike lights hadn't arrived yet, but it was pretty beautiful just to sit and rest. :)

Anyway, the next week was pretty busy with me doing homework, so I didn't really get out of my apartment much, but I rewarded myself with a trip to see my classmate Xochilt in LA! Xochilt was pretty amazing and drove down to me on Friday night, and stayed over so we could get an early start on Saturday.

But first, look at this. This is CRAZY. This amount of roads clustered like this should be illegal!

So I thought this parking lot was very interesting... never have I paid for a spot like this!

We ran into some really cool street art:

Then Xocihlt took me to Little Toyko -- !!

Pork bun!!!

Revolving sushi!! SURROUNDED BY FOOD! HAPPINESS!

Sea urchin. Tastes like the ocean. I think I'm good for life.

Xochilt said they had good salmon cheeks, and they did!

Afterwards we went into this bakery/mochi place and they had these cutie patooties peeking out from a shelf. <3

Crème brûlée, mango, and strawberry ice cream mochi!

Crosswalks in Little Tokyo had these decorating them on them.

After Little Toyko, we hopped over to Olvera Street (for some reason I was conivinced it was Alvers Street). Anyway, it's the oldest part of downtown LA, and had tons of really beautiful Mexican souvenir shops and places to eat! It was SO colorful!

Inside the Avila Adobe, the oldest house in LA, built in ~1818.

This cactus/tree hybrid was hanging out in the garden. I have no knowledge or experience with cactii, so I thought it was crazy that this one had bark!

These guys were playing the most beautiful music!

I look a little derpy, but look at all the colors!

After Olvera Street, we walked over to Chinatown:

  

I thought this was funny. :) Also, I just noticed that lunch special, damn!

Anyway, we then headed back to Xochilt's apartment, but not before some more awesome street art! We also polished the night off with some pizza.  The pizza place honored Xochilt's request to cut it into the Triforce from Zelda!

The next day we hit up a diner (or what I equate to a diner haha) and I grabbed a train home(the Pacific Surfliner) with some AMAZING views of the ocean!

This is from the train!

So because this post is so photo heavy and text light, I will cut off here and just do another post with my past week. I apologize for how little I wrote - this is what happens when I wait too long to post. My frail memory begins to deteriorate and then I have little to say. I will do a better job at keeping up from now on!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures today! There will be more coming up in a few days! :)

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