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Published: July 12th 2009
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We have just spent three days having lazy and a relaxing time in San Diego without the car and back to the joys of public transport. I hate buses. We arrived in the afternoon and settled into our hostel by the beach. It was lucky we packed the car up the previously night as the whole return car process was very quick. The only problem was we didn’t pack our bags very well, we had trouble carrying them as we hadn’t done so for five weeks. But once we got settled in San Diego we went exploring our local area of Ocean Beach. It was very similar to Phillip Island in size and in the shops that were there. No great bakery though.
Our second day in San Diego we went to the Zoo, that’s right we went to the World Famous San Diego Zoo. It was fantastic and we had so much fun. We started the day with a free bus tour around the zoo, and then went exploring. The variety of animals was amazing, we saw Panda Bears, Grizzly Bears, Koalas, Flamingos, Polar Bears, Sun Bears and big cats. I could list more but you get the picture.
We spent five hours exploring the park and we had such a lovely day. It was great being there when they opened the gates because all the animals were lively and playful, unlike in the afternoon. While we were downtown San Diego we booked our bus tickets to Anaheim!! Disneyland here we come.
Our third day we explored downtown, we walked through the Horton Plaza and the Gaslamp Quarter, it is a 16 1/2 block historical neighborhood in downtown San Diego, California. Its main period of development began in 1867, when Alonzo Horton bought the land in hopes of creating a new city center closer to the bay, and chose 5th Avenue as its main street. When development of the area began in the 1860s, the area currently known as the Gaslamp Quarter was known as New Town, in contrast to Old Town, which was the original Spanish colonial settlement of San Diego. The name "Gaslamp Quarter" is a reference to the gas lamps that were common in San Diego in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The city was very quiet and we had seen all we wanted in that area so we decided to have
a few beers, at a classy establishment called Dick's Last Resort, after all it was Monday, sunny and at least 11.30am! We loved being on holidays.
A few hours later we headed toward the docks. We looked at the USS Midway, which was used in heaps of different wars as well as filming of ‘Top Gun’. We wandered the boardwalk enjoying the sun and the different artwork.
Our last day in San Diego was an important date for two reasons, one - we had been away for twelve months and two - we were on our way to Disneyland! It was a lazy morning since our greyhound bus wasn’t leaving for Anaheim til the afternoon. We brought some snacks and headed down to the bus station, not to long and we were on the bus, on our way to Disneyland, but first we stopped off at Santa Ana it felt like we had crossed the border into Mexico, the signs were all in Spanish, everyone looked Mexican but no-one had asked for our passport!
By the way, the blog title is a movie reference, can you guess which one?
Stay tuned for our last two blogs
A Koala
It's not a bear! in America and then we will be home to see you all in person.
Stay classy San Diego,
Michelle and Stephen.
xox
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