I made a rookie mistake at the beach yesterday which has left me with half of my face a bit tender and burnt. I protected my body amply with spf-30, but not my face sufficiently. The east coast of the US leaves you with bad habits when it comes to the sun. I having been living in a desert city for seven months, so really, no excuse.
We spent yesterday afternoon and evening in La Jolla, CA [pronounced la hoya]. It is a wonderful seaside community, kind of Coogee-ish, for lack of a better analogy. The town has a colony of sea lions that hang out on the rocks there. A couple of them were braying loudly in a dispute over a resting place on a rock.
The bay at La Jolla had buoys out in it, approximately half a mile from the shore. A group of swimmers numbering about 200 maybe, swam out to the buoys and back. They gathered up in the park in a mix of swimsuits and wetsuits. I thought that was wonderful. If I was living in there it would be a great way to unwind at the end of the week with a mile long ocean swim.
The shore line was a significant public space beyond the normal swimming and walking. The park had a big blow up screen on it for a showing of the movie 'Field of Dreams'. It was for anyone there, and as a consequence there were vendors there with ice cream, face painting etc. There was also a group of people dressed in green, blowing bubbles, holding hands in a circle - and even one girl with fairy wings dancing around - typical California.
The hill at the top of the shoreline had a mix of trendy and upscale restaurants and shops. Including a
Peter Lik gallery. The mate I am with saw his gallery in Hawaii and nearly pulled the trigger on a photograph there. Lik's work is a bit too candy coloured for me, but I can see how people would like and be drawn to it.
The Californian coast has very even weather and many of the restaurants have open patios, including one that is nothing but a patio at the top of a building with a wonderful view. It was an hour and a half wait, which was just too much, so we hit another restaurant further down the street.
The fare included a couple of local micro-brews.
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
