Soaring on a Sunday

What a beautiful, sunny week it's been. It's been windy and for those of us with allergies a bit bothersome, but still beautiful nonetheless! We enjoyed a lovely day at the Scripps Ranch Community Park in Poway earlier this week. It's located off of Scripps Poway Parkway about 1/2 between the 15 freeway and 67 highway in a quiet hillside  neighborhood. There's a wonderful, large grass area for kids to run and play surrounded by sidewalks perfect for skateboarding, scootering or bike riding. There's a sand playlot and a baseball field down below. A good sized covered area is available and very convenient when the weather starts warming up. What great parks have you been to in San Diego?

I picked up this great kite at a yard sale earlier today (Sat.) and we took it out front on this breezy day and enjoyed watching is soar in the clear blue skies.

What great things have you done this week? Feel free to share in the comments or a photo to share on Friday's "Soar and Explore".

Here's what's going on this week:

Friday, Feb 3rd from 11am-4pm. San Diego Potters' Guild: Love Clay exhibit at the Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park.

Saturday, Feb 4th from 12pm-4pm. San Diego Camellia Society Show at the San Diego Botanical Garden Foundation in Balboa Park. Free public show.

Saturday, Feb 4th at 2pm. San Diego Youth Symphony: Showcase Concert Winter 2012. The San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory presents a concert featuring their Wind Ensembles and Orchestras. Talented musicians perform a breadth of exciting repertoire.

Sunday, Feb 5th and Sundays from 530pm-7pm. New Square Dance Beginners classes at Casa del Prado in Balboa Park. $5 per person per session for ages 11-99.

Saturday, Feb 4th at 1030am. Adventure Sail at the Maritime Museum in San Diego. Tall Ship Adventure Sailing aboard Californian. Embark on a special journey and spend the afternoon sailing towards the Pacific Ocean and back on the Official State Tall Ship - Californian. Adventure Sail is a four-hour adventure history sail aboard the 130 foot schooner Californian. The Californian is a replica of a gold rush era revenue cutter and the Official Tall Ship of the State of California.

February is Museum Month! Presented by Macy's, free museum month passes may be picked up starting February 1st at any Macy's.

February is also the month starting the wildflower season in neighboring Anza-Borrego! See their website for  wildflower updates!

February is also the month of love! Valentine's Day is coming up and whether you celebrate your love all year long or do something extra special on Valentine's Day, there's lot of romantic and fun places to go in San Diego with your honey, or your honey and your little honeys! Feel free to share some of your favorite romantic spots in San Diego and we'll post about it here!

Keep Soaring and landing safely

in beautiful, sunny

San Diego!

Your Soaring Mama,

Mandy

Soaring on a Sunday

Taken on the way up to Big Bear, CA.

Are you enjoying the cool weather? It actually feels like winter here in San Diego. We've had low 30 degree temps here in Ramona and I know much of San Diego has been as cool or close to it this past week. Hope you're staying warm and are still able to get out and about and enjoy some fun, cool weather activities this time of year. Here's a few fun things going on this week and next. Enjoy!

"Disney on Ice Presents Toy Story 3"  at Valley View Casino January 25th-29th.

Friday, January 27th through February 4th, ACT  San Diego Presents "Once upon a mattress" at the Kroc CenterTheater.

Saturday, January 28th, 8pm. Ballet Folklorico de Colombia at the Copley Symphony Hall, downtown San Diego.

Saturday, January 28th 9am-5pm. Food and Water Bowl XX. Exotic cats show and competition and adoption at Del Mar Fairgrounds.

Through January 30th. Masao Watanabe Exhibition at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park. A woodwork exhibition created by Masao Watanabe, a famous artist from Osaka, Japan.

Through January 28th. Starting Fresh, watercolor exhibit, 10am-4pm, W-Sun. NTC Promenade at Liberty Station, San Diego.

Through March 15th. New exhibit at SD Chinese Historical Society and Museum, Speak of Good Things: Nianhua and Chinese Folk Tradition.

Feel free to share what's going in your area of San Diego this week, either in the comments or on our Facebook page!  Also, please submit any photos taken while you're out and about in San Diego by Thursday evening for Friday's, "Soar and Explore" post.

Keep Soaring and landing safely

in beautiful, sunny

San Diego!

Your Soaring Mama,

Mandy

Soaring on a Sunday

It's the Year of the Dragon!

Happy Chinese New Year 2012!

What a beautiful week it's been and this next week is predicted to be cool but sunny. There's some really fun, family friendly events coming up. A parade celebrating Martin Luther King, today and several New Year Celebrations. Hope you make it out to some and feel free to share your photos for our Friday meme, Soaring and Exploring!

Here's what's going on this today and this week:

Today, Martin Luther King Jr. Parade at 2pm, downtown San Diego on Harbor.

Honeyfest still going on today. Today's a festival and vendors bazaar 10am-4pm. At noon there will be a natural lip balm and salve making workshop and a BEEyond panel discussion from 2-4pm.

Ms Frizzle at the San Diego Natural History Museum today at 12pm and 2pm.

The Titanic Artifact Exhibit opened this past week and runs through . Its also at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Tickets are available online.

Monday, January 16th, 10-11am. Westfield Family Fun Days: Cultural Traditions. FREE event at the mall. Explore how cultures celebrate the New Year and hear classic folktales from around the world.

Coming up:

Saturday, January 21st, 11am-3pm. San Diego Whale Festival at the Port Pavillion on the Broadway Pier. A FREE family community event with a wide variety of interactive and hands on displays for children.

Monday, January 23rd, 7pm.  International Guitar Night at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad.
Tickets available online.

Saturday, January 28th and Sunday, January 29th, 10am-5pm (both days). The 30th Annual 2012 San Diego Chinese New Year Food and Cultural Fair on Third Ave and J Street in downtown San Diego. It is Year of the Dragon. FREE family event.

Friday, January 20th, 5-10pm, Jan 21, 11am-10pm, Jan 22, 11am-5pm. Vietnamese New Year celebration at Balboa Park.   $4-5. Age 5 and under Free.

Saturday, January 21st, 1-3pm. Tidepooling Adventures in La Jolla. $12.

Keep Soaring and landing safely

in beautiful, sunny

San Diego!

Your Soaring Mama,

Mandy

Soaring on a Sunday

From 2011-11-14

Happy Sunday and hope you're enjoying the first weekend of 2012!  And, what a beautiful one it's been. Blue skies, wonderful temps, couldn't be any better than this!

It's a wonderful time of year to be outdoors. There's many activities and opportunities to do just that and here are just a few.

Through April 15th, Whale Watching with Scripps Birch Aquarium's Education Program. Naturalist guided programs are available for daily tours with the San Diego Harbor Excursions. See site for details and costs.

Hawk Watch in the Ramona Grasslands with the Wildlife Research Institute. Every Saturday 9am - noon in January.  FREE.


January 21st, 11am-3pm.  Free for the Family Big Bay Whale Festival at the Port Pavillion on the Broadway Pier.

Lots of great indoors activities and music and art to enjoy as well!

January 14th, Saturday Science Club for Girls "Amusement Park Physics" at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.

January 14th, Family Science Saturdays in the "Tinkering Studio" at the RH Fleet Science Center.
Fridays at the Fleet, weekly discounted IMAX film festival at the IMAX theater at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.

Saturday, January 14th 1pm, Rack of Bones Ensemble, Museum of Making Music, Carlsbad.

January 4th - 28th. Watercolor Exhibit "Starting Fresh" at the NTC Liberty Station. FREE.


Ending:
Through January 20th, Interwoven Traditions: Chinese Minority Costume and Jewelry at the SD Chinese Historical Museum.

Coming Up:
Saturday, January 28th and Sunday January 29th, 10am-5pm, The 30th Annual 2012 San Diego Chinese New Year Food and Cultural Fair. Year of the Dragon. FREE.

Thursday, January 26th, Free Family Arts and Literacy Connection Night. FREE. "Quest" performed by the SDSU Performing Arts troup combines music, storytelling and theater.

Keep Soaring and landing safely

in beautiful, sunny

San Diego!

Your Soaring Mama,

Mandy

Ice Skating at Horton Plaza - guest blog post by Micaela Rall

This week's guest post is by my friend and fellow blogging mama, Micaela Rall from "Three Little Trees". Mom to three beautiful children and fellow unschoolers, Micaela and her children love to explore San Diego and I'm so happy to share one of her experiences here.


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 When you live in a warm climate year round like we do, anything resembling winter or cold weather will get you excited. So when we received an invitation to go ice skating for a friend’s birthday celebration, we were super duper excited. We dug wildly in the closets for appropriate clothing. Where are those mittens? Grab those wool hats! Do we have any scarves? Mind you, we are sorely lacking in REAL snow attire, but we treasure the opportunity to use the few winter accessories we have. I assumed, at first, that we were going to the nearby Ice Arena at the Kroc Center. The girls took iceskating classes there last year for a few sessions and loved it. The price for classes was very reasonable, plus it included free admission to public skating for each student. We took advantage of that often to give them practice between classes. But when I looked at the invitation again, it said we were ice skating at Horton Plaza. Horton Plaza? Yes, indeed. They have a seasonal outdoor ice skating rink. On the day we went, it was sunny and warm, so we didn’t actually need the extra jackets, mittens, and hats we brought (but we will continue to look for opportunities to wear our winter stuff thank you very much). The ice was melting, but this did not deter us one bit. The girls quickly donned the rental skates (nice quality, I thought) and tottered toward the entrance. Although they spent most of their time near the edge for the safety of the rails, they each had several rounds with either John or me and even by themselves! Even Tiago took a few trips around with his daddy! With the warm sun glinting on the ice, foot-tapping dance music, the simple music of kids laughing and yelling excitedly, we had a fantastic time. It will definitely be one of the most memorable birthday parties we’ve attended. What a fun way to start the New Year! After three hours of skating, we were all tired and hungry, so we stepped into Panera’s right next door for hot soup, sandwiches, and hot cocoa before we headed home (much to Paloma’s protests who, apparently, could have continued skating the rest of the day). But if you want to go, you need to hurry because they are only open until January 8th! I noticed on their website that there were some events in December that looked like fun, so we will definitely look for this earlier in the season next winter!

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Hope you get a chance to check out the ice skating at Horton Plaza, but if not there's also the Iceoplex in Escondido open all year round!

Enjoy your week and may you continue to....

Keep Soaring (and landing safely)

in Beautiful, Sunny

San Diego!

Your Soaring Mama,

Mandy

Soaring on a Sunday

Happy New Year and thanks for visiting Soaring over San Diego! It's a New Year and we'll continue to Soar over San Diego and other great local Southern California places. 

As I write this on a beautiful, clear skies morning I'm so very thankful that my family moved down here 6 years ago. I had visited San Diego periodically when I lived in San Bernardino and Riverside counties but never imagined the wonderful diversity of activities, interesting businesses (farms, home businesses), and family oriented places to go in San Diego. As unschoolers we are free during our weeks to go and explore all that San Diego has to offer. As part of a large unschooling/homeschooling group, called the San Diego Funschoolers I often discover interesting places for homeschoolers to go to and set up field trips for our large and diverse group. We have new born babies up to 18 year olds in our group. We meet all over San Diego county and oftentimes take road trips to other great places in Southern California. I really enjoy sharing those places with you, our readers. Some weeks are quiet for us and we like to stay home and enjoy being together, doing various home-related activities, reading, crafting, baking, cooking, gaming, creating. It's a truly wonderful life that we have. Recently, I've had several friends that have had difficult times and my heart goes out to them. Our community has really pulled together and supported and been there for our friends. It is my hope that this New Year brings health, renewed strengths, hope and lots of love!

While I've really enjoyed writing and sharing these places with you, I'd really love to have more guest bloggers and input on what you'd like to see here at SOSD. If you'd like to guest blog about somewhere you've visited in San Diego recently or an exhibit or special event that is going on, please email me at mandaroo63@yahoo.com. Also, please come join us on our weekly feature, Soar and Explore, on Fridays. Just submit a photo of a place you've been, it can be anywhere in San Diego....a local park, your neighborhood, or one of the many great attractions that we have in San Diego. It's great to share these places with friends, oftentimes somewhere we might not have even have heard about! You're also welcome to join us on Facebook.  Frequent updates on current and upcoming events are posted there.

Thanks again for joining us. Have a wonderful 2012!

Keep Soaring and landing safely

in beautiful, sunny

San Diego!

Your Soaring Mama,

Mandy