Lee’s World
San Diego 2002
Two hours South of Los Angeles lies the city of San Diego. San Diego is a beautiful city with a wonderful park in the centre, a historic gaslamp district and is the home of the Pacific Naval fleet. The Naval base takes over a large part of the Southern part of the city as well as some of the islands in the bay.
Our route from LA, took us partly along the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) so we could admire the scenery (and surfers). We stopped for lunch in the picturesque town of Laguna Beach, a popular town with beachball playing hunks to distract us!
Our hotel in San Diego was
the historic Harbor House
Resort. The hotel was conveniently situated close to the downtown area,
and the "Little Italy" district. It was also at the end of the runway for
San Diego airport!
Rooms were compact with no private bathrooms, however, the showers (private and communal on offer) and the jacuzzi were good. A very friendly crowd stayed there - and it was great to meet Robert and Marcus.
San
Diego is renowned for its zoo, which has a reputation for animal
conservation programmes. The zoo covers a major part of Balboa Park - a park
littered with museums, restaurants and galleries. We visited the Science
centre there with it's IMAX cinema, before heading into the zoo.
The
easiest way of seeing the zoo is from the tour bus and/or the aerial tramway
which is included in the "Deluxe" ticket price. The zoo is vast and we
missed out on some exhibits even
though
we spent five hours there. Highlights included seeing the pandas and
watching a hippo swim through the glass walls of the enclosure.
The restaurants in Little Italy were wonderful. We particularly enjoyed meals at Filippes on India Street. Huge pizzas and pasta dishes all served at the back of a popular Italian deli. The queue on the Friday night went round the block to get in.
We decided that being so close to Mexico, it would be silly not to head over the border, so we joined the Trolley bus in Little Italy for the 40 minute journey south. James constantly sang the "Trolley Song" as we went - if only he could sing in tune.
Stepping off the bus at San Ysidro, we were told the easiest way to cross the border was to take the Tijuana Shuttle bus. The advice was right as for $1.50 we avoided all the queues. The bus dropped us right in the centre of Tijuana - an odd town which only seemed (at least in its main street) to have bars, restaurants and pharmacies! We did manage a bit of duty free shopping and enjoy mexican food and tequila slammers at a bar in town. The contrast between the luxury of Southern California and a run-down Northern Mexican border town could not have been greater.
After only two short days (and three nights) it was time to pack up our cases again and move for the relaxing part of the holiday in Palm Springs.