Last days in South California

Hard to get back to work after a very nice weekend indeed... Thankfully, myself and David had a big even that Monday evening to look forward to. The occasion was the NHL game between Anaheim Ducks and the LA Kings. A live NHL game is one of the things every Finn (male anyway) wants to experience at least once in his lifetime. And the team most Finns my age would want to see is an Anaheim Ducks game – for the simple reason that the two greatest players of my generation are playing there – Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu. It’s true that they are both a bit over the hill as far as their age is concerned (like me  ), but especially Teemu is still at the top of his game (so far he’s average more than a point per game this season – not bad for a 40-year old).

Driving down to Anaheim in David’s rental car was a bit of a pain – we did get to experience a bit of that legendary LA Freeway madness (Anaheim is just south of LA), but we did get there in time, with minutes to spare. The game was a superb experience, with Anaheim winning 2-0 (both goals assisted by Mr. Selanne), after a pretty tightly-fought 3 periods. The Americans sure know how to please their audiences – the off-ice entertainment was nearly as much fun as the game itself. Have to say though, the atmosphere ain’t quite the same as it’s in Europe – hockey games in the US are more of a “fun night out for the family” than a passionate fan affair, like in Europe. But all in all, an experience well worth the drive!

Tuesday night was Movie night at Alex’ place, good to have a quiet night in and rest them old bones of mine for a bit. Wednesday was French night again – as per the routine established the previous week, Stephane picked me up and drove me down to UTC, where we had our couple of drinks, dutifully. I also met up with Robin, a friend of Stephane’s who works at the French school at La Jolla. After a couple of warm-up drinks at UTC, we headed back to Hillcrest to (yes you guessed it) another French bar, where I got a crash course in how to play with Tarot cards. (funnily enough, the place was next doors’ to the hash house, where we lunched on Saturday).

Thursday marked our last evening in San Diego, so we decided it was time for a bit of Mexican action. No – not Tijuana – just a Mexican restaurant in the old town of San Diego, called Casa Guadalajara. Apparently it’s the place in San Diego where you get the BIGGEST margueritas EVER. So I was obviously looking forward to that. And I wasn’t disappointed, the marguerite I had is certainly by far the biggest one I’ve ever had… No complaints about the meal either – it was of American proportions. It has to be said that the place is a bit of a tourist trap (with “authentic Mexican musicians”), but a lot of fun, all in all. And pretty good value for money too! Perhaps not an authentic Mexican experience – but an experience for sure…

Which brings us to Friday, our last day in San Diego… Although mother nature nearly threw a spanner in the wheels, as we found out our flight from LA to London was delayed by about 4 hours. Which was a bit of a bummer – as it meant waiting for about 6 hours in LA. We played with the idea of skipping the first leg of our flight (from San Diego to LA), and drive up to LA instead and spend a bit of time visiting before catching our flight. In the end we decided not to risk it though, so flew to LA.

We didn’t really fancy spending 6 hours at the airport though, so hopped into a taxi and headed down to Santa Monica (recommendation from the taxi driver). We spent a couple of chilled out hours there, visiting the famous Santa Monica pier, the famous 3rd avenue promenade - a pedestrian shopping street. Pretty nice place, all in all, for those with deep pockets.

That brought an end to our rather long business trip in South California. Sure beats my usual trips to England and Finland – especially at this particular time when most of Europe is covered in snow (apparently the 20+ temperatures we experienced were “pretty damn cold” for San Diego this time of the year!).