One Beautiful Weekend Through My Cellphone's Lens

can you see the egrets and other birds behind these coreopsis?

A walk along San Diego River....FIRST Regional Robotics Competition....a walk on top of the bluffs right next to the Pacific Ocean.... and a warm weather! A beautiful weekend that almost passed away with only memories in my mind to reminisce. Thankfully, there was the ever reliable cellphone.

FIRST Robotics Competiton in San Diego Sports Arena

Saturday, our main agenda was to join the celebration of Math and Science in Regional FIRST Robotics Competition which was held in San Diego Sports Arena.
The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition is an intense three-day competitive event that showcase robots developed and operated by dozens of high school teams from all over the world. Being involved with the problem solving, planning, and applying math and science makes students see that engineering, technology and invention are exciting and interesting. High school teams combine sheer brain power and ingenuity in solving an engineering design problem intensively and competitively  .
Because the FIRST Robotics was held in San Diego Sports Arena which is very close to Robb Memorial Field, first in our itinerary was a walk at Robb Field, which lies next to San Diego River that meets at the Pacific Ocean in Dog's Beach. Imagine my excitement running high on seeing some early bloomers in the trail. Happily I walked to the nearest bundle of wildflowers, my heart singing and thumping loudly for joy!

I took my camera out, kneeled on the ground to capture the joy, but the moment I pressed the shutter, I found out the camera's battery was drained! As if teasing me, several butterflies came in happily flying around me, joyfully landing on top of the blooms. "Sigh", I thought. I put my camera back inside my bag, and took my cell phone out. Thankfully, one of the butterflies stayed by my side and allowed me to snap a picture.

 Butterfly Enjoying Early CA Sea Lavender Bloom

Egrets, heron, marbled murellets, grabes, flew in and out, a lot were enjoying their food in the estuary. Happily I observed them, but it is in this situation where my cellphone's lens can't perform well. Thankfully, everything is local I didn't have to grind my teeth for being forgetful.
After the walk, we went to Sports Arena for the Robotics Competition. Then, we went for a late lunch/ early dinner in San Diego Hillcrest Area which is right next to Balboa Park. Hillcrest offers eclectic dining, entertainment and nightlife options. From Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indian, Mid-Eastern, Mexican, Italian, American, and other cuisines, one will savor flavors from around the world. Restaurants in Hillcrest do not only vary in national origin but also in mood, from casual dining serving comfort foods, to elegant fine dining complete with five star service. I opted to have Japanese because the other times we were at Hillcrest, we tried Persian, Mid-Eastern, Mexican and Indian cuisines.

After our Japanese meal, we took a relaxing walk along Hillcrest's tree-lined streets, where some of the trees still show bright autumn colors,

Fall Colors in Winter with a Summer Like Weekend Warmth

while the nearby Balboa Park is filled with spring blooms! 

Spring Blooms @ Balboa Park

While taking a walk in the Hillcrest-Balboa Park area, we were debating whether to get coffee in one of the unique Coffee Shops, or get something that we do not get to enjoy often. We decided to stop by Vietnamese to get a purple taro (ube) tea drink to go!

Purple Taro (Ube) Tea with Lychee Jelly

Purple taro tea with lychee jelly is one of my favorite drinks. Sometimes, if I do not feel too full, I would request to add green tea boba in my drink. Since it was a beautiful warm day, we were able to enjoy the drink while walking along Hillcrest and Balboa Park area.
The next day, though already with a fully charged camera battery while taking a relaxing hike at Torrey Pines-Del Mar, but I purposely took the images below with my cellphone still to make a complete post where all images were taken by my cell phone.

Torrey Pines-Del Mar Tidepool Exposed @ Low Tide

Though Torrey Pines-Del Mar is our most frequented place in San Diego, but this was our first time to see tidepool exposed in this area. I did not know that Torrey Pines-Del Mar have interesting rocky shore alternating with sandy beaches. I thought before, this stretch of the Pacific Coast were purely sands. Thus, whenever we think of tide pooling, we usually would go South of Torrey Pines to La Jolla Shores, or further South at Cabrillo National Monument. 

Did I wish I was down the tidepool instead looking for starfish, anemone, and other tidepool creatures? Not really, because at the top of the bluffs, I loved looking for dolphins happily swimming in groups. Plus, I was treated with another pleasant surprise, which was the coming back of the purple fields. What a joy it was to see brown transformed to purple field of dreams! 

Purple Field Is Back! ( 2 weeks ago when we were here, it was still brown!)

And among these purple field of dreams, were butterflies happily fluttering around. 

I will share more pictures of butterflies, some critters I do not know the name, the purple field, and the low tide as captured by my camera in my next post.
Meanwhile, whenever I close my eyes, I daydream about dancing in the purple field with the happy butterflies.

♥♥