exploring + climbing in san diego
Oh my goodness, I have been seriously slacking on the blogging front! Getting back on the road after taking a break for Christmas, Callen impulsively going to Mexico for a week (more on that later), and winter pretty much kicking our butts has totally thrown me off my game. I am hoping to be back on the grind this week and have a few fun posts planned for the next month or so (including some FAQ's and How-To's) so I really appreciate you guys hanging with me!
This post is a bit of a hodge-podge of the week I spent in San Diego when Callen was off shooting climbers on 2,000 foot walls in Potrero Chico! After an instagram-turned-real friend of ours posted that he was headed to Potrero for a climbing trip, I encouraged Callen to get involved and see if he could join them. They flew out of Tijuana, just south of San Diego, and spent almost a week climbing classic limestone routes in the famous Potrero. Callen got to dive right into his dream of shooting big-wall climbing and really got a sense of the intense exposure and discipline it takes to be up on the wall, out of the way, while capturing photos that feel right up in the action!
While I would have loved to join them, I felt better about staying state-side with Charlie while Callen explored this new place with his buddies, so I rented a cheap room through Airbnb and explored San Diego! While I originally planned on skydiving all week, the weather turned crappy and I ended up spending a lot of time editing photos and catching up on e-mails in coffee shops. I did get to try iFly, the indoor wind tunnel, which was a super fun experience and great practice for skydiving! After a few days of rain, I decided to throw on my rain jacket and camera cover and brave the weather for a day on the beach. It ended up being so fun - Charlie and I had the entire beach to ourselves and the moody weather had me feeling like I was in the Pacific Northwest. Most of my early photography days consisted of walking around Austin with Charlie and my camera, so this little venture had me feeling nostalgic and thankful for my little buddy that's always down for adventure, rain or shine.
Once Callen got back, the clouds cleared and the sun came out, so we spent two more days in San Diego hanging out with our good friends Clair and Alex, climbing with a new friend JO, and I finally got to skydive at the gorgeous Skydive San Diego with a photographer friend, Taylor! It was an awesome experience to jump there, the landing area is nestled between rolling hills and a big lake, and you can see the ocean from the air! I can't wait to go back. I'm so glad San Diego was good to us. After pretty much hating our experience in LA a few months ago, I had sort of given up on SoCal's cities, but San Diego proved me wrong - I'm a big fan!
