San Diego.

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We got to the Greyhound station over an hour before we were due to depart (Kim’s mom would have been proud at our organisation) but by the looks of the queue that faced us, it didn’t appear to be enough. Up to now we have really enjoyed our Greyhound journeys, they had been efficient, clean and quite rapid but Las Vegas Greyhound station took the piss!! Talk about shambles!! There appeared to be about 3 queues that merged into one large one, so we fought our way through the door and joined the hussle and bussle.
Not before long the crowds were starting to get aggravated (including ourselves) because the clock was ticking down but the queue wasn’t moving due to the fact that they had one person working the ticket booth and sure enough an argument kicked off between the lady on the desk and this big black scary lady that hadn’t stopped mouthing off since she came in….you know the type. Everyone was getting really embarrassed because this lady (if you can call her that) was getting right up into people’s faces saying things like “She doesn’t know who I am” and “Oi!! What time do you finish here because I am gonna kick your arse bi*tch’a”…….this was obviously winding us up even more and Kim was on the verge on turning around and saying something but James told her to keep quiet and stare at the floor! Ha, wimp. The bus turned up and we were still in the queue waiting to pick up our tickets, but the nice guy in-front of us saw that we were in a bit of distress and let us push ahead. We were the last on to the bus and ended sitting quite far apart, but were just happy to be on our way to San Diego……

We finally made it to San Diego after an 8 hour bus journey and were automatically convinced that it was a nice place because the people were very friendly and the city seemed very chilled.
We were staying in a hostel called ‘Hostel Cat’, that had a 96% rating on HostelWorld.com but were not really sure why because the hostel looked like an old army barracks and was based next to a Samaritan’s depot which therefore encourage nearly every homeless person to congregate around the area looking for hand outs. The inside of the place wasn’t that hot either but for some reason the dorms seemed to have to comfiest beds every, so we didn’t mind much.

As it was getting late and we hadn’t eaten yet we took a short walk to the Albersons supermarket around the corner. En route we had to pass all the homeless people as described above and while we were walking down the unlit streets we soon noticed that there were loads of cockroaches crawling very close to Kim feet, which prompted her to scream, run into the run and burst into tears….this was obviously all James’s fault and he found himself on the end of one of Kim’s famous breakdowns!!

Our first full day in San Diego we got up early and took a bus ride over the river to the beach on Conarado Island. We wasn’t sure what to expect as the beaches in LA (Santa Monica and Venice) had been such a let down, but we were pleasantly surprised as it was beautiful and there was a nice resort that catered for the wealthy (it reminded Kim of the one out of Dirty Dancing) where we gate-crashed for a cold drink.
After regaining some energy we strolled down the white sandy beach and James managed to get Kim to face her fear of the sea and go for a paddle with him. After splashing each other like a couple of high school kids we were thirsty again so went in pursuit of a bar. We found a cool little Irish bar and it happened to be happy hour so we ordered a couple of cocktails and watched the sun go down.
Before we came away we both made a list of activities that we wanted to do; and at the top of Kim’s list was San Diego Zoo and Sea World. So for the next two days we became proper tourists and spent to whole days in the parks.

The first was Sea World; where we paid $60 each to get in which we thought was a bit steep but Kim kept reassuring James how good it was going to be, so reluctantly he handed over the cash.

Here are some of our highlights from the day:

• Arctic Adventure ride - A simulator ride through the Arctic Circle. Once finished you can walk around looking at animals from the region. These included giant walrus’s (we couldn’t believe the size of them), Polar Bears and white beluga whales all of which Kim had never seen before and was amazed by their size.
• The shark tank and under water walkway. Instead of walking through it Kim practically ran full speed to the other end as she was convinced it was going to crack like the scene in Jaws III.
• The dolphin show with the usual performance of jumping dolphins etc. We were slightly disappointed as the show only last 20 minutes and we had been queuing for nearly an hour!
• The Manatee’s; one of Kim’s favourite animals. We both couldn’t believe how elegant they seemed in the water.
• The ‘Shamu’ killer whale show. This was very impressive but again we were a little disappointed at how short it lasted. They also got all patriotic in true American style and asked all people who had served in the forces to stand up and gave them an applause while playing emotional music, we thought it was rather cheesy but nice in a way.
• The Sesame Street 4D show - This was absolutely amazing!! We felt like kids again, sporting the stylish glasses while trying to touch the objects that were floating towards us.
• We saved the larger rides (the rapids and water floom) to last so that we could miss the crowds. James using his intuitive scrounged some plastic bin bags off a rubbish collector and put a couple of holes in them to use as makeshift ponchos. It’s a dam good job because we didn’t take into account that once the sun had gone down and being soaked to the bone might cause us to get slightly cold…..Never the less we still got soaked to the bone on the rapids and the shivering and moaning began. After the rapids we walked and squelched to the water floom and it was obvious that Kim was petrified. After 10 mins of persuasion Kim found herself on board and for the next 120 seconds she didn’t stop for breath as she was screaming none stop!

The following day we visited the world famous San Diego Zoo where we saw a huge variety of animals ranging from elephants, cuddly pandas, silverback gorillas and hungry hippos to 14 foot pythons, giant 100 year old tortoises and even the real life warthog that Disney used to based the character Pumba on from the movie Lion King. At the end of the day we were both exhausted due to six hours of walking in the baking heat and James suggested catching the cable cart back to the exit. As you are surely aware by now, Kim has many fears and topping that list is heights!! So it was a choice of either walking back through the park for an hour or facing her number one fear….she chose the latter on the condition that James swore on his life that he wouldn’t rock, shake or even move to itch his bum while we were up there. James agreed and before we knew it we were suspended 50 meters in the air with James happily snapping away on his camera and Kim closing her eyes and hanging on for dear life - look at the picture! Ha.

We were really impressed with the zoo and can understand why it is so well known the one moan that we did have was that we couldn’t get to see quite a few of the animals as they were hiding in their caves, hole etc.

Our final day in the US and A was dominated by travelling back to LA for our flight over to the paradise islands of Fiji. Our flight was at 11:30pm on 19th July and we were expected to land on 21st July (10 hour flight) and James couldn’t get his head around the fact that he was losing a whole day - It was like going back to the Future?!?

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