The San Diego Traveler

Happy Halloween and Farewell

Carole A. Lane — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:17:51 +0000

This is my last column for The San Diego Traveler. It’s been a great couple of years since I started at The San Diego Beat (the predecessor to this blog). Since then, I’ve learned a lot about blogging and even more about San Diego, and had a great time doing it.

It’s now time that I move on to other challenges and adventures, but I wish whomever takes over this little patch of paradise all the best, and hope that they’ll be as welcomed into San Diego blogging community as I’ve been.

It’s Halloween, and what better time to try on a few things and figure out who I want to be next?

Happy Halloween, San Diego, and I’ll see you around town (though you might not recognize me!)

Photo credit: Carole A. Lane

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San Diego Bloggers Meet Tomorrow Night!

Carole A. Lane — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:59:10 +0000

Tuesday (October 28), bloggers from all over San Diego county and beyond will meet to celebrate the 1-Year Anniversary of SDBloggers. If you’re a San Diego blogger, check out the Meetup details for this gathering at the Modus Supper Club.

What can we expect from this spirited event? In addition to much fun and a great happy hour, the new SDBloggers website will be unveiled, SDBlogger t-shirts will be given out, and over 100 bloggers have already RSVP’d their plans to attend!

Much, Much thanks to Matt Browne for creating this Meetup group and organizing this wild bunch of renegade bloggers into a cohesive clan. It’s been a great year, and well worthy of an anniversary celebration. Hope to see you there!

Photo credits: Carole A. Lane

Tags: bloggers, blogs, meetup, sdbloggers

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This Week’s Featured Photos

Carole A. Lane — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 04:04:11 +0000

Every Saturday I take a little walk through Flickr for new images of San Diego, and I’m never disappointed. Selecting from many beautiful, interesting, and topical photos, here are this week’s selections:

Much thanks to these fine photographers for sharing their excellent work:

Photo #1 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/randaldroher/2952869003/
Photo #2 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjkaplow/2970871842/
Photo #3 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/mswebersd/2965901362/
Photo #4 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/29546096@N08/2970959008/
Photo #5 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/sophistechate/2955365833/

Tags: balboa park, bird island, surf, uc san diego, ucsd, warren college, wildfire

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It’s Harvest Time

Carole A. Lane — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:51:37 +0000

Harvest Festival starts today (October 24) and runs through Sunday (October 26), and what better time to start some early Christmas shopping?

Harvest Festival is an original arts and crafts show, which travels through California and Las Vegas. It normally comes to the Del Mar Fairgrounds at this time of year, but it had to be rescheduled last year due to the wildfires. Harvest Festival returns to us this weekend, featuring hundreds of artisans, from eye catching jewelry, colorful glassware and ceramics, hand-woven and embellished clothing, photography, specialty foods, home décor, toys and more!

Tops for Toys for Tots

Every Year, the Harvest Festival joins the San Diego Woodturners Club in raising funds for Toys for Tots. You and your children can stop by their booth to watch them make a small top, which your child can have for a $5 donation. All funds are used to purchase toys, which are then donated to the U.S. Marine Corps for their Toys for Tots program.

Win a Grab Bag

New this year, many of the exhibitors at the Harvest Festival will be donating items for daily Grab Bag drawings. To participate, you must download the form ahead of time, fill it out, and then drop it in the drawing bin at the festival, so be sure to bring your form with you to be eligible.

What Else?

To learn more about what you can find at the Harvest Festival, see the Harvest Festival News.

Tags: harvest festival, marine corps, tops for tots, toys for tots

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Fashion Event Coming to San Diego

Carole A. Lane — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:19:55 +0000

The Simon Fashion Now tour is heading across America, and it’s about to hit San Diego!

What is Simon Fashion Now? Simon Property Group, Inc., the country’s largest owner, developer and manager of high quality retail real estate brings a celebration of style featuring runway fashion shows, the latest trends in cosmetics and the season’s must-have accessories at signature Simon properties, including (for the first time) Fashion Valley Mall. The coolest part is anyone attending a Simon Fashion Now show can walk directly from the show into a participating retailer’s store to purchase the featured look.

On Friday, October 24, Robert Verdi, stylist to the stars, will host the opening runway fashion show at 7pm, featuring some of Fashion Valley’s newest retailers, including:

Betsey Johnson	Jimmy Choo
CH Carolina Herrera	Just Cavalli
Custo Barcelona	M Missoni
Henri Bendel	Tory Burch

Saturday, October 25, will continue with a Runway Fashion Show at 2pm featuring retailers:

Arden B	Jewel
Banana Republic	Lilly Pulitzer
Cache	Max Studio
Guess

This will be followed by an autograph session with Robert Verdi.

The next Runway Fashion Show will start at 4pm, with celebrity host Christian Siriano, featuring retailers:

Betsey Johnson	Jimmy Choo
CH Carolina Herrera	Just Cavalli
Custo Barcelona	M Missoni
Henri Bendel	Tory Burch

This will be followed by an autograph session with Christian Siriano.

Click here to see the full schedule for the full two days of fashion.

Fashion Valley Mall has six department stores - Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, and JCPenney, along with stores like Tiffany & Co., M.A.C., Louis Vuitton, A/X Armani Exchange, Coach, Max Studio, BOSS Stores, James Perse, Gucci and more. Click here for the mall directory.

To get a taste of what you can expect at Simon Fashion Now, watch this video of a past show on the tour:

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Tags: christian siriano, fashon valley mall, robert verdi, simon fashion now, simon property group

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San Diego Scores Again

Carole A. Lane — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:13:55 +0000

With a score of 77.2, Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Award has named San Diego as the ninth best city in the United States.

Check out their San Diego Guide for what to see and what to skip. Then head over to their list of Top Cities to see where else you might like to go on your next vacation.
Tags: award, conde nast, readers' choice
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The San Diego Special Edition - October 20, 2008

Carole A. Lane — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:00:46 +0000

Welcome to the October 20, 2008 issue of The San Diego Special Edition! It’s great to see so many of our favorite bloggers back this month, as well as some new voices joining us. The variety of these articles and blogs is wonderful, and really shows the breadth of the San Diego experience. Have a great read.

animals

This month we start with Larry Hogue, who presents Bighorn Sheep Are Counting On You posted at DesertBlog, describing it as a post about threats to southern California’s wild bighorn sheep. If you’d like to get involved and help:

“You still have time — until October 27th — to write a quick comment on the agency’s misguided plan. We have a complete action alert up on our website, with a link to the government’s new online comment form. (Or just find the form at the yellow cartoon balloon labelled “Add Comments” on this page.)”

attractions

Next a whole photo gallery from Ocean Beach’s Oktoberfest is presented by patty jones in her post Ocean Beach Oktoberfest! Photo Gallery posted at OB Rag Blog.

Prost!

If you’re looking for something fun to do this Halloween, check out Halloween 2008 : Things To Do in San Diego This Halloween from Sage at RandomSanDiego.com. As Sage explains:

“Halloween in San Diego is a truly unique experience and this year in particular, it seems that the entire city has gotten into the spirit of Halloween (pun intended). Wondering what Halloween events are going on in and around San Diego this year? Read on for a list of random San Diego Halloween Events and Happenings.”

business

Dan Melson’s back with us this month to present APR vs APY: What The Difference Between Note Rate and APR Tells You posted at Searchlight Crusade. Dan always makes complex subjects clearer and, guess what - he’s done it again.

culture

Now to a new blogger to our group this month. CzechFolks presents Do You Want to Meet with Czechs and Slovaks? (Chcete se Setkat s Cechy a Slovaky?) posted at CzechFolks.com, saying,

“My husband and I created a bilingual website for Czechs and Slovaks abroad. We live in San Diego North County. We would like to invite all Czechs and Slovaks to our monthly meetings in Kashtan European Market & Bistro. Our meetup is listed in our submitted article. Our website contains articles designated to the Czech and Slovak heritage. We also have information about our food, language, history, and events.”

Welcome CzechFolks!

current affairs

On to a bit of controversy: Ryan Hazelton presents What’s in a Word? San Diego Student Gay Club Uses Offensive Acronym in Name posted at The Ryan Thomas Collection.

“Two gay and lesbian student groups at San Diego City College and Mesa College create a controversial name for their groups, using a homophobic epithet in hopes of taking the word back, but have met objections from school and student body officials.”

What do you think? Add your voice to the discussion.

economy

Here’s something many San Diegans are waiting for: Brian Brady presents San Diego Real Estate and Housing Outlook for 2009 posted at World Wide Wealth Advisors. Take a look in Brian’s crystal ball before making plans for your real estate next year, or go on to the next post Are we there yet? posted at Foreclosed-SanDiego.com by Peter Toner.

music

I submit Music History in San Diego as my posting this month from The San Diego Traveler. This article highlights some of the famous musicians who’ve performed here in San Diego county over the past ninety years. Amazing!

other

On to education: Luke Pilon presents a call for new members in his post San Diego Online Education MeetUp Group Forming posted at EduDecisions.com. If you’re involved in online education, this looks like the place to go.

-

san diego

With Halloween quickly approaching, T. Dalia’s post seems particularly timely. She presents The Spirit of Kate, part 2 posted at Daily Dalia, and it will make you want to learn more about one of San Diego’s famous ghosts.

Let’s take a quick break at The Occasional Odd Crop, where Mark Dodge Medlin presents Inner glow saying,

“These odd pieces at Lawrance Furniture would go perfectly in any living room - especially one in Oz or Whoville.”

You’ll have to go to his blog to see what Mark’s talking about.

technology

“One of the nation’s top scientific achievements is located in our own backyard. The Hale Telescope is going to be profiled in a PBS Documentary and NASA Webcast called “A Journey to Palomar - America’s First Journey into Space”.”

explains Tim Schenck at The Best Places In San Diego!, when he presents Palomar Observatory About to Get a Whole Lot of National Attention. This looks like Must-See-TV!

Then we have a couple of interesting technologies highlighted by our bloggers: Vimeo is presented by Enrique Gutierrez at Sociosophy, and Debra Simpson presents Skype Meets Mikogo - Desktop Sharing Just Got Easier posted at North San Diego Business@Large. The online world just keeps getting more interesting, doesn’t it?

travel

Coming from high tech and heading into very low tech, Jeff Dowler presents A Fall Afternoon in Southern California - A Jaunt to Julian, California posted at Carlsbad Homes and Real Estate Tidbits. A trip to Julian is like visiting a town from yesteryear, and just goes to show you that you can find just about any lifestyle right here in San Diego county.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The San Diego Special Edition using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: the san diego special edition, blog carnival.

Photo #1 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/77801718@N00/2916634683/
Photo #2 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/mape_s/333862119/
Photo #3 credit: Used by permission of patty jones
Photo #4 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/doverholt/58417982/
Photo #5 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/revdancatt/107836778/
Photo #6 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/kadenza/1655798723/
Photo #7 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/joan_thewlis/2657472577/
Photo #8 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/23065375@N05/2246559455/
Photo #9 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/35284292@N00/12718525/
Photo #10 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/daneelariantho/1989039795/
Photo #11 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/7447470@N06/2519568547/
Photo #12 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/hagleitn/2755740316/
Photo #13 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephanieasher/1208613392/
Photo #14 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/thommybrowne/396103300/
Photo #15 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/7447470@N06/1985117153/
Tags: beautiful stranger, bighorn sheep, city college, czech, gay, hale telescope, hotel del coronado, julian, kate morgan, lawrance furniture, lesbian, mesa college, mikogo, mortgage rates, Music, ocean beach, oktoberfest, palomar observatory, real estate, san diego reader, skype, slovak, vimeo, whoville
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Celebrate the Day of the Dead

Carole A. Lane — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 05:25:11 +0000

Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday in which families and friends gather to remember loved ones who have passed on. It’s commemorated with decorated altars, sugar skulls, prayers and marigolds, and can also include food, drinks, large festivals with music and dancing, or visits to the grave sites of loved ones.

On Saturday (October 25), Cafe Sevilla will celebrate Dia de los Muertos with themed dancers, mojitos and sangria drink specials, and a Pre-Halloween party.

Oceanside’s 8th annual Dia de los Muertos Festival will take place on Sunday, November 2. Highlighting this large community celebration is a chalk cemetery, where visitors can create memorials for their loved ones. Click this link for more information.

Old Town will celebrate Dia de los Muertos with altars honoring the dead in the courtyard of the Bazaar del Mundo and Casa Guadalajara between October 31 and November 2.

More altars can be found at Casa de Pico in La Mesa during this time, and guided tours of altars in Sherman Heights will be held on November 1 and 2 as part of their 14th annual Day of the Dead Celebration.

If that’s not enough, or if these celebrations don’t fit into your schedule, you can also stop by the Dia de los Muertos Altars at the San Diego Museum of Man, available through November 6.

You don’t have to be Mexican to celebrate the Day of the Dead. Dia de los Muertos is a day of remembrance and celebration, so spend a little time remembering your loved ones, prepare their favorite foods to share with friends and family, say a prayer, or create your own altar. These are lovely ways to remember our ancestors and the people we’ve loved.

Photo credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlossg/2068068746/
Tags: bazaar del mundo, cafe sevilla, casa de pico, casa guadalajara, day of the dead, dia de los muertos, la mesa, museum of man, oceanside, old town, san diego, sherman oaks
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This Week’s Featured Photos

Carole A. Lane — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:01:33 +0000

Wandering through Flickr this week, I came across these wonderful San Diego images:

Thanks to these fine photographers for this week’s photos of San Diego:

Photo #1 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/randaldroher/2952870625/
Photo #2 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlaaker/2949584061/
Photo #3 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/nchill4×4/2950847142/
Photo #4 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimfrazier/88305902/
Photo #5 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/drustar/2936761011/
Photo #6 credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimfrazier/89016795/
Tags: imperial beach, palms, peacock, san diego zoo, sunset, uc san diego, warren college
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Let’s Take a Moment to Thank Brother Benno’s

Carole A. Lane — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:29:27 +0000

Brother Benno’s began as a small soup kitchen on Minnesota Street in Oceanside, and over the last twenty-five years, has grown into a ministry addressing many types of social problems in San Diego County, including hunger, homelessness, and alcohol and drug addiction. The majority of “guests” used to be homeless men, however, the majority of “guests” served are now working poor families.

Most of the funding and donations of food, clothing, and hygiene items comes to the Brother Benno Foundation from private companies and individuals.

The Brother Benno Foundation Center and main offices are located at 3260 Production Avenue in Oceanside, CA. Anyone needing help can go to the Center and register for services provided by the Foundation. Anyone wanting to volunteer their time can also go to the Center and register with the volunteer coordinator, Dixie Bales.

Brother Benno’s thrift store is located at 3965 Mission Avenue, Oceanside, and shopping there can also benefit the homeless and poor in our community.

Brother Benno’s will celebrate their 25th Anniversary on Saturday, October 25th. Thanks, Brother Benno’s, and founders Harold and Kay Kutler, for all you’ve done and continue to do.

To find out what you can do to help this San Diego institution that’s done so much for us, call (760) 439-1244.
Tags: acohol, addiction, anniversary, brother benno's, celebration, drugs, homeless, poor
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