This is my last chance to see more of San Diego, so back to the normal morning routine, or at least that's what I thought.
The bus finally arrived at the hotel at 8.10am due to an accident on one of the freeways. 5 buses were held up in the traffic so the driver of my bus had to pick up all passengers to be taken to the harbour. After my pick-up there were 14 more hotels to visit all over the place. We finally arrived at the harbour at 9.10am. The Mexico bus was the last one to arrive which meant we were 17 minutes behind time when we left.
On this tour we first got some information about the Midway and a photo opportunity of the park where there is a statue of a sailor greeting his wife/girlfriend. It's more than life size too.
My apologies once again for the reflection on some of the photo's.
Some of the sights of the city were:
The convention centre, which looks very impressive, all glass, and people on the right floor in the hotel opposite can actually see through the windows to get free viewing of any games that may be played in there.
The local police station.
We crossed over the first free toll bridge in San Diego. When the bridge was first built the city promised that although it was a toll bridge to begin with, it would eventually become a toll free one. After the first 5 years it went from $2.00 to $1.00, then 5 years later the toll booths were removed. They did keep their promise, it just took a while.
Also on the way up this bridge is an unusual sign - suicide counselling, so just in case you're thinking of throwing yourself off it gives you a free number to call, unfortunately there's no phone on the bridge, and this sign was put up in the 60's, long before mobile phones.
We also saw the vehicles that move the "peak hour lane" barriers to assist flow of traffic in and out of the city. The view from the top of the bridge is a nice one.
By the way, San Diego is a naval city, so everywhere you go you will see something connected with the navy in some way.
We did a drive through Coronado Island, calling through the Marriott hotel where the tour bus isn't really welcome, so the driver told us if asked we were to say we were picking up the Johnson party of 4. Luckily we didn't have to worry about it as no one came to bother us. The driver just wanted everyone to see the unusual residents of the front pond, 2 black swans, that I think were camera shy, we could get an occasional quick view of their heads and that was it.
Coronado Island isn't really an island, it's a peninsula, but the people that live there pay upwards of a million bucks for their houses and I suppose they think Island sounds more elite. That seems to be the thing here though, there are many "islands" that are peninsulas. Shelter Island was another place we drove through, very flash again. They have a police station at Coronado but all they do is hand out tickets, it's virtually crime free, at least it was until a murder/suicide the other day. I haven't read the newspapers yet but it's on the front page. Rest stop was at the Hotel Del Coronado, the only all wood hotel in San Diego, it was beautiful, and right on the beach. The movie "Some like it hot" was made there. The interesting story of this is; the guy that built it brought in 300 unskilled Chinese labourers and got them to build a replica first to see how it would go before getting them to build the full sized version. The replica is still standing and there is a photo of it at the end of the main hotel photo's.
Next we went to Balboa Park, where we passed the bayside golf course, museums and a tree that he asked if anyone new what it was but I wasn't allowed to answer. It was a Morton Bay Fig, guess he thought it would be cheating as I "should" know what it was. This park is attached to the zoo, although you couldn't see any of the animals, you could see the cable cars and the gardens.
Leaving the park we cross the bridge that goes past San Diego airport...now there's a sight to see, it's only got 1 runway for all traffic coming in and going out. A plane leaves every 70 seconds and the ones coming in have to fit in between the take offs. It's interesting to watch but unfortunately I couldn't get the right angle at any stage of my tour to get a photo of one coming in and one leaving. I guess I need a fish eye lens hey John.
The next place we visit is La Jolla (La Hoya), which is to San Diego what Beverly Hills is to Los Angeles. You will notice there are some houses built on stilts up the top of the hills on the way to La Jolla. There's nothing really spectacular about them apart from the fact that they are built right on the San Andreas Fault. Crazy hey.
Another interesting thing on the hills is the native vegetation, can't remember what he called it but it will catch fire on a hot day, unaided by human hand. The city have planted what they call Ice Plant, we call Pig Face, all over the hills to help stop the fires spreading as it's a fire retardant plant. The row of trees you see after the hills photo's is the only native tree to San Diego, all other trees have been introduced, Norfolk Island Pines, Ghost Gums, the fig, etc. La Jolla also has San Diego's skinniest house. The view over the bay is much the same as all the other bays around here, but they each have their own special charms. This one has a cave that you can go down into, at a price of course. The bay was originally a play area for kids until the seals decided they wanted it to sun bake in. On the way out of town we passed Casa Loma, this is a retirement village, looks more like an expensive resort hotel to me. What a nice place to retire in hey.
The last place we visited was "Old Town" which is where San Diego actually began. They have kept all the buildings in their original state. It is an interesting little town to visit, but you'd really need a whole day there to see everything and read all about the beginnings of life here.
Time to head back to the harbour for the harbour cruise, they won't hang around waiting for late buses. On the way back the driver said we would see how low the planes come in as there is one due and if the lights are kind to us we will get to see it come in over the airport car park. The building actually has landing lights on the top and the plane clears the building by under 10ft. The whole situation with the airport is a bone of contention for everyone. They want to build more runways so the planes can come in from another direction but the residents don't want the noise. The amazing thing though is; there's never been an accident, or anything close to one in all the years the airport has been in operation. There is one rule though, no planes are allowed in after midnight. Anyone wanting to get here after that time goes to LAX and has to bus it down, which is a 2 1/2 hour drive.
The harbour tour left on time at 12.30. We went around by the naval base, saw the coast guards doing maneouvres and had a few navy personnel wave to us from a ship. I guess the cruise really doesn't need much explanation, we were out on harbour for an hour. Back on the bus at 1.40 to the hotel.
What a nice surprise when I walked into my room, a tray with sparkling cider on ice, a huge slice of chocolate cake and a small hamper with strawberries, grapes, bananas, cheese and crackers and a birthday card from the hotel. What a shame that I have to eat it all myself, but I'm sure I'll manage.
At the main office I had the concierge check on my bus for tomorrow to LAX, it's picking me up between 11.45 and 12noon, which means I will be at the airport by about 2.30 and my flight isn't till 10.55 but I'm sure I'll find something to do to keep me out of the shops.
Back in my room again and I decide to spend the rest of the day relaxing, enjoying my birthday treats and get my pages up to date. This is the final page of my world adventure and I hope you have enjoyed reading it and seeing what I've seen as much as I have enjoyed doing it all and being able to bring the world to you.
Keep checking back occasionally though as I will be adding comments to the photo's as and when time allows once I'm home. I will continue to put the latest date that updates have been made to the pages to save you checking something that hasn't had any changes made.
I guess the last entry on the calendar will be the one about my flight home, I'm sure the precedent that was set early on in the trip will continue and there will be a delay or some sort of news to tell.
A word of advice for any of you planning on doing a trip like this, make sure your suitcases are in good condition and aren't too heavy when empty, you can fit a lot more in if you have a light one.
The bus finally arrived at the hotel at 8.10am due to an accident on one of the freeways. 5 buses were held up in the traffic so the driver of my bus had to pick up all passengers to be taken to the harbour. After my pick-up there were 14 more hotels to visit all over the place. We finally arrived at the harbour at 9.10am. The Mexico bus was the last one to arrive which meant we were 17 minutes behind time when we left.
On this tour we first got some information about the Midway and a photo opportunity of the park where there is a statue of a sailor greeting his wife/girlfriend. It's more than life size too.
My apologies once again for the reflection on some of the photo's.
Some of the sights of the city were:
The convention centre, which looks very impressive, all glass, and people on the right floor in the hotel opposite can actually see through the windows to get free viewing of any games that may be played in there.
The local police station.
We crossed over the first free toll bridge in San Diego. When the bridge was first built the city promised that although it was a toll bridge to begin with, it would eventually become a toll free one. After the first 5 years it went from $2.00 to $1.00, then 5 years later the toll booths were removed. They did keep their promise, it just took a while.
Also on the way up this bridge is an unusual sign - suicide counselling, so just in case you're thinking of throwing yourself off it gives you a free number to call, unfortunately there's no phone on the bridge, and this sign was put up in the 60's, long before mobile phones.
We also saw the vehicles that move the "peak hour lane" barriers to assist flow of traffic in and out of the city. The view from the top of the bridge is a nice one.
By the way, San Diego is a naval city, so everywhere you go you will see something connected with the navy in some way.
We did a drive through Coronado Island, calling through the Marriott hotel where the tour bus isn't really welcome, so the driver told us if asked we were to say we were picking up the Johnson party of 4. Luckily we didn't have to worry about it as no one came to bother us. The driver just wanted everyone to see the unusual residents of the front pond, 2 black swans, that I think were camera shy, we could get an occasional quick view of their heads and that was it.
Coronado Island isn't really an island, it's a peninsula, but the people that live there pay upwards of a million bucks for their houses and I suppose they think Island sounds more elite. That seems to be the thing here though, there are many "islands" that are peninsulas. Shelter Island was another place we drove through, very flash again. They have a police station at Coronado but all they do is hand out tickets, it's virtually crime free, at least it was until a murder/suicide the other day. I haven't read the newspapers yet but it's on the front page. Rest stop was at the Hotel Del Coronado, the only all wood hotel in San Diego, it was beautiful, and right on the beach. The movie "Some like it hot" was made there. The interesting story of this is; the guy that built it brought in 300 unskilled Chinese labourers and got them to build a replica first to see how it would go before getting them to build the full sized version. The replica is still standing and there is a photo of it at the end of the main hotel photo's.
Next we went to Balboa Park, where we passed the bayside golf course, museums and a tree that he asked if anyone new what it was but I wasn't allowed to answer. It was a Morton Bay Fig, guess he thought it would be cheating as I "should" know what it was. This park is attached to the zoo, although you couldn't see any of the animals, you could see the cable cars and the gardens.
Leaving the park we cross the bridge that goes past San Diego airport...now there's a sight to see, it's only got 1 runway for all traffic coming in and going out. A plane leaves every 70 seconds and the ones coming in have to fit in between the take offs. It's interesting to watch but unfortunately I couldn't get the right angle at any stage of my tour to get a photo of one coming in and one leaving. I guess I need a fish eye lens hey John.
The next place we visit is La Jolla (La Hoya), which is to San Diego what Beverly Hills is to Los Angeles. You will notice there are some houses built on stilts up the top of the hills on the way to La Jolla. There's nothing really spectacular about them apart from the fact that they are built right on the San Andreas Fault. Crazy hey.
Another interesting thing on the hills is the native vegetation, can't remember what he called it but it will catch fire on a hot day, unaided by human hand. The city have planted what they call Ice Plant, we call Pig Face, all over the hills to help stop the fires spreading as it's a fire retardant plant. The row of trees you see after the hills photo's is the only native tree to San Diego, all other trees have been introduced, Norfolk Island Pines, Ghost Gums, the fig, etc. La Jolla also has San Diego's skinniest house. The view over the bay is much the same as all the other bays around here, but they each have their own special charms. This one has a cave that you can go down into, at a price of course. The bay was originally a play area for kids until the seals decided they wanted it to sun bake in. On the way out of town we passed Casa Loma, this is a retirement village, looks more like an expensive resort hotel to me. What a nice place to retire in hey.
The last place we visited was "Old Town" which is where San Diego actually began. They have kept all the buildings in their original state. It is an interesting little town to visit, but you'd really need a whole day there to see everything and read all about the beginnings of life here.
Time to head back to the harbour for the harbour cruise, they won't hang around waiting for late buses. On the way back the driver said we would see how low the planes come in as there is one due and if the lights are kind to us we will get to see it come in over the airport car park. The building actually has landing lights on the top and the plane clears the building by under 10ft. The whole situation with the airport is a bone of contention for everyone. They want to build more runways so the planes can come in from another direction but the residents don't want the noise. The amazing thing though is; there's never been an accident, or anything close to one in all the years the airport has been in operation. There is one rule though, no planes are allowed in after midnight. Anyone wanting to get here after that time goes to LAX and has to bus it down, which is a 2 1/2 hour drive.
The harbour tour left on time at 12.30. We went around by the naval base, saw the coast guards doing maneouvres and had a few navy personnel wave to us from a ship. I guess the cruise really doesn't need much explanation, we were out on harbour for an hour. Back on the bus at 1.40 to the hotel.
What a nice surprise when I walked into my room, a tray with sparkling cider on ice, a huge slice of chocolate cake and a small hamper with strawberries, grapes, bananas, cheese and crackers and a birthday card from the hotel. What a shame that I have to eat it all myself, but I'm sure I'll manage.
At the main office I had the concierge check on my bus for tomorrow to LAX, it's picking me up between 11.45 and 12noon, which means I will be at the airport by about 2.30 and my flight isn't till 10.55 but I'm sure I'll find something to do to keep me out of the shops.
Back in my room again and I decide to spend the rest of the day relaxing, enjoying my birthday treats and get my pages up to date. This is the final page of my world adventure and I hope you have enjoyed reading it and seeing what I've seen as much as I have enjoyed doing it all and being able to bring the world to you.
Keep checking back occasionally though as I will be adding comments to the photo's as and when time allows once I'm home. I will continue to put the latest date that updates have been made to the pages to save you checking something that hasn't had any changes made.
I guess the last entry on the calendar will be the one about my flight home, I'm sure the precedent that was set early on in the trip will continue and there will be a delay or some sort of news to tell.
A word of advice for any of you planning on doing a trip like this, make sure your suitcases are in good condition and aren't too heavy when empty, you can fit a lot more in if you have a light one.