Greetings from San Diego!
Because my birthday was last Saturday, my mom's birthday was yesterday, and I had some vacation to use or lose, we took a trip together to celebrate.
We arrived in San Diego Tuesday afternoon. We spent Wednesday Christmas shopping at an outdoor mall, did a little browsing at a farmer's market and antique shop in Ocean Beach, and then met my friends Theresa and Dan for dinner at a little Mexican restaurant there.
Thursday was spent at Balboa Park, where we visited the Museum of Photographic Arts and the Timkin Museum of Art, had a birthday celebration dinner at El Prado Restaurant, and went to see Plaid Tidings, a holiday version of Forever Plaid. Wonderful day!
Today, the San Diego Zoo. AWESOME zoo! I mean, I expected it to be very good, but I was even impressed beyond my expectations. We saw a sea lion and endangered species show, took the bus tour, rode the SkyFari tram, and walked allllll over. Then we went on an errand which landed us in Little Italy, so we ate at a quaint, authentic, family-run Italian restaurant and bakery. YUM.
Tomorrow, I think we'll hit Sunset Cliffs, and then play it by ear as it's our last day.
Pictures to follow, of course. We've taken so many! But I'm on a laptop with no external mouse, and resizing and uploading and posting them is more than my tired self can handle right now.
But speaking of pictures, I bought a new camera!! Which actually takes a bit of explanation.
The last few books I've read and/or listened to on audio book have, in some way another (and sort of randomly and unplanned), dealt with photography.One of them featured a Holga fairly significantly. A month or so ago, Steve and I built a pinhole camera using a kit. I don't actually know how well it works; I have to get my pictures developed. They may be dark or washed out or blurry or not even lined up properly, but it'll be fun to see!
Anyway, at the gift shop of the Museum of Photographic Arts, they sold Holgas! And I was thisclose to getting one. I was talking to the girl working the counter, and she ended up recommending a Diana F+ over the Holga, mostly because of its versatility. The Diana can be a pinhole camera (bonus: I can be SURE the film is lined up properly), but also acts similarly to a Holga and has a wide range of accessories and modifications that can be added/made.
It uses 120mm film, which I kind of had to hunt down (which is how we found ourselves in Little Italy tonight, at a local camera shop). And I really have no idea where I'll be able to get it developed, or where I might find it to buy closer to home, but I'm sure I'll figure that part out.
For now, I can't wait to experiment!
I have two rolls of pinhole camera film to develop, and hopefully at least one of the 120mm, plus all the digital photos from this trip, so stay tuned for a picture-heavy post coming soon.