Hearthiseatthatravelthere's Blog
Just another WordPress.com weblogSeaport Village (San Diego)
Whenever in San Diego, one of my favorite frequent spots to visit, shop or walk around on such a beautiful summer day is Seaport Village. They have various and quirky shops which are individually owned (which I like btw, power to the self-employed). And they have good selection of delectable restaurants and dessert places. By far, my favorite place is Ben and Jerry’s and always make that our first stop whenever we go. I’m an ice cream girl, and enjoy the walk better with an ice cream cone in my hand.
Walking around is always a different and refreshing experience. I love walking along the bay and breathing in the fresh ocean air. I love all the different arts and crafts events and things going on as there are various characters that bring the area to delight. To me, it’s a very happy place whenever I’m here.
Today was special because Angelo surprised me with tickets for the No Doubt concert next week here in San Diego. I was saddened the first time they were here in So Cal because all their concerts were sold out. This guy, he remembers everything to the point and tiniest detail. A keeper he is. =)
- Sunday
The Shout! House
If you ever visit San Diego and want to have a different kind of fun for a night out in town, you should head over to the Gas Lamp Quarter in Downtown. One excellent spot in particular is The Shout! House. If you haven’t heard of The Shout! House, it’s a “dueling piano” bar, similar to those I’ve been to in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas. Last night, Sunday and her cousin Alice and I decided to spend our evening there.
The premise of the place is this: someone requests a song by writing it down on a piece of paper along with a tip, the piano player that does the song best plays it using the other guy as back up and they get the crowd heavily involved. They call up people to sing, if they don’t see you singing, you get called out. It’s actually a lot more involved then that, the piano players are traded off every hour, during the trade off, the off going players play backup for a couple of songs with the drums and a bass guitar. Occasionally throughout the night, they call all of the wait staff to come up and do choreographed dances, the bartenders dance on the bar and if it’s your birthday, you can expect them to sing you happy birthday and make up a dirty song in your honor.
Definitely not a politically correct place, leave your politically correctness at the door and be prepared to rock your socks off. They did the favorite oldies but they also do recent songs and hits which turned out surprisingly good considering it was sung by a middle aged bald white guy. They also did Baby Got Back in where they called all of the women on the stage as Sunday and Alice showed that they could shake it with the best.
The age group varies as there are plenty of young guns and an older posse to boot. It’s a great atmosphere if you’re not into the whole clubbing scene or not in the mood or just taking a break from it. Service is great and price of drinks are decent compared to other spots in the Gas Lamp Quarter. If you’re a regular, soon enough the bartenders will recognize you. One of the female bartenders calls me, “Filipino guy with the hot ass Korean girlfriend.” All in all good times indeed.
- Angelo
Lapu Lapu
Earlier today at lunch my fellow colleagues and I randomly talked about explorers and colonization. One in particular was the Spanish empire, more so Magellean.
In 1521, Spanish conquerors led by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived on Philippine soil. Lapu-Lapu was the chieftain of Mactan Island in the Philippines at that time. He refused to accept the Christian faith that was preached by the foreigners and rose in arms at the Battle of Mactan which took the life of Magellan. He is considered the first Filipino hero, and his monument is displayed at the Lapu-Lapu Shrine in Mactan Island, Cebu.
It was interesting to see a clash between culture and religion when I visited the Philippines a few months back. I remember the residents in Cebu holding fiestas in honor of their hero Lapu-Lapu. The ironic part of all of this is that many are of Christian faith, yet they are honoring someone who opposed the whole ideology. However, what I did like about the atmosphere about the whole thing is that there was the equal respect in culture and religion; history and faith.
Being in America, you have a different story. As being a hot pot of cultures and religion, there’s not so much an equality. Also, they’re blended so much together, it can be difficult to distinguish one from another. The mixing can be a wonderful and blessing thing though, where we all can nourish from each other. But there will be those extremists who’ll gather armies and defend what they believe in and honor. Sometimes though, in all that pride, they become blind to mutual respect everyone should have for one another.
I’ve always kept my senses open to cultures and religion. As I firmly believe and live out my culture and faith, I respect everyone else’s too. You learn a lot of things and figure out being close minded will not get you anywhere in the world. Maybe that’s why I encourage my family, friends and whoever to travel around and see the world. To me it helps build a greater boundary of respect and mutual understanding with everyone else.
“You should respect each other and refrain from disputes; you should not, like water and oil, repel each other, but should, like milk and water, mingle together.” – Buddha
- Angelo
Torii
A torii or gate is a symbol of Shinto shrines all over Japan. The torii pictured above was taken at the Itsukushima Shrine in the island of Itsukushima, popularly known as Miyajima, off the coast of Hiroshima.
This torii is one of Japan’s most popular tourist attractions, and is one of Japan’s three scenic views (wikipedia).
- Sunday
Kazaridaru
Shinto shrines in Japan need sake or rice wine for their ceremonies and festivals. Sake brewers in Japan then donate wines to shrines for this purpose. It is a mutually beneficial arrangement. The brewers provide the wine, and the shrines pray for the brewers’ prosperity.
At major shrines in the country, barrels of sake are displayed in stacks outside, as shown in the picture above taken at the Meiji Jingu or Meiji Shrine in Shibuya, Tokyo. These barrels are called kazaridaru or “decoration barrels.” Although they are empty, they symbolize the relationship between the shrine and the sake brewers.
- Sunday
Travel Partner
I suppose going away for college exposes you to the greater world at large. My family does quite a bit of traveling, but in college I found doorways and opportunities to travel around the world. This is highly due to crossing paths with my girlfriend, pretty much the love of my life, at the end of my freshman year at college. She herself was already an around the world trekker as she was pursuing a degree in photography and international business. Being intrigued and falling in love with her, I had opportunities to follow her around on her adventures. Soon enough, it became a hobby and a passion in life for me as well.
Years later, and being an avid blogger that I am I convinced my girlfriend to co-pilot with me on a travel, dine and music blog. This is just an extention of our blog site, if we find it necessary to share a long story about any of our travels. We’re pretty much set to short and sweet posts as we are set to awing you with photo and audio delights. So come and join us in our life travels at http://hear-this-eat-that-travel-there.tumblr.com/
- Angelo
