Up early again and witnessed a spectacular sunrise.
I had another nice breakfast up in the Windows Café while watching the sail in to San Diego.
I only got cottage
cheese today and it looked like they might be getting to the bottom of the tub
(literally). I was probably the biggest consumer of the curds and whey. I also haven’t figured out
if the jam is really strawberry or some other red hued fruit - it comes out of a squeeze bottle like syrup. It’s good though. I had a small bowl of frosted flakes and bran
flakes to beef up my fiber intake.
Our first order of business today was a face-to-face
meeting with Immigration in the Cabaret Lounge.
We got there at the early time and there was really no one in line. The
agent took my picture and must have used facial recognition to identify
me. No passport scan and I was
finished. Very quick and clean.
We went to the Shorex Office (the Cabaret Lounge was busy)
to meet for our first tour – we are in Group 3 for “San Diego and La Jolla Highlights”. The wait was short and 35 of us scanned out
and met our bus just a short distance down the pier. From the pier, before boarding the bus, I got
a nice picture of the USS Midway across the way.
as well as other carriers in the distance,
and, of course, the fantastic San Diego Skyline.
Our guide, Jennifer Hudson (but not THE Jennifer Hudson), explained what we would be
seeing today and we were off. We drove
through “New Town” San Diego and into the Gas
Lamp District. The area used to be a
dangerous place to hang out but now it has been gentrified with nice
restaurants and bars and the familiar five-globe gas lamps. We were told that the blocks are very short
in downtown San Diego because that yields more corner lots, which are the most expensive and desirable.
Jennifer told us that in the late 19th century
San Diego was all brothels and bars but developer Alonzo Horton came in,
cleaned up the city, and developed “New Town”.
He also wanted to create a city park that rivaled New York’s Central
Park. He bought 1200 acres to become
“City Park” – it later became “Balboa
Park” after the Spanish Explorer who crossed the Isthmus of Panama to
encounter the Pacific Ocean.
Balboa Park was the site of the 1915-1916 Panama
California Exposition (honoring the completion of the Panama Canal in
1914. It also hosted the 1935-1936
California Pacific International Exposition.
Some of the buildings from these expositions are still standing today
(with some restorations). The Park was
declared a National Historic Landmark and National Historic Landmark District
in 1977. We visited the park when we
lived in LA and we were at the San Diego Zoo (a part of the park) when Apollo
11 landed on the moon (the zoo had installed small TVs around the park so that everyone could see Neil Armstrong take that first step on the Moon).
At the Park, we got off the bus for a short guided walking
tour of the area around El Prado, a
pedestrian walkway and
the Plaza de Panama.
We saw the
San Diego Museum of Art building
and
the Botanical Building (which was
recently renovated) with the adjacent pool .
All of the
architecture is Spanish Revival except for the Timken Museum of Art located in El Prado (no pix - we were in the bus).
The Putnam family donated the money for the
museum and insisted that it be designed in Mid Century Modern Style. The design is not appreciated by everyone but
it certainly stands out.
We continued down El Prado, passing the Casa de Balboa, which currently hold the Museum of Photographic Arts and The San Diego Model Railroad Museum.
The next stop was the Zoro Garden.
The Garden is located in a grotto filled with all sorts of exotic plants including milkweed, which helps to attract butterflies (I did see a Monarch); In 1935, the Garden was a nudist colony (shorts required).
We had some free time so I took pictures of the pool in
front of the Botanical Building. There
was a busker playing and singing in front of the building
and lots of Instagram
content creators (?) snapping pictures in front of the pool – apparently a
popular place for Insta folks. I did get a great shot of the pool in front of the building - during the time, Balboa Park was occupied by the Navy, the pool was used for swimming.
We walked a short way to our bus (look who got into the picture)
and headed off to our
next stop, La Jolla.
According to
the guide, La Jolla means “the Jewel”.
Even when we were coming here, the area was pricey but now homes run in
the $10 million range. After driving
through the neighborhood we turned toward the ocean and stopped at a view point
at La Jolla Cove.
La Jolla Cove is a massive cove containing sea lions,
various sea birds, and a horrific fish smell (it hasn’t rained much so the
water is stagnant and smelly). We had a
choice of walking down the hill to meet the bus or taking the bus down the
hill. We opted to walk because that gave
us more opportunity to take pictures of the rocks and animals.
The sea lions were in the water and hard to shoot but there were pelicans and dark green-blue birds along the sides of the inlets. Google images could not identify the birds.
We made it to the bottom of the hill and grabbed a seat
and ate some lunch (from the ship) (we forgot to take along some water) and
then spent some time talking to another passenger. The shots of the cove were just postcard
perfect.
We drove through La Jolla Village, which is a high density
area full of shops and restaurants.
Our next stop was Old
Town San Diego, the birthplace, as they say, of California. The bus dropped
us off in the center of town. Honestly,
it felt like we were in Mexico. We had
been here several times in the late 60s but things have changed so much that nothing looked familiar,
We were looking for something to drink or eat along the
main streets. We wound of stopping at Café Coyote, an enormous and packed
restaurant. There was a woman making tortillas in the window using the traditional method.
We found a couple of open
seats and ordered two diet cokes (back in the states now). The waitress dropped off an enormous bowl of
tortilla chips and salsa and I had a field day with that.
Just what I wanted at
the moment. The salsa tasted fresh (and
spicy) and the chips were fresh as well.
Our cokes came and they were the biggest cokes since I had the huge coke
at the AMC theater. I finished both
salsas and a ton of chips and almost my entire coke (we still had a bus ride
back). It was just what I wanted to do
in Old Town – we both had a chance to people watch as we snacked down.
From Old Town, our bus took the I5 back to the San Diego
pier area. The tour lasted four hours
but it was full of very interesting things and our guide was terrific – one of
the best tours we had taken.
When we got back to the cabin, our objective was to pack
and no one packs better than Ellen. Most
of our clothes were clean (just back from the laundry). Ellen got everything into our two carry-on
bags.
Neither of us had any desire to go dinner at either the
Dining Room or the buffet so we ordered from Room Service. We ordered a) Pizza (came with tomatoes on
top); b) Tuna Melt (the cheese was melted and the tuna was OK; c) a Greek Salad
(lots of feta and veggies (OK) and two Coke Zeros. It took 40 minutes to arrive and was OK for a
room service dinner. I ate half the
pizza and the whole salad and Ellen had half the tuna sandwich. It is a good option for nights you don’t want
to spent a lot of time eating. Next
time, we might try other options.
We put the bags out early and went up to the Shorex area
to meet for our second excursion –
“Night Lights of San Diego”. This
time, we were on a Green Trolley, which was more comfortable than I thought it
would be. The Rabbis Gans’ were
escorting this excursion. I didn’t get
the trolley driver/guide’s name but she was very good. It was difficult to take pictures from the
trolley at night but we did get out a few time for photo ops. Took a picture of Onward as we departed.
We went over many of the same venues that we did in the
daytime tour – we saw the Gaslamp District and New Town. There weren’t too many people on the streets
tonight. For Southern California it was a little chilly and maybe that cut down
on people going out. Near the pier, I was able to get a nice shot (despite a
passenger photobomb) of “Unconditional
Surrender” (the WWII kiss statue).
We then traveled to Balboa
Park and saw many of the same things we saw earlier. I tried to get a
picture of the San Diego Zoo lit up
with Christmas Lights but couldn’t (tough in the trolley). We did see nighttime versions of the Plaza De Panama,
the Museum of Art,
the Statue of El Cid,
and one of the International Residence units (set up for the 1935 Exposition).
The trolley then hit the highway and then the Coronado Bridge ("String of Pearls")
to our final
destination – Coronado Island. We drove
through Coronado to the Park on the water, where we got spectacular shots of
the San Diego Skyline (“The Most Beautiful Skyline in the Country”). I took
several shots to make sure I had at least one good one. As we walked to the park, we could see the
condos on the bay – clearly beautiful and pricey.
Back on the trolley, we drove to the Del Coronado Hotel (we visited here a long time ago), which was all
done up in lights – much of this hotel was funded and supported by sugar
magnate, John Spreckels. The hotel was
difficult to see but I did get some pictures of the huge building.
One of the more interesting facts about Coronado Island was that there was no
fresh water on the island until a water pipe was installed under the bay. Coronado was also the second city (after DC)
to have electricity. Those two things
put Coronado on the map.
The tour lasted about two hours and we spent the rest of
the evening winding down from a long day.
For tomorrow, we are Group Green 4, which includes passengers with Azamara
transportation to SAN with midafternoon flights.
