2011 Jun 25 | driving in San Diego, LA, and Orange County

That's my kind of sign; bunch of rocks on a hill.

Cool bridge.

Welcome to California!

San Diego by the public library is pretty dirty. This is the bathroom in the library; someone appears to be storing their food there.

Some people talking to a bunch of bums about something.

I'm assuming Connecticut, but it'd be a great double if he had been in jail, too.

That is one weird light switch.

The one thing I don't like about the GPS Navigation on my phone is I don't get a feel for where I am unless I switch it to an overhead view every once in a while. Also, I swear the Navigation program uses so much power that the battery still gets run down even when it's plugged into the cigarette lighter.

I don't like oatmeal because it's boring, but I would eat that.

Listening to a webinar on becoming an owner of an optometric practice after being an associate. It's annoying that I have to call in to hear the audio, though; there's some way to do it through the computer itself but I can't figure it out.

Oh yeah, I remember this.

One of the neighborhoods in San Diego.

This appears to be the gay community.

Cool bridge.

These are all over the place.

Another SD neighborhood.

Which is definitely predominantly Mexican.

Alternative fuels?

Natural gas, E85, and bio-diesel.

Another neighborhood.

This one has a lot of Asians and Mexicans.

I like this tower.

It's usually nice to have a house up on a hill.

Except these don't have a view of the ocean.

Can't figure this one out. Silver wills? Sliver whales?

The road going south to San Diego is usually pretty opening, but going north it's always packed around here.

Haha, giant ice cream things.

I'd always wanted to go to Sizzler after hearing about it in White Men Can't Jump, but there were none around where I was. So if I see someone nowadays, I like to stop on occasion.

OK, this is not an efficient way to organize this info.

Lots of traffic.

But at least it's moving.

Yallaaa!

$70 for a Motel 6 in Carlsbad, one of the wealthier towns between SD and LA.

I like how the side that attaches to your phone is out of the packaging so you can make sure it fits before you buy it.

I hate when jerks leave perishable items up at the counters. And not even giving it to the clerk so they can maybe take it back but "hiding" it here.

This woman would actually be really pretty if she didn't have all the tattoos and dressed better.

Fullerton.

There seemed to be a competition in this area to see who could have more of these tall, skinny trees in their yard.

A cashier at Ralphs was extremely nice and talkative. She asked if I had a Ralphs rewards card, and I stated I did not as I had just moved to California from Texas. She then welcomed me to the state (awesome!), we chatted a bit more, and then she asked if I had a rewards card with any other grocery stores back in Texas as the same company owned stores of other names. I said I didn't have any cards and it wasn't that big of a deal even if I did because I had noticed I usually only saved a dollar or two. So she rung me up, I paid, and then she pointed out that I could have saved over $10 on an approximately $40 purchase, which was quite unexpected. She said I could again check if I had a card with a different store, such as Kroger, and that I could come back and get the $10.43 club refund from that purchase applied on my next purchase if I was a member.

I left, and then realized I had a Kroger account but not a card since I always just type in my phone number. I also realized I hadn't bought any food for breakfast, heh, so I returned, purchased some more items, and got in her line. She was just as friendly to the two people in front of me in line as she was to me, and while cashiers are sometimes talkative to me because I often initiate conversation, it's extremely rare that I see any cashiers themselves start a real conversation (other than the standard, "How are you?" when they really don't care at all). When it was my turn to check out, she remembered me and asked if I had found a card. I said I usually use my phone number, so she typed it in, and sure enough, it worked. She then gave me a $10.43 refund. Because it was over $10, she had to fill out a form and get my signature. This was especially amazing because in she was actually happy to create more work for herself in order to help me. So a great little experience at a grocery store.

Neat lights around some trees.

Really, nobody should ever die to a rip tide. First, because you can see them, and second, because even if you get caught in one, the same advice is always given: swim sideways until you're out of it, and only then swim back to shore.

Ah, back to this. I still prefer these to hurricanes, though.

I overheard a woman asking what the easiest way to get to the airport from Fullerton was since she didn't have a car. A few people looked around on the internet, but couldn't find anything great, so I offered to take her there. We left early to avoid any traffic, but it was early enough there wasn't any. Since it was like four hours before her flight, she offered to buy me breakfast, so I searched on Yelp and this place was close and highly rated.