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Published: June 11th 2009
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Ok, so I lied. I did get to travel again although this time it was under the guise of a work trip to San Diego in SoCal...Southern California for those not in on the lingo. I flew out on a Saturday afternoon after being in Orlando the night and morning before having watched an NBA game. Tired and disappointed in my team I figured Id sleep the majority of the Atlanta-San Diego part of my trip....thought wrong. I had the aisle seat in the last row and we all know what is at the end of a plane.....yep the loo and the 125 people that cant sit still for 4hrs. So amid banter, people using my chair as an armrest and being asked too many times if I wanted an 8 dollar sandwich I arrived in San Diego.
I was picked up by Stu who many of you know I worked with at a few years ago. It was great to see a familiar face and we caught up on 2 years over beer, frozen mojitos and pow pow (a drink with tequila fresh lime chili and cucumber). The next day was a relaxed start thanks to the pow
pow we went outlet shopping and ate some dodgy Mexican which is everywhere. For those of you who don't know San Diego is about 15 miles from the Mexican border at Tijuana which means sensational Mexican food....everywhere. We then headed over to the Island of Coronado which is home to the Navy flight base, Hotel Del Coronado (Raffles esq hotel) and a microbrewery. We caught up with about 8 other Aussies over there so familiarity, normal language and some talk of footy (all sorts) was well received.
Monday I headed downtown to check it out and by contrast to the night it was quiet and run by the homeless. There is a US trend which I have noticed in every city bar New York is that people don't live in the city, they generally commute and downtown during the day is drab and full of homeless people. (Year 10 Geography) San Diego was not as bad as some others as the Gaslamp district is swelling with restaurants, bars and clubs to keep everyone happy. After walking around I headed to the Harbour and back to Coronado where Stu put me in the helicopter simulator and attempted to teach me
how to fly. Attempted is the operative word and I nearly collided with a hotel 2 ships and escaped ditching in the ocean 3 times just barley. Safe to say this girl is happy in her HR/Economical logistics world. Anyone who claims its just like driving a car is full of shit unless that car is one warped piece of machinery.
That night we ate at Kansas City BBQ which is where they filmed 2 scenes in Top Gun, the piano scene and the last one. I met the owners had a few drinks and spun stories with them. The place is a Navy Shrine and they have a whole heap of stuff collected over the last 25 years. Unfortunately they had a pit fire which destroyed half of the place so they are trying to recoup memorabilia. That being said Dad I need a South Australian number plate, they have all the states bar Tasmania and SA so I said Id do my best.
Tue-Thu saw me in a conference and it was busy although very useful and informative. Friday saw my final day in San Diego where I walked through Balboa Park and debated shortly about
the zoo however its not my thing and based on my theory of "once you have seen one elephant you have seen them all" I walked through the city and checked it out. For $6 I had the best burrito I have EVER had in my life and could only get through half of it. I carried it around for almost an hour refusing to give up but then threw it away, what does one do with a half eaten burrito in the sun? I headed back around the water where the Aircraft Carrier USS MIDWAY has been retired to and also the statue of the Navy guy.
Final night saw me catch up with my 4ft 10 Texas friend whom I tore up Nashville with. Stu came along and we ended up drinking frozen mojitos and carrying on til the early morning. I regretted my late night as I was up and out by 0600 nursing dehydration and mild nausea. That coupled with the worst US Airport I have been in (efficiency wise) saw me narky and seething after finally being checked in and through security over 90mins later (you are all aware tolerance of the slow and inefficient is not my strongest point). Plane was late so it had me bolting through Atlanta airport to reach my connecting flight and as the lady was closing the gate armed with a wink and a polite "shit Im really sorry" in a thick Aussie accent I snuck through to get home. Unfortunately my luggage wasn't so lucky and was returned to me at midnight.
So that was San Diego and for those wanting to go you can knock it over in 3 days, that's assuming you want a day at the zoo or museums. It's a nice place and being on the harbour there are a few day getaways up north which will remove you from the city.
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