San Diego and the Island of Dr. Moreau

Last weekend I was in San Diego.

I got there early on Friday to pick up Rohit from the airport and drove back on Sunday afternoon. I was there to attend the CRP (California Republican Party) convention and spend time with Derek and Rohit. Over the weekend I saw half a dozen people I went to school with and knew from BCR (Berkeley College Republicans).

We stayed at the Manchester Grand Hyatt where the convention was held. The convention had the usual type of convention stuff. Candidates tried to drum up support for themselves, people argued for or against propositions on the November ballot, and there were some intense battles on rule changes and resolutions within the party. Then there were the hospitality suites. I only went to a couple but they were good ones with some food, dessert, and refreshments.

I spent some time walking around the Gaslamp district and ate at a couple of places there. I also wondered around Seaport Village. Both of these are nice places to walk around and hang out. When I last stayed in the city for the Poinsettia Bowl in December I stayed in a less exciting area.

Driving down to San Diego was easy. Take the 405 South (also called the San Diego Freeway, though I think it should be renamed) to the 5 South. Getting back was annoying. With few exits, no construction, no accidents, and no big merges or lane reductions, traffic found a way to be slow and randomly stop on the 5.

On the same weekend I started reading The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. This is the fifth of Wells's books I have read and also the fifth book of his I liked. I do not want to give anything away, but strange things happen on the island of Dr. Moreau. It looks at evolution, experiments, and the divide between humans and animals from a Nineteenth Century perspective. The novel was published in 1896. Like all of Wells's novels I have read, it is short (just over 200 pages), easy to read, and fast moving.