San Diego, CA (part 1)

All our flights were on time!!  And even though we were told that our Delta flight 1967 from Atlanta to San Diego was full, we were pleasantly surprised to find that one of the three seats in our half of the row was unoccupied!!  We spread out and luxuriated in the tiny bit of extra space this afforded us for the four hour flight.

After retrieving our luggage, we called the Best Western Hacienda for a pickup and a ride to their Old Town hotel.  We were tired (it was after 11PM Portsmouth time) but we were lured to the Tequila Factory by the promise of a free “welcome” margarita!

We were up early the next morning to board the Old Town Trolley for an introduction to the city of San Diego.  Our trolley driver gave a lively commentary on all the sights from the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park to San Diego Harbor (the aircraft carrier Midway) to the Seaport Village (shopping and restaurants) to Horton Plaza (more shopping at a huge mall anchored by Macy’s).  We disembarked at Horton Plaza for a stroll through the Gaslamp Quarter.  This one-time red-light district and former hangout of Wyatt Earp is now packed with restaurants, nightclubs and boutiques.  No outlaws were in sight – in fact the only people on the street in the late morning hour were delivery drivers unloading kegs of beer!  We hoofed it to the next trolley stop and had a pleasant ride over the Coronado Bay Bridge to the Coronado Ferry Landing where we rented two beach cruisers from Bike & Beyond.

Sculpture MY BIKE along Coronado Bike Path

The weather was perfect for a bike ride around “the island” where the median income is a whopping $140,000.  We pedaled past the Coronado Golf Course, through neighborhoods with inviting street names like Margarita Lane and Orange Avenue, past the Amphibious Base and then back to the historic Hotel del Coronado.    Built of wood transported by rail from northern California and beyond, this rambling Victorian-era resort opened its doors to guests in 1888.  At that time it was billed as the largest resort hotel in the world.  Its 600+ rooms sprawl over 28 oceanfront acres.  Hollywood celebrities Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were regular guests.  In 1959 the movie Some Like It Hot starring Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon was filmed on the premises.    With nightly room rates ranging from $469 to $1,950, we really could not afford to stay here!!  But we could afford to sit in comfort at the Sun Deck Grill overlooking the umbrella-lined beach and quench our thirst with pricey wine and local IPA brews.

A view of the Hotel del Coronado

Chillin' at Sun Deck Grill

We returned our beach cruisers and caught up with the trolley for its next stop at Balboa Park.  This 1,200 acre park is lush with tropical plants, succulents, bougainvillea, jacaranda, birds of paradise, 450 species of palm trees and plenty of other trees and blooming things!  Plus the world-famous San Diego Zoo!  Plus fifteen huge museums!  Many of the buildings on the park grounds date back to two World’s Fairs – the Panama-California Exposition of 1915-1916 commemorating the opening of the Panama Canal and the California-Pacific International Exposition of 1935-1936.  We were tired and not feeling the need to get any more cultured than we already were, so we left the museums behind and strolled across the historic Cabrillo Bridge before heading back to Old Town on the last trolley run of the day.

California Tower and the Museum of Man in Balboa Park

 

You gotta love the Mexican cuisine of San Diego – margaritas made to perfection, tacos, burritos, nachos galore.  Café Coyote on San Diego Avenue draws a huge crowd with lines of people waiting patiently for handmade tortillas and famous grande margaritas, while across the street the equally-inviting less-crowded Miguel’s Cocina was advertising Special Taco Tuesday.  We opted for immediate gratification at Miguel’s and were not disappointed with our choice.

No visit to San Diego is complete without a trek through the San Diego Zoo (or so we have heard). When we asked the affable concierge at Best Western Hacienda for directions via public transit to the zoo, he offered to drive us there.  We arrived just as the zoo opened for the day and spent over six hours wandering among the exhibits housing giant pandas, koalas, tigers, rhinos and 4,000 other exotic animals.  Skyfari, the aerial tram, whisks visitors from the east end of the park to Northern Frontier on the west end where brother and sister polar bears Kalluk and Tatqiq were doing back strokes in their pool.  In nearby Panda Canyon giant panda mom BaiYun (White Cloud) snoozed in a tree while her two-year-old Xiao Liwn (Little Gift) practiced his acrobatic moves.  We worked up an appetite watching the gorillas munch on their heads of lettuce so we made our way to Albert’s Restaurant for adult fare and beverages.

BaiYun snoozing, yes, snoozing in the tree



XiaoLiwn

On the recommendation of Jim Rich, we hailed a taxi to take in the ambiance of Kansas City Barbecue, an eatery on Harbor Drive.  Its claim to fame is its role in the 1985 movie Top Gun.  Anthony Edwards sat at the eatery’s piano and sang “Great Balls of Fire.”  In the final scene of the movie, Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis reunited here as “You’ve Got that Lovin’ Feeling” played on the jukebox.  Jim, the place must have had an upgrade since your last visit – it is not as sleazy as you lead Frank to believe!  It does appear to be a popular hangout for Navy pilots whose caps hang from the ceiling and whose autographed pictures adorn every square inch of the walls.  The nearby Green Line Trolley got us back to Old Town in no time.

 

Enjoying the ambiance of Kansas City Barbecue

When we arrived back at the hotel and checked our email, we were greeted with the notice that every credit card carrying individual dreads – “your credit card has been compromised.”  What???  The day before we leave the country for three months??? And now we have to arrange for the credit card company to send us a new card when we have no mailing address in New Zealand???  Luckily we are traveling with several credit cards between us but, as Murphy’s Law would dictate, the compromised card is the one that has been set up for auto payments for key items at home while we are away.  The evening was spent trying to resolve these issues.