New 52 | Week 35: Nighttime Zoo

Going to the San Diego Zoo’s summer special hours “Nighttime Zoo” has been on our Summer To-Do list for a couple of years.  This year we had purchased a zoo membership earlier in the year, so it was the perfect summer to finally check out Nighttime Zoo. 

We took the day off work on Monday (8/22) and planned our zoo visit.  Todd readily admitted that he had no idea what “Nighttime Zoo” was.  I told him they have special shows at night, and the zoo is open late so you can see nocturnal animals that you can’t see during the day. 

On the way to the zoo, we stopped at Ortegas Mexican Bistro in Hillcrest for dinner.  One of our favorite places for happy hour because of the special pricing.  Costs almost half as much as a normal meal!

We got guacamole, shrimp tacos, and steak tacos, plus diet Cokes.  They were fast with the refills too.  Awesome place, awesome experience again.  Plus our good parking karma was on still, because we found parking right across the street again!

After dinner, we headed to the Zoo for Nighttime Zoo. 






Upon entering, there was a steampunk robot band playing.  They were real people pretending to be robots, playing music and singing.  I thought it was pretty cool!


We walked down the Fern Canyon to get to another part of the zoo.


We didn’t’ know this until we got there, but the Nighttime Zoo theme this year is China.  So we saw this fun Chinese acrobat show.




But the coolest part of the night was seeing the Big Cats at night!  We got to them right at dusk, and they were so active!  We saw mountain lions…


He played with his big block toy.


This one looked a little sad.


We saw jaguars.  This one was still napping.


We saw snow leopards.  Look at the markings on this one!




Check out how big and long the tail is on a snow leopard! 






And we saw lynx. 


We left around 8:00PM, as the night fell.  I just loved these lanterns hanging in the trees!


First time experiencing Nighttime Zoo was definitely very special.  Loved that we got to see the big cats!  It’s so cool to have the annual zoo passes, because then you can go for a couple of hours and not feel like you’ve missed out.   :)

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About This Project

New52 is a project started by Peppermint and I to encourage each other and others around us to try something new every week in 2011. The "new" each week doesn't have to be something big. It could be something as simple as ordering a new dish instead of old standbys at your favorite restaurant. It's simply opening your heart up to NEW possibilities.
Don't worry if you're late getting started on joining in. It's totally OK if you miss a week here or there. We encourage everyone to keep an open mind about trying something new. This is a life project, and a photography/blog and even scrap challenge if you wish. If you participate this week, please leave a link to your blog post in the link list below. 

Bark For Life

On Saturday morning we got up early and left at 7AM to head down to Dusty Rhodes Park for the American Cancer Society’s Bark for Life event.  Todd volunteered as a Team Coordinator on the event committee.  This event was put together within a short span of a month, to raise funds for the ACS.

Here are some highlights from the event, which ran from 10AM to 1PM.



All in all, $15,654 was raised to fund cancer research. 


Congratulations to everyone involved who put a lot of time and effort into a successful fundraising event.  It was very inspirational to see the survivors and hear their stories.  Todd will be blogging about the event in the next few days on his blog.

He Swam A Mile

On Friday evening Todd and I went to La Jolla Cove for his second open water swim this summer, in preparation for his triathlon next month.  This time he planned to swim a mile, or about 30 minutes. 

Arriving at the cove.  There were lots of swimmers going out for a swim with the San Diego triathlon club.


Heading out to the ocean.


Going down the stairs.  I think it’s cool how the water looks to be a different color than last week. 


Todd in the water, looking back at me before starting his swim.


And there he went.


Once again I watched followed his progress with my eyes as he swam out.  I only lost sight of him right before the half-mile buoy, because he was too small and my eyes couldn’t track him anymore.  I looked back at the cove and captured this awesome scene.


And I took a self portrait.


I walked back in time to catch a couple of photos of Todd coming out of the water, right around 30 minutes.  He did so well!




Glad to see him on land again.


We walked together out of La Jolla Cove, right as the sun was setting.


Then we walked right to Burger Lounge for a well-deserved burger for Todd.  He was so hungry!

Project Life | August 13th to August 19th

If you’re reading my blog through a blog reader, click on over and check out my re-designed blog!  The re-design is part of my 1,000th blog post celebration, which will be happening soon!  You won’t want to miss it, because I’ll be having SEVEN giveaways, and they’re all very cool prizes related to what I blog about the most these past few years!  :)

On to Project Life!  Still keeping up & loving it!



On Saturday (8/13) we went running at Lake Miramar for the first time in a while.  I hadn’t run in two weeks due to my sinus infection, and Todd had an injured ankle and calf.  Todd sanded, stained, and varnished our front door so it looks new again.  I went to Michaels while he worked on that, and brought him home a Pomegranate Blueberry Ice Blended drink, his favorite.  On Sunday (8/14) we had lunch with Monika & David at Do Re Mi House, a Korean BBQ restaurant.

For the week title page, I used a Everyday Striped Journaling Circle by Elle’s Studio, Island Fun Inchie stamps by Inkadinkado, and punched out the stamped sun with a Martha Stewart punch.  The Padres baseball ticket is related to photos on the next page.  I printed some journaling off the computer onto a Becky Higgins 3x4 Grid Journal Card.

On Monday (8/15), we went to a Phil’s BBQ tailgate at the San Diego Padres game.  All proceeds went to charity.  It was so fun!


I created a 3x4 journaling space on the right side of a 4x6 canvas in Photoshop.  Then I copied journaling from my blog and printed it out on 4x6 white cardstock.  Then I adhered the photo onto the left side of the cardstock.


On Wednesday (8/17) after work, we drove down to Coronado to have dinner on the Sun Deck of the Hotel Del Coronado.  It was a perfect summer evening at the beach!  I put the menu in one of the 4x6 slots.


Then on Friday (8/19), Todd had his first open water ocean swim this year, in preparation for his triathlon in September.

In the upper right photo collage, I used Amber Clegg’s digital Date Dots brushes in Photoshop to stamp the circle date on the photo before printing it out.  Absolutely love those Date Dots, they’re so versatile!  In the bottom right photo, I stamped on one of Ali Edward’s digital Summer Sentiment Stacks to the right of Todd.  On this page I did all the journaling on the computer in Photoshop first, then printed them out onto Project Life journal cards with design on them.  I took the designs into account when I spaced my journaling in Photoshop.

Another week of Project Life!  :)

Supplies Used:
K & Co | SMASH date stamp  
Inkadinkado | Island Fun Inchie Clear Acrylic Stamps  
Elle's Studio | Everyday Striped Journaling Circles (digi)  
Advantus | Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher 
Martha Stewart | Flourish Square Punch All Over Punch  
RASDESIGN | Mari & David font 
Microsoft | Courier New font  
Typodermic | Pupcat font  
Ali Edwards | Summer Sentiment Stacks (digi) 
Amber Clegg | Date Dots (digi)

Macaroni Club

I processed so many photos tonight.  I guess I hadn’t processed photos since Friday night, and I’ve taken so many photos since then.  I had to get the photos uploaded from my small Canon SD850 IS, the big Canon T2i, my Blackberry phone, and my iPod.  Seeing all the photos make me happy.  So many blog topics and stories to share.  I love seeing the photos together in Lightroom and see the stories develop.  :)

Our Saturday was so full of fun! 

First of all, we woke up at 9:10 AM, which means I got over 8.5 hours of sleep.  That is always good.  I got up and had cereal breakfast + iced coffee.  I uploaded my Project Life photos to Costco.  Then I looked around on Pinterest.  By the time I noticed it was so late and went to change to running clothes, it was 11:20 AM and too hot to run at Lake Miramar.  So I suggested to Todd that we go to lunch first, go to Road Runner Sports to get my free pair of shoes that I won in a Girls On The Run raffle, then go to Costco to pick up my photos and buy fruits.  Then I would run by myself later in the afternoon. 

We found prime parking right in front of Nozomi.  The good parking karma continued!  I got the Hawaiian roll and Todd got spicy tuna tempura roll, the one he always gets. 


Everything was yummy.  I finally asked the waiter what’s the huge salad that I always see people order, and he said it's called "chirashi salad".  Everyone always gets it when they go there, so I'm totally going to try it next time!  After lunch we went to get a boba tea.  Tea Station has totally be remodeled!  They took over the space next door that used to be yogurt.  Now it's twice as big and the boba tea comes out so much faster than before.  I guess we hadn't been there in so long that they remodeled and we didn't even know!

Then we headed to Road Runner Sports.  I was a little nervous because my certificate for the free shoes that I had won from the Girls On The Run raffle expired on 8/15.  I asked them if I can still use it and they said yes.  I was so excited!  I had done research on the Nike website and the shoe I wanted to try on and buy is the Nike Zoom Vomero+ 6.  It fit pretty perfectly and I even ran on the treadmill with it in my skirt! 


Then we went to Costco and Todd got a churro.  I went in and picked up my photos.  I saw that they're selling the Canon T2i body, 2 lenses (18-55mm and 55-250mm), a camera bag, a 4GB card, plus HDMI cable and other stuff for only $849!  What a sweet deal!  Wish that deal was available when we were buying it a year ago!  We picked out some awesome blueberries and white nectarine, and some french green beans, and checked out. 

In the afternoon, I went over Handmade Christmas ideas with Todd and we made a list of family/friends and what we’re making for them as gifts.  I need to order the materials soon so we can start making them during college football and NFL football on the weekends!  So excited!

At around 4:45 PM Todd went grocery shopping and I went for a run around the neighborhood.  I ran 2 miles in 23 minutes and it was hot out still.  Then I took a shower and we went to dinner at Bronx Pizza in Hillcrest.  We hadn't been there in YEARS!
 
It was very crowded but we found a table with people leaving so we were able to sit down.  I got one slice of pesto pizza and one slice pepperoni and sausage pizza. 


Both of Todd's slices were pepperoni and sausage.  It was pretty good pizza.  I liked my pesto slice better than the pepperoni & sausage one.  Todd and I had the same opinion that there needed to be more spicy red pizza sauce for it to be perfect. 

After dinner we drove to Eclipse Chocolat in North Park so that Todd can get some dark chocolate to include in his charity chocolate-tasting that he's holding to raise funds for the American Cancer Society’s Bark for Life.  

We got a chocolate bar and a chocolate ganache salted caramel cupcake.  The cupcake was super-messy to eat but SO delicious.  We took a couple of bites but it was so messy that we decided to bring it home to eat with a fork.  Again we parked right out front! 

Then we drove to Monica's At The Park,  where Todd’s musican/producer friend Aaron Bowen's Macaroni Club was held.  It's local artists, crafts and handmade things, and singer/songwriters all in the same place.  Plus food and coffee.   

We chatted with Aaron and looked at some arts & crafts, and listened  to a couple of musicians.

Todd and Aaron.

So that was the first time we’d ever been to the Macaroni Club.  It was pretty neat!  I had a lot of fun on Saturday!