LA - San Diego – Scottsdale, Arizona

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Today has seen me become an official coach tour member as Trafalgar Tours’ Western Discover” is on the road. It was quite the rude awakening as we had to be up at 0600 to ensure that we had our bags at our door before 0645 – up until this day we have not been up that early on this trip.

The first port of call for the tour is San Diego, which is a two hour trip down the freeway. Thankfully this was at 8am on a Sunday morning so there was little or no traffic. It is fairly boring to write about but the traffic we have been in prior to this has been heavy. We hit rush hour traffic at 6am on the first morning – what should have been an easy 15 -20 minute ride became nearly one hour. Anyway, Gordon our Travel Director spoke to us at great length on the bus ride down and pointed out many interesting places. It is quite a skill to make a freeway trip sound or feel interesting but he did. Maybe some jokes need some polishing but I am guessing when you have a captive audience it is free reign. He is certainly explaining a great deal to us and he has a genuine interest in ensuring we have a good trip.

The first short stop was Old San Diego, which has quite a Mexican feel to it for obvious reasons – they did own California for a good while. Mexican shops and restaurants dot this area and I guess it has become the tourist stop off. There is also a Wells Fargo Museum complete with the stagecoach that helped bring the news and mail to the outer reaches of early America. Lincoln’s election news only took the full 7 days to be announced.

I must tell you at this stage the weather is awful and we are in the midst of a late winter storm. It was freezing at Old San Diego and for the first time I had to pull out the woollen beanie – not something I was thinking of doing in California. It is actually snowing in San Diego County so what the next few days will bring is anyone’s guess.

Leaving the tat capital of California we headed into San Diego for lunch at a huge Westfield Plaza right in the middle of town – are there any malls in the world not owned by Westfield? This actually gave us an excuse to have some free time so we went down the road and found an Irish pub and enjoyed a very nice pint of Guinness – doubled as my lunch! It was also a chance to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day albeit one day late! I toasted you JD.

In the afternoon the optional extras were a choice of either a cruise on the harbour or a trip to the San Diego Zoo; neither of which really grabbed us so we stayed at Bilbao Park. I had never heard of this park and was surprised to hear that it is actually a third bigger in size than Central Park. In between the heavy rain we wandered the park and the museums that it houses. The best area was set aside as UN cottages and as it was a Sunday they were open to the public and run by volunteers who were busy pouring coffee and serving their local cakes. We practically visited all the countries we will visit on the Baltic cruise in June so could have saved ourselves some money there. I was a bit perturbed by one guy who entered the Israeli cottage and asked directions for the Iranian one – I think he was trying to wind up the lady behind the counter but she never flinched and pointed him in the right direction.

Walking back to the hotel took us right under the flight path for the airport so we watched the planes on final approach. It is quite a ride in (not quite Wellington) and they seem to swoop in late and also climb very quickly as they take off. According to locals they also have to power down as they take off to ease noise for the people who live on the peninsular; must be a worry for those who don’t like flying!

As I mentioned earlier Southern California is in the grip of a storm and they are experiencing a weather pattern that is very rare. I was cold all day and by the time we went out in the evening most of the tour group were wrapped up as if we were heading out camping. I am not sure what I was really expecting but snow was not near the top of my list for this part of the trip. Anyway, it was a Group Dinner by the harbour to fill the evening, which enabled us to meet a few more of the group. We sat with a table of Australians. We are certainly some of the youngest on the trip – beaten only by a young couple who are on their honeymoon.

I think I have always had a soft spot for San Diego since the era of the America’s Cup in the 90s. We will always remember it as the place we finally won the “Auld Mug” off the great Dennis Conner and Peter Montgomery cried out those famous words “the America’s Cup is now New Zealand’s Cup”. Most of their city upgrade had been done and continued from their time with the Cup and I guess had the same legacy feel to what Auckland gained with the Viaduct and surrounds. I can recommend the Gaslight Area for dining and drinking.

We are off to Scottsdale tomorrow – promised snow on the way and chance of knee deep snow later in the week!!

The trip to Scottsdale is our longest day of travelling and I am pleased it is now out of the way. As such it was most probably the least interesting day for stops – in fact we stopped at a Sizzler and a fruit shop. However, the views from the coach were dramatic and it was not long into the trip that we saw snow on the mountains – and a decent covering at that. We did not follow the intended route due to the weather; I gathered this would be the case early when I flicked on the TV and saw that the first four items on the news were weather related and the fact that outside our window was sheet rain. Our new route took us north and then west along the #10 highway right into Phoenix but did not add anytime to the day – 6 ½ hours travelling was enough.

For part of the trip we watched the classic movie “Some Like it Hot” with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. It was great and it seemed to be quite apt watching it as a lot was filmed in and around San Diego. It certainly provided a few laughs and made time speed up a bit. As we crossed the Sonoran Desert we counted Saguaro cactus, which to me are what the Old West was all about. They are amazing plants and they have a movie set look to them. I certainly now know more about them than I did this morning – the fact that they can live to 200 years old, that they balance themselves to stay upright by growing the arms, that they usually only grow the arms once they hit 50 years of age and that the root structure is one of the shallowest in nature as they may only get water once in 12 months. “Matt, your specialist topic is Saguaro cactus – you have two minutes starting from now”…hopefully there are only three questions!

Phoenix seems to begin hours before you see the CBD. They call it Los Angeles in the Desert due to its urban sprawl taking on similar traits and it is easy to see why. Apparently city planners have already marked the future street names right out into the desert. However, the last few years have hindered the development of new homes and left a glut of houses on the market. In the outer areas of Phoenix you could buy a three bedroom home for less than 100K. A few property developers that left the mess are now in jail and gated communities have become bankrupt. It is not just Phoenix but also Las Vegas who went from the city with the most growth to virtually no growth very quickly. It is also dotted with golf courses (over 200) and I would have been quite happy to stay a few days and get the sticks out. It has a Dubai feel to it – or maybe Dubai is replicating this place – they certainly both do a great job of making golf courses with little rainfall.

Our hotel is in the Old Town of Scottsdale and is very picturesque – you do have to balance out the souvenir shops but we did a few and then went to a wonderful bar. I tried a Colorado Beer called a “Fat Tire” and Narelle had a house favourite Margarita. We also tried Skillet Cornbread, which was just amazing – although if my Doctor finds out I am eating it in any quantity he may have me back in for a health check. It was served in a cast-iron skillet and had the density of scone with the flavour of bread. I think it went pretty well with the beer.

So that’s it – we are three days into the tour and so far everything is going well. There are a few things that could get a bit monotonous but I may leave that till after the trip. Names may be changed to protect the innocent! Grand Canyon tomorrow – and there is snow on the ground there today so a few extra layers are ready to go.

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