The Great Expedition, Pt. 1 of 3.

(Continuing from here.)

The call was a call to action - the time of departure was sooner than we had thought. Cookies were put away; burritoes were tossed in the compost. All three of us made haste to the dining hall, where the other participants in the trip were waiting in the hall...

Well... with the notable exception of Vishnu, who was in the shower.

A quick roll call of those present in the hall, while we wait. (For the benefit of the readers.) From the girls' suite, in no particular order: Rashmi, Rachel, Sindhu, and Kailyn. From the boys' suite: Nathan and Rohit (my dinner companions), Jordan, and myself. (Jordan, notably, had been awake for at least 37 hours straight by this time; possibly longer. Keep this in mind for later.) Also present was special guest Eddie.

Still not present, of course, was Vishnu. ("Don't forget your pants!" one of the girls helpfully reminded him. "Right, my pants!" came the reply.) I took the opportunity to inquire of Nathan as to what, exactly, we were going to do during this trip. I was informed that we were going to see the sunset, at a place enigmatically known as "The Cliffs". Few more details were forthcoming.

Vishnu at last arrived, triumphantly adorned with pants; Abhinay, our last fellow-traveller, followed shortly behind him, having concluded a game of video-game soccer. ("Why weren't we yelling at you, again?" one of the girls inquired.) Events conspired now to delay Nathan and Jordan, who promised to catch up to us; the rest of us set out, at roughly 6:55 PM. (10 minutes later than we had intended.) Sunset, Rachel told me, was at 7:21. There was an element of time pressure present.

There was some element of walking present at this stage. Down a small hill; up a larger one; then downwards again. Out of the campus and into the La Jolla suburbs, at which point I started taking pictures; I may have been slightly bored. Here is a tiny sampling.

A gated compound of some kind. I'm fond of the image.

College dorm building; this became the subject of a heated argument later on. (I remained neutral.)

"McMansion". The area through which we were walking possessed... ah... high property values. Many signs for security companies, one actual security car. (We waved as we passed.) Envy was expressed of this one, specifically.

The path by the LDS institute, bizarrely, provided an excellent shortcut.

Not too long after the shortcut, we arrived at the entrance to the Cliffs; the end of houses, and the beginning of...


(to be continued; so many photos!)