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Published: November 6th 2006
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San Diego was the last stop of our journey down the Pacific Coast Highway and as we passed the city limits sign it triggered a feeling of nostalgia and sadness as it also signaled the end of our tour down the west coast. It just didn’t seem that we have spanned the length of America in these short amount of days.
We found our accommodation pretty quickly, well after a couple of the customary u-turns anyway! The motel we were staying in had a pool, so after dumping our stuff we made for a relaxing afternoon at the pool reading up on the local tourist guide to plan our next days activities. Our base for the next 4 days was Mission Bay, a 10 minute drive from Downtown San Diego and home to a long sandy beach, a marina, a theme park and an assortment of water based activities. That evening we set out and drove along the 4 mile main street to find a place for dinner. The street was lined with the usual array of shops, but soon we noticed an over the norm count of tattoo parlours. Nearing the pier the shops turned into busy American style
bar/restaurant fair, filled with tattooed teens and Youths (!! ) getting into the spirit of things. A little like Torquay on a Saturday night : S
After a walk around we noticed that along with the tattoo parlours there seemed a bewildering number of fancy dress shops, which we have now know is a running theme throughout Californian high street. WHY?? Who knows!
For dinner we had a Mexican at a restaurant called Gringo’s. Besides the name it was a gem, and even I ended up with a take home box! : I
With the short amount of time we were here we wanted to use our time wisely and thanks to Newman tours of Newton Abbot we narrowed our sightseeing down to a day at the Zoo and a look downtown at the historic Gaslamp Quarter and the harbourside.
We spent a whole day at the world famous San Diego Zoo and that was barely enough time to see everything. There are a lot of animals at this zoo, the big crowd pullers being the gaint panda’s, polar bears, and sea lion show. As well as these there are numerous endangered species and the Zoo
is involved with a lot of captive breeding programmes and conservation work. You can see for yourself from the photo’s that it was a fascinating day. The best parts for us were watching the polar bears play underwater with a ball, which seemed to amuse them no end. The Orangutans and Gorillas were also great fun to watch, at times their mannerisms are so close to ours they morph into people you know….. names will remain anonymous!!
Big thumbs up to the zoo who have put great thought into making this the best Zoo possible. The enclosures are of a size that seems to promote the well being of the animals, the walk ways and viewing positions are in such proximity to the animals it’s great to be able to be so close to watch and observe their behavior. At times it almost seems that they play to the crowd (Like in Madagascar the Film) and positively interact with the gawping tourists. Good recommendation Chris & Paul we had a really good day out.
Our next sight seeing excursion bought us downtown. We drove the car from the motel and before we knew it and with minimum fuss,
Giant Panda's
This was the saddest thing to see. They looked so miserable with the queues of us tourist taking their photo. One of the Pandas we were told had been given the week off to rest and recuperate :( we were parked up and walking the Gaslamp quarter.
This is the district were San Diego originally began back in 1850, although it became known as Rabbitville, aptly named after it’s inhabitants! It’s humble beginnings soon turned a corner and by the late 1800’s it was a boom town, full of bars, saloons, bordellos, and gambling halls. One of it’s most famous inhabitants and property owners was Wyatt Earp and his wife Josie.
Today the Gaslamp quarter is a vibrant 16 block area filled with open fronted restaurants, bars, café’s, Horton’s (an extensive indoor shopping mall), and with many of the original buildings still in tact it makes for a picture postcard walk.
From here we headed to the harbour and to the pristine boardwalks of Seaport village. Here we found quaint village style shops and places to eat overlooking the harbour. The boardwalk winds its way through the village and onto the Navy Pier where the USS Midway rests as a floating museum. Further on, the cruise ship terminal bustles with the to and fro of passengers and supplies all making for a great spot to just sit and people watch.
The one regret we had
of our visit downtown only occurred to us once we had left. We had gone and forgotten to visit the bar that appeared in Top Gun (Tom Cruise film) blast and darn it!! Jo was also disappointed that Miramar is no longer home to Top Gun, but instead has fallen into the hands of the US marine corps and thus a spanner in the works for her seeing the Top Gun’s in action!
San Diego was AWESOME!! As some guy at the sea lion show kept shouting out at the top of his voice. He was the 1st and only nutter we encountered here so its not bad. But he was right, it was and I'm sure most people that visit here would agree. The beaches are superb, the surrounding towns and downtown area modern, spacious and clean. All helping to make this an easy going and enjoyable place.
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Rambo
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Love the Zoo!
Did you see any really big spiders? A picture would have scared the hell out of Gemma! Much Love Dx