Sights and the beach

Here's my hello to everybody from a beach on the Pacific Ocean.

Yesterday, I took my rental car for a spin. The intention was to find nice places to take photos. First I visited Coronado, which is a kind of island connected to the downtown of San Diego with an impressive bridge. I took many pictures of the bridge and even more where I tried to be with the bridge. I carry a small tripod so that when there's nobody around, I can take my own picture. It also works wonders when it is dark, but not too dark. When there is enough light, but it just needs to be collected by the camera over a longer period of time. The tripod offers a "steady hand" that really helps.

The Coronado Bay Bridge and I.

Then I drove past the airport to Point Loma, which is the south-western most point of California. It was discovered (as also San Diego Bay was, although he called it San Miguel) by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. He was the first European to set foot on the west coast of North America.

The Cabrillo National Monument stands proudly overlooking the city of San Diego.

Today, I went to the beach to relax. I had prepared a few jam sandwiches for lunch. I set myself on my towel (Do you know where your towel is?) and decided to eat my lunch. Suddenly a small dog appeared out of nowhere and without a sound. It was on my towel, behind me, trying to take a bite of my sandwich. I patted it, but kept the sandwich from it. Next it went to sniff around in my bag, there was the other sandwich. At this point its owner, an older lady appeared. She was shouting "he doesn't eat peoplefood at all." I was relieved. I had been under the impression that it would have gladly eaten my jam sandwiches. Suddenly the little dog made its second attack, from behind my back it licked my lips. It was so quick, there was nothing I could do. I told the lady that I had apparently been successful at making a delicious lunch. I might also have mentioned that the dog might like me because I have a tail, too. I've noticed that some dogs are driven wild by my ponytail. I was covered in sand after this surprise attack. There was even sand on my sandwiches, it made a grinding sound between my teeth. Ah, well.

Later the dog made a few other friends. Two other dogs joined it and together they stole a child's sandal. When the girl started after them, they understood immediately that it was a game. The girl must not catch them and get the sandal, so they ran away. It was hilarious when the girl came back to her parents with the sandal shouting "I GOT IT BACK! I GOT IT BACK!"

There were some surfers in the water and the waves were quite impressive. When my left cheek felt hot and started making sounds like a frying pan, I decided to head back to the hotel. It is the left cheek that points outwards while driving, too. Coincidence?

I was just in a "shoppingtown" in National City (a strange name for a city, isn't it?) It seems to be "a city on the move". It's almost as imaginative as the town I was born in. It's called Lahti, which translated means "bay" (or "slaughter" depending on who you ask) and it is located - get this - on the Lake Vesijärvi, which translated means "water lake". One of the parts of town is called "Tonttila", which means a place that contains building lots. Isn't that kind of obvious in a city? And their slogan is - or used to be - "Lahti - The Business City". Has all the imagination leaked out of town or are they just so straightforward people in Lahti? I don't know.

Anyway, I was at the mall looking for a comics shop. The one I found was small, too small to have anything of interest for me. But the man there gave me the address of their biggest store in the city and adviced me that that's the only place I need to go to. So that's where I'll be tomorrow. "Comics-n-Stuff Super Store" on El Cajon Boulevard.