San Diego Overview

This isn't the most exciting blog post in the world, but I just wrote it so I could remember what I did on my trip. :) The picture above is the best picture I have from the trip (and of course it wasn't taken by me). It's from the sunset at Coronado on Saturday. 

Wednesday, November 16th: 


The trip started off with a very long plane ride next to an adorable elderly lady. Katelyn had the pleasure of sitting next to her. But boy was she a talker! She also brought a lunch of old salads! I didn't bring anything because I believed the airline would be serving me a chicken patty. I was wrong. Anyway by the end of the flight my ears were killing me and I was temporarily hearing impaired. 


I was dropped off at the hotel around 12:30 (The Marriott Courtyard in Mission Valley). It was a beautiful hotel, but it was not really near where we needed to be. So my friend Kara and I decided to try out public transportation. We took a LONG walk to the trolley (although the front desk told us it would be about five minutes). We then relied on the kindness of the regular riders to guide us to the Convention center. We had to take the green line to the blue line to the orange lines, and yes it was as complicated as it sounded. The best part of the ride was when Kara got into a fight with a homeless woman because Kara kept accidentally touching her bum leg or walker with her foot. The lady was quite angry and threatened her.

At the convention center we got our tickets and we ran into Rachel, a girl we went to grad school with. We did some shopping around the GasLamp district and then ate lunch/dinner at a random Mexican restaurant. Kara decided she was on the quest for the perfect fish taco (I guess San Diego is known for them). She wouldn't find it here, but they were definitely good. We then bought our first drink of the trip, a fancy Margarita. That night we went out to a bar called Bub's per a recommendation by Ryan. It was a pretty awesome place, it had good music, and a basketball net. The other Grad school girls met up with us and we had a good time despite being exhausted.


Thursday, November 17th:


This morning we woke up to the most hilarious news crew ever (as seen in a post below). We then decided to attend our ASHA convention. We went up to the poster room to check out what was going on there. Then we went to the Exhibit Hall where hundreds of eager exhibitors gave out free things like pens, stress balls, tote bags, the usual useful things. The SLPs all scouted out the booths which gave the best items and talked to those exhibitors. After that I went to a class about ways to assess Narrative Language. I was absolutely starving and lived off of airline snacks through this class and another one about Written Language. The classes were interesting but I would rather learn about treatment. We then hit up the poster room again before finally going out for some food because our stomachs were basically eating themselves. We stopped at a place called Sloppy Joe's.

We then headed back to the Convention Center where there was a huge buffet going on. Of course we were depressed that we had just spent a bunch of money when we could have had free food. At this point I just wanted a cookie after spotting them on someone's plate. I went around to people trying to track down the cookies, but they were nowhere to be found. We then headed to the Marina to attend the LSVT cocktail party. For those of you who are unfamiliar, LSVT is a voice treatment program that was idolized in Grad School. I was never certified in it, and I felt like a fraud there. But it was a good time, and we got to drink wine with the people we learned about in school, like Cynthia Fox. After the party we headed home on the trolley where a man offered to take us sightseeing. We declined his invitation. 


Friday, November 18th:

Today I was determined to do some sightseeing. The cheapest and most inclusive opportunity appeared to be the Old Town Trolley tour. We started it in Old Town
and it took us past the Seaport, the Gaslamp District, Hilton Bay and Coronado. One passenger had a really tough time following trolley rules. The whole trolley made fun of her because she kept getting up when told not to and then on two consecutive stops she exited the trolley only to change her mind and get back on thirty seconds later. 


We got off in Coronado because I really wanted to go to a beach. We walked over to the beach even though it was cold out and I was wearing a scarf and boots. The water smelled but I stuck my hand in just to say I touched the Pacific Ocean. We then walked to the Hotel del Coronado, which was beautiful, and was shown in the movie Some Like it Hot. We stopped in Spreckles and bought some candy and stuff. We then went to Miguel's where Kara finally had the best fish tacos of the trip. 


Next we caught the trolley to Balboa Park where we decided to get off. This park is amazing looking. There are all sorts of interesting looking buildings, all different kinds of museums and gardens. I'm not even sure of all of the things that are there because you would need over a day to  see it all. From there we walked to the zoo because I felt like it's something you need to see while there. I suppose I am not the most fun person to go to a zoo with because I am fine just walking through and glancing at the animals. Some people like to read the plaques and observe the animals which I find time consuming and stressful. Although I must admit that I LOVED the baby panda and I could stare at him for a while. He inspired me to buy several panda souvenirs. 

                 

After the zoo trip we went to the Convention Center and hit up the exhibit hall and some posters. For dinner we went to Jimmy Love's. It was nice to sit outside but at one point there were SEVEN people smoking in close proximity to me. I just can't deal with such an enormous amount of smoke. After dinner we went to a bar called Rock Bottom where I had a fabulous cosmo. 


Saturday, November 19th:


Today we knew we were going to be serious about learning. I finally slept until a reasonable hour and woke up to a Julia Roberts marathon. As much as I would have loved to watch that, I knew we had to get to the convention. My first class of the day was about an E-Book Club, which I think is a great idea for a middle school. 


I then spent some time in the exhibit hall and had a chicken patty for lunch (finally!!). I spent some time networking with some other SLPs. Around 1pm a bunch of supplies went on sale for half price. Apparently all the SLPs knew about this so they circled the tables until a man said they could "Go" and they then proceeded to stampede the tables, knocking each other over, and even flattening a woman against a table. No exaggeration. 

I soon bought some awesome cashmere scarves and then headed up for a class about working on  vocabulary in the classroom. That presenter did an excellent job. I then saw a few posters before  attending a class on dysphagia. (I find the medical speech classes way more interesting but tried to attend classes that actually apply to my job). After that I attended a class on T.H.E. P.A.C.T. I don't remember what the acronym stood for but it was actually a very informative lecture. 

Kara and I then decided to attend the ASHA post conference party which was held at the Hilton Bay Front. They had all sorts of food, including fish tacos, of course. At this point I am so tired of fish tacos. We made quite a few more friends. I couldn't believe how quickly the desserts disappeared. There wasn't even a cookie in sight. Next we headed to the Fox News Bar where we met some awesome people and had a shot of Cactus Juice or something. It was delicious. Rachel met up with us here and we then headed to a restaurant called Urban for some food and drinks with the rest of the girls. There was an awesome musician there named Trent Hancock. I also had my first glass of zinfandel wine.

Well that was a recap of my trip. It was a pretty fun time. I wasn't even too upset when my luggage was lost at the end of it and I realized it had been checked in under a different name.