Pacific Coast Explorer

Archers Direct, May-June 2011

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DAY 2: San Diego, California

So much for a nice late start - Jose was organising optional tours in the lobby at 7.30am, ready for an 8.30am departure. Except, when we got to the lobby, there had been a change of plan and he was going to do the optionals on the bus while we were at the Coronado later that morning. So, we just lurked in the lobby and began to meet those that would be our fellow passengers for the next two weeks. They were a cosmopolitan (or should that be cosmospolitan?) group as we heard accents from the UK, US, Canada and Australia. The group gradually gathered and we went out to the bus. It was time for us to meet Johnny, our driver.

We set out from the hotel and passed the Cruise Terminal, just two minutes from the hotel, then we passed the USS Midway, which was an optional tour we wouldn't have time for. We passed Seaport Village, where there was a selection of restaurants, mostly fish, and then onto a new Convention Center. There is also a railroad that passes through the town.

   

San Diego is one of the largest military complexes in the world and we were touring on Memorial Day, so there were lots of flags, and other activities going on. We drove through the Gaslamp Quarter, which looked quite busy and probably a good stop for dinner that evening. Then it was onto the Petco Baseball Stadium.

We then headed towards the Coronado Bridge to the island of Coronado. Our first stop on the island was the Coronado Ferryboat Terminal with a great view of the San Diego skyline. In the distance across San Diego Bay we could see the USS Midway. Apparently, houses here start at about $400,000, with the condos next to us running at about $2million. I did a search on the American real estate database (MLS) and the cheapest property I could find (a one bedroom condo) was $450,000. Wonder if they have an instalment plan...over the next 45,000 months?

   

Our main stop over here was at the famous (well, I've heard of it!) Hotel del Coronado. This hotel was the star of the 1959 movie Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and some fairly well known blonde woman, Norma Jeane something. I love this movie. I don't care that it's in black and white, go rent it (okay, go download it.) It's been in several other movies too, not to mention the TV show Baywatch, but see this one. There's a lot of wood in the lobby (surprising as there was a total lack of lumber in the San Diego area in the 1880s) and, brace yourself Rodney, a huge chandelier.

   

The hotel began construction in 1887, built predominantly by Chinese immigrants, and it is considered an architectural achievement. They included gravity flow sprinklers to protect against fire, and the hotel was fully wired for electricity (via gas pipes, just in case it didn't work!) Apparently Thomas Edison did the final inspection and oversaw lighting of the first electrically illuminated outdoor Christmas tree here in 1904. We stepped outside into a courtyard full of flowers and trees.

   

Across the courtyard and down some steps and we were on the beach. The surf was wonderful as I sat relaxing on the rocks.

   

We didn't really have enough time here - there was an exhibition of some sort down in the basement but I only spotted it when we were due to go back to the bus so missed it this time. There's plenty to do here, at least for a couple of hours, it's a lovely place to visit. I'm sure it's also a lovely place to stay, but at the rates on their website, I'd be pushing it to stay for a night!

We passed that airport on our way to the next stop. I even caught a glimpse of the offending car park, before we arrived at Old Town San Diego. This place is considered to be the birthplace of California, the first mission here being established in 1769. In 1968, the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation established Old Town State Historic Park to preserve San Diego as it was between the 1820s and 1870s. There are museums, living history exhibits as well as craftshops, restaurants and regular gift shops.

The Wells Fargo Museum they have is in a reconstruction of the Colorado House, an 1860 building which was originally a hotel. They have an original 1867 Wells Fargo stagecoach and an 1855 panoramic picture of San Diego. I looked inside the coach and I'm not sure it was that comfortable.

   

Also around the plaza, there is a recreated restaurant from around 1848. There's even a covered wagon with some very shady looking varmints!

   

In the Seeley Stable, another reconstruction, which contains a number of horse-drawn wagons of the era including an original 1806 carreta, a freight wagon and a Studebaker Farm Wagon (from the company that went on to make cars). They also have more stagecoaches. In the loft they have artifacts from California and beyond, including basketry and pottery from other western regions and a variety of California vaquero and saddle displays.

   

We only had a couple of hours here, but I'm pretty sure you could find enough to entertain you for a full day. A couple of the buildings have their own tours, and with the coffee shops and restaurants, you could spend hours looking into the past. Jose showed us where the red trolley stop was in case we wanted to return from our hotel (the trolley leaves from behind our hotel) with a return trip costing only $5. Apparently, this is the place to come if you want real Mexican food, if not in the State Park, just immediately across the road where there are yet more restaurants.

We then headed to Balboa Park. Here's another place you could spend a day...or several. There are museums (aviation, modern art, history, automobile and a model railroad [darn!]), performing arts locations, sporting facilities, gardens, a carousel, miniature railroad and more. Those not taking the San Diego Zoo option were given 45 minutes to explore the area, but this park also houses the famed Zoo and that was where we were headed, so we only got to see it from the bus, on this occasion.

   

We arrived at the San Diego Zoo and got the tickets from Jose, as this was an Archers optional extra. We also got a map - yikes it's big! Unsure how much time we'd have, we had pre-booked a Discovery Tour which claims to cover 70% of the park in 60 minutes, which we thought would be good (I figured we'd have about 4 hours in total, which wasn't long, and we wanted to see as much as possible). I heard of long waits for the included 45-minute bus tour and that the extra tour would be worth it.

   

The Skyfari aerial tram was near the entrance and the line relatively short so we thought we'd start there - we'd get a great overview of the park, and, assuming it was one-way, we'd already be at the far side of the park from where we could walk back (save walking there and back). We expected "spectacular views of the Zoo, it's animal and plant collection" (that's what it says on their website!) We got trees. Lots of trees. For a second there, we thought Paul had spotted an animal, but no. Nothing. Well, a couple of pens under development, and maybe a goat, just before we landed, but pretty much just trees. Good job we'd only waited twenty minutes!

   

Once we were on the ground, we saw loads of animals. We liked the polar bears (didn't know they ate carrots!) but we saw reindeer, an arctic fox and various zebra.

   

   

As we walked around, we saw a sign for pandas, but there was a very long line so we decided to skip them - we saw a panda in Berlin a couple of years ago, and we've seen the Kit-Kat advert, they wouldn't do anything exciting while we were watching! Instead, we found the elephants, bears and giraffes - they have a new baby, born in March - she was pretty cute.

   

We decided to get a snack but a soft drink was $4.99!!!! Sheesh! Popcorn and a beer was nearly $11, which seems like a lot to me. I guess this is a trade-off against the lower entry price of $40, and you don't have to eat and drink. Compared with SeaWorld in Florida where drinks are maybe $3, but it is $80 or so to go in. Even so, Di nearly dropped me when they said $11 (and that can't be good). I dropped them a Ted over this! With an eye on the time, we headed for our 3pm meet-up for the tour, passing meerkats, koalas and some cute little ducklings (not exactly an exhibit per se).

   

We arrived at the meeting point for our Discovery Tour. We didn't know what to expect, but with only seven of us and two guides we were hopeful of a great experience. Unfortunately, this was a real disappointment. The website says the tour will cover 70% of the park, unfortunately, it was the 70% we'd just covered ourselves on foot! If we'd known, we'd have done the other 30%.

Guides: "Have you seen the koalas?"
Us: "Yes"
Guides: "Here are the elephants"
Us: "We've seen 'em"
Guides: "Did you know we have a baby giraffe? She was born in March"
Us: "Yes, the sign said"

In their defence, if we'd done this first, it would have definitely saved us time (and shoe leather) and we would have had time to see the rest of the park. As it was, we'd covered more of the park on foot that we expected in the two hours available and we didn't book an earlier tour as we didn't know when we would be dropped off at the Zoo and didn't want to miss it. We had booked a couple of weeks earlier online as it was Memorial Day (a bank holiday) in the US and we thought the tours could get busy. As it turns out, we could have booked it on the day, or just taken the regular bus tour that is included in with the tickets and had enough time. So much for being proactive.

We did see a couple of highlights. The bears we had seen asleep earlier were awake now. The two brothers were chasing each other round the pen. The best bit, though, was that they could sneak us in the the back way to the panda pen so we did get to see them after all. We were very glad we hadn't stood in line to see them! They didn't do much except eat and there wasn't a rollerskate in sight!*

   

Overall, I only gave this two Teds. The two guides were very friendly, but didn't seem to know that much more than we could get off the signs. To us, the tour was pointless and really wasted an hour.

TGTips
If you only have three hours (we had five) or someone who can't walk far or if you do this first, the Discovery Tour could be a good tour.

If you are doing the tour later in the day, go see the Discovery Outpost and Lost Forest parts of the park, as these are the areas where they can't drive their little shuttle bus.

The little blue shuttle bus is what they use on the Discovery Tour, the large open-topped bus is for the included regular Guided Bus Tour. They appear to cover similar ground, but with less waiting and less squishing.

   

After our tour, we had about twenty more minutes to do the rest of the park - that wasn't going to happen. We dashed over to the tiger enclosure to see them but it wasn't very exciting. The tiger was having a nap.

Also of interest in the Zoo is the tar pits exhibit. The most famous area of this type in California are the La Brea Tar Pits, where millions of animal bones have been discovered since 1906. The animals were trapped in the sticky pools of tar and being unable to escape, they died and were preserved. This is how they know there were mammoths in California.

Another area of interest was the buddy program. A number of animals - lion, wolf, cheetah - which were born at the Zoo, or it's neighboring Safari Park, are buddied up with puppies. Raising them together, it helps to calm the undomesticated animal, particularly when they are taken for walks around the park, or used for educational purposes.

   

We made a quick dash into the gift shop - nothing much of interest in there (dull and expensive - there was a nice leopard t-shirt but it was $44!) - before meeting Jose, as arranged, at 5pm, taking the bus back to our hotel. We mentioned the most extreme airport TV show to Jose and asked if we passed the airport car park on our way back to the hotel. He said he would get Johnny to go off at that exit.

We just thought we'd pass it on the freeway, but no, he actually drove down past the airport to show us the parking lot up close and personal. There's even a gas (petrol) station! Talk about great service from Johnny. Anyway, as I just know you are fascinated about this stuff, here's the offending car park. Unfortunately, a plane didn't come over until we'd gone through the lights (rats!) but imagine this, and some mountains at the end of the runway as you are trying to get down to the tarmac. Good luck!

       

Rather than returning directly to our room, we thought we'd get some photos before we lost the sunlight. We started with the tall ship opposite our hotel, the Star of India which is part of the Maritime Museum of San Diego. The museum also houses a couple of submarines, including the B-39 Soviet Diesel sub pictured below.

   

We walked further down the dock, passing the Cruise Terminal to get to the USS Midway. It was Memorial Day so there were many flags evident, but it was after 5pm so too late for us to tour the huge aircraft carrier. Didn't mean we couldn't get some photos though. Alongside the port (left) side of the Midway is a commemorative statue A National Salute to Bob Hope and the Military. It's very cool, with Bob centre stage, at the mike, with tapes of some of his act being played. Meanwhile, he is being watched by an audience representative of his many years as a military entertainer - military people from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War and the Coast Guard. Oh yeah, and a cute travel-writing bear. I'm a big fan of Bob and this piece is a great tribute.

     

We were a few blocks from the hotel by this time, and somewhat nearer the Gas Quarter where we'd planned to go for dinner, so we figured we'd stay out and eat - it would be easier on some of our feet (my feet were just fine, thanks). We looked at a couple of restaurants (we didn't find as many as we thought we'd seen earlier in the day) but when we got to Gourmet India, they had over half a page of vegetarian options (Di nearly fainted!) We had to eat here!

We started with some local beers, before ordering dinner. Dave's Biryani wasn't what he expected but I think Paul impressed the waiter. Paul is a bit of a curry expert (some like it hot!), so ordered a Vindaloo. Offered medium, hot or spicy, he chose spicy. He was then offered spicy 1, 2, 3 or 4, with 4 being the hottest. So, he went for "spicy4" - the waiter didn't think he'd be able to eat it - but he did, although he reckoned he'd had hotter in the UK. Dave tried a tiny bit and his head nearly exploded. I declined.

This was a nice restaurant, albeit not very American for our second night in the US. The staff were pleasant and the food arrived reasonably quickly. We had a choice of regular tables or low on the floor, sitting on cushions (we didn't think we'd get up again!) On the wall they were playing a Bollywood movie. A bottle of red was $28 and food prices were mid-range, not too bad. They even gave us a CD of the music they play when we left (not sure why), but it saves buying someone a gift.

Then we hiked back to the hotel to collapse for the night. Bags ready for 7.15am, depart at 8.15am.



*For those of you who want to know what I'm talking about (rollerskating pandas) see here:





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