RJ's Ramblings

Hey everybody! Hope you like my little image here. This one is kind of neat, because it's a picture that my partner took of me, standing in the ocean in San Diego. But I removed myself and added the RJ avatar in there instead. The reflections of my legs in the water is actually me though! So it's like I'm a reflection of RJ, or she's a reflection of me, or whatever. It's all metaphorical and stuff! 

So, I had a great vacation. Not perfect! But overall a really good experience and I think it was really good for me mentally. I haven't been on many vacations. That last one, where my partner and I went to Hot Springs, Arkansas was the first time that she and I had gone anywhere for a vacation with just us. We'd gone to like, Houston and Oklahoma City for overnight stays before, but always for some specific event, never like week-long vacations where we could just do anything we wanted to do. Also, this is the first time that I've been on an airplane since I was in high school! And when I did that before, everything was pretty much taken care of by my mom. 

So this vacation was pretty big for me. I had to plan everything -  the flight, the rental car (first time I've ever rented a car!), the airbnb, the things we were going to do. And I had to pay for everything. Which is the first thing I wanted to bring up. 

Thank you all SO much for all your support. It's the only reason I've been able to do things like this. Last year, I would have never thought I'd be able to go on a vacation like this. I would have never had the money to do it. I'm so used to pinching every dime and stretching every dollar that the idea of a week-long vacation was just never feasible for me until now. 

While we were there, my partner and I were having drinks at a bar on the beach, and she raises her glass to me and says "To Come Home." We both know that we owe you all a big thanks for this. But I also know that I've earned this. I've worked really hard on this game for over 2 years. Still, I know some people have worked even harder for longer and have not been rewarded as much as I have. So thank you all for that. It's definitely a huge motivation for me to continue working hard on Come Home and on future projects.

Alright, lemme tell you about my vacation a little bit. It started because I really wanted to go to the beach. I don't care so much about swimming, I just like being on the beach. I like the views and the smell and the air and the sounds. All of it. I like being on boats. And I like watching the sun as it sets and lights up the water. I like walking through the sand, the water lapping at my ankles. That was all I really wanted in a vacation. My partner loves zoos. That's like her favorite thing is going to see the animals. I like zoos too, so it works out. 

So we decided to go to San Diego for our vacation. It has several nice beaches and one of the best zoos in the world. I pulled the trigger and planned everything out and paid for it a couple of months ago. Which is good, because if I would have waited, I probably would have backed out. By the time the day started looming closer, I was stressing majorly about it. Leaving home is always scary for me, but flying halfway across the US, renting a car, staying in a place where I have no idea if it's going to be good or not, and a big city with a much higher crime rate than where I live? I was extremely anxious. But I went through with it!

We left Thursday morning and drove to Dallas. I'd already paid for parking, so it was super easy to just leave the car there at the airport (also the first time I've done long-term parking before). We waited for the airplane, anxiety still high, then finally made the 3 hour flight. I watched Prehistoric Planet on the plane. It was a pretty nice trip. Then we landed, we pretty easily found our baggage, but then I was like, "I have no idea how to get to the rental car place from here." Fortunately, I talked to a man at the information desk and he pointed us to the shuttles. I'd never taken a shuttle before either, but now I'm basically a pro. 

We rode the shuttle to the rental car place. I was expecting to be put in a sedan. It said, something like a Volkswagen Jetta. When I talk to the guy, he's like, "Well we have you in a Nissan Sentra, but I could upgrade you for free to a Dodge Challenger, if you'd like. Sure! Why not? It's not a car I would ever buy, so let's try it out. I regretted that pretty much the whole time I was there. The Challenger was a good car to drive when we were on the highway, but in the small, narrow roads and the tight parking lots, it was too big to maneuver very well. I also felt like kind of a jerk driving this big gas-guzzling car around in California, surrounded by all these electric cars and bicycles. There were SO many bicycles. 

Anyway, we follow the map to the airBNB and it takes me forever to actually find the place. I was pretty upset at this point. I'd driven around the streets multiple times trying to figure out where the building was, because the names on the buildings did not match the names that I was given on the website. Finally, I found the place, exactly where my GPS first pointed me towards, but I had missed it because the parking garage was down a very steep incline at the end of a dead-end street and I didn't even see it my first two times driving down the street. 

Once we were parked, we went up to the airBNB, which was on the third floor of an old condo. It was dated, and had some electrical problems, but overall okay. We were not planning on being there very much anyway... and it was about $800 cheaper for the week than the hotel I had been looking at. Throughout the week though, I wondered if I should have gone somewhere else. First, the fridge didn't work, but I was able to get it turned back on after checking the breaker box and seeing that a breaker had tripped (which frightened me a bit, due to our recent housefire). Then, the microwave didn't work, which wasn't an issue with the outlet, but with the microwave itself just being broken. Of course, we didn't discover this until we were watching a movie and tried to pop some popcorn. 

After we got settled in the place, we went out and immediately went down to the beach. And it was gorgeous. And all my anxiety just washed away. Everything was worth it, just to walk down there. I don't think people who live near the ocean realize how lucky they are. Or maybe they just don't see it the same way I do. Where I live in Texas, the closest ocean is a nearly 6 hour drive. And there's no mountains either. Everything is flat and boring. Just standing on the beach there in San Diego and seeing the mountains rising over the city in the distance was just gorgeous to me. Inspiring even. It made me feel good. After this, every evening we were there, we went down to the beach and watched the sunset. We got up early and watched the sunrise sometimes too. I just couldn't get enough of it. 

I'm realizing that this is rambling on a little long. I could probably write a novel of my time there and everything I did and experienced. Probably not a very interesting novel, but still. Let me just skip to the highlights so that I can get to work. 

Friday we went and hiked Annie's Canyon, which features a narrow slot canyon that you have to squeeze through and climb up. I had a blast. Just loved it. So many different things there that we saw that we wouldn't see on hiking trails here where I live. Just beautiful. Then we went to La Jolla, which is known for all the sea lions and seals that hang out right on the beach, very close to where people are swimming. We saw a bunch of them, went down to a cave and then walked along the rocks as well. I really enjoyed that too. 

Saturday we went to the San Diego zoo. It was huge, and there were so many neat things to see. The plantlife was surprisingly beautiful. The highlight for me was the bears. There are no bears in the Dallas Zoo, that we go to regularly, so seeing the Grizzlies, and the Polar Bears, and then the Red Panda as well, was really fun. I was so tired by the end of the day though, that I'd gotten kinda miserable. The place is great, but it's so big and the inclines are so steep in places that it's kinda hard to get around at times. Plus it was SO crowded. Overall, I think I preferred the Dallas Zoo? There's less variety in animals, but honestly, I think the enclosures are better in Dallas. I feel like you can see the animals closer and their habitats are more natural. I would say that overall, the zoo, which was the whole reason we went to San Diego, might have been the most disappointing part of the trip for me. It was still fun, but not the amazing experience that I expected. And the food that we had at Albert's restaurant (which was very expensive and supposed to be the best restaurant in the park) was pretty awful and made both of us sick. 

Sunday, we were supposed to go to Balboa Park. But I was exhausted from the zoo, and just didn't feel like being around crowds anymore. So instead I decided that we would go to Cabrillo National Monument, which we had not planned to visit, but I'd heard about and kinda wanted to see the lighthouse there. So we went there and started to look around and it was just beautiful. We went to the lighthouse, which was really cool. You couldn't go all the way to the top, but you could climb the stairs a bit and look into the different rooms. I'd love to live in a lighthouse for a week or something lol. Give me a lighthouse airbnb on a secluded cliffside to just hang out, watch the sunset, drink coffee, and write for a week. I'd love it. Then we took a look at the trail that led down to the cliffs near the ocean. We weren't completely sure we wanted to walk it, because we were pretty sore from the zoo... but it was just so pretty. So we walked the trail, and it was incredible, and the views were just beautiful. We hadn't put on sunscreen though, since we didn't expect to be out hiking at all. So when I got back to the airBNB later, I noticed I'd gotten burned some. On the back of my neck mostly, because I was wearing a ball cap and had my hair pulled up into it. Despite that, this was actually my favorite day that we spent in San Diego. Walking that trail and going down to the cliffs where the waves were crashing was just exactly what I wanted. And there wasn't too many people either, which was really nice. 

Monday, we went out on a whale-watching cruise. I'd been looking forward to it, because I love being on boats. It's not really the right season to see whales, but they said that the day before they had seen three humpbacks, so we were a little optimistic. We ended up not seeing any whales though, but did see a big pod of dolphins, which was fun. Despite that, just being on the boat out on the ocean for 4 hours was fun for me. There were some beautiful views, the crew of the ship was really friendly, and it was just a nice day and a fun experience. 

Tuesday, we had to come home. We got up early and had a final walk along the beach. We returned the rental car and took a shuttle to the airport. We got there wayyyy early, so we had to wait forever. Then the plane ride back was not as comfortable as the previous. I was pretty grumpy and exhausted by the time we got back to Dallas. Then we had to wait a long time to get a shuttle to our car. But when I was finally back in my car again, everything was great. Stress just fell away. Just being in my own car instead of that Dodge Challenger felt like I was back home again. Then we drove back to the house, and was immediately mauled by the dogs who obviously missed me more than I missed them! 

It was a great vacation. I'm happy to be back home though. I skipped some of the more negative parts, just because this has already gone on way too long and the negative parts will be forgotten anyway, while the memories of those sunsets, and the feeling of the wind across the ocean, and walking along the cliffside - those are memories I'll never forget. 

Thanks again for supporting me. I truly appreciate every dollar that you've given me. I can't express how good it feels to not feel trapped anymore. This vacation has given me so much confidence that I can get out there and do things and see things if I want to. We're already planning our vacation for next year, which will be somewhere with significantly less people (and likely much less expensive too). 

If you want to see more pictures of my trip, I posted a lot over on my hiking journal which I keep on the Discord channel. 

Okay, time for me to get to work on the game. I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!