Encinitas, a tasty mexican dish

Or at least it sounds like one. Encinitas is really the beach town where Matt and I stayed with Michelle this weekend. Michelle’s awesome aunt and uncle, Sue and Steve, have been great hosts. We’ve had a couple of great meals, including one followed by showdown on Area 51, my favorite shoot’em up, .

The Pacific Ocean here has a different feel than the Atlantic in Jacksonville. Here there are fist sized pebbles rubbed smooth by the perpetual ebb and flow of the surf. The slowly melting sandstone cliffs reveal houses that will one day join the pebbles. Sea vegetables litter the shore in a variety of greens. In Jacksonville, the long sandy white beaches are bounded by lush sand dunes with almost no elevation change. The consistency of the white sand is relatively uniform with bits and pieces of small shells throughout.

Yesterday we spent the day at one of the coolest zoos I’ve ever visited, the San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park downtown. If there were no animals in this zoo it would still be an amazing botanical garden. Almost all of the cages are surrounded by a myriad of plants from around the world. There are no straight paths giving the park a very large feel. The windy paths snake past each other weaving a complex feeling but easily navigable set of routes.

We also got a chance to play with the new Nintendo Wii, which has to be one of the most fun consoles ever. With motion sensitive controls players have the ability to interact in a totally new way. Instead of mashing buttons to bowl or to golf, the player is required to make motions as if he is actually playing. It certainly brings a new level of interaction to gaming. Instead of sitting around on a couch passively playing, players get actively involved, rotating who’s in the playing area.