Dollar_Bill and Jools Go West, Day 15 San Diego

[Jools]

Day 15 San Diego

We were up and out by 9 this morning on our way to San Diego. We were very excited at the prospect of this little excursion as we only booked it the day before – we are not big players in the planning stakes. Mrs Tom Tom said the journey would take 3 hours and covered a distance of 154 miles.

We were once again bowled over by the scenery as we drove through the desert. The mountains really are spectacular.


We thought Sunday would be a good to travel as we hoped the roads would be quiet. We were proved correct on that one. The drive was easy although at one point the road Mrs T was trying to get us to take was closed for repair. We had to try to figure out an alternative whilst all the time Mrs Tom Tom was telling us to ‘turn around when possible’. It didn’t cause us any problems though, and we still arrived in San Diego 3 hours later.


As we were nearing our hotel we were stopped at traffic lights and I took a snap of this car. Now that’s what I call low. Bill went through a spell in his youth (think dark ages) when he used to lower the suspension on his cars, but never as low as this.

We were soon at the Hilton, where check in was very swift. We were checking in for our ‘romance’ package, which meant breakfast. We both thought this was an odd romantic gesture, until reading GeorgeMac and Judy Cs thoughts on it. Bill was looking decidedly nervous

Our room was lovely and had a great view over the marina, we were more than happy with it.


We didn’t realise the ‘romance package’ also came with a bottle of “champagne” (sparkling Wine). This was waiting in the room for us when we returned later.



We went out more or less straight away I wanted to see the Gas Lamp district and the hotel concierge gave us directions of how to get there. She also said we’d get three hours free parking as long as we got our ticket validated at the Horton Plaza - the big shopping mall there. We were grateful for that top tip. We were soon at the Horton Plaza.


It took us a little while to find the ticket validating machines bit found one outside Macey’s. Neither of us wanted to spend any time in the shops so decided to exit the mall through Macey’s and go have a walk around. Well it took us ages to find our way out of Macey’s – we could have done with Mrs Tomm Tom to guide us. Eventually we found our way out to the street. We exited right beside a ‘trolley tours’ place. We are getting to really like these tours (I sound like my mother who adores coach trips – she even enjoys the journey to Spain by coach) so we signed up for the tour and handed over $32 for the two of us. As luck would have it the trolley was just approaching the stop. The tour would take 2 hours so enough time for us to get around and back to the car before our 3 hours parking was up.


We really enjoyed our tour. The tor guide was very entertaining and we saw parts of San Diego that we wouldn’t have done if we’d been left to our own devices.

The tour took us across the bridge to Coronado Island. Now this looked like a great place to stay, it had a lovely beach and felt good. The tour was a hop on hop off one but we didn’t have time to do that. I’d have certainly got off at Coronado had we had the time to do so.

[Jools]

The trolley also stopped at the zoo. The driver made us laugh by telling us how he picked up people there who were waiting for the park tram to take them back to their cars. These unsuspecting people got on the trolley instead and ended up in San Diego’s Old Town – oops


When the tour was over and we were back in the car we decided we’d like to see more of the ‘Old Town’, hmm how to get though? Bill looked in the Tom Tom and found Old Town Trolley Tours, so set the Tom Tom to find it. Off we went and as we approached where the Tom Tom was taking us I thought it didn’t seem right at all. It was a very run down area and there were ‘nude girls’ clubs on every corner it seemed. When Mrs Tom Tom advised ‘you have reached your destination’ we were at the Old Town Trolley, but it was the Trolley Depot and not in a great part of town. Luckily I had some tourist guide maps and one of the places listed was a Mexican restaurant in Old Town, which also had the name and Zip code, so the Sat Nav was re programmed and we were off once again. This time we arrived at the right place, and luckily found a parking space and went for a walk around. We really liked it here, it looks like a lot of restoration work has been done to the ‘Old Town’ and it had a good feel about it. We had a lovely ice cream at the Stone Cold Creamery, which we ate sitting outside. The temperature was just nice after being in the heat of the desert, and we really liked it.

We than walked around for a while looking at the various shops, and exhibits before deciding on somewhere to eat. We were getting hungry as we’d had nothing since breakfast (well apart from the ice cream) and it was now after 5pm.

We decided upon this restaurant as it just looked so nice. We opted to eat outside on the patio as there was a noisy American Football game on TV inside, and we were on our ‘romantic weekend’.

We shared a plate of nachos to start with and I opted for a New York strip with plantain potato. Bill wasn’t sure what he wanted really as there was nothing on the menu that he really fancied. He asked the server to recommend something and she said they could do him tacos with beef, rice and beans. Well when the meals arrived they were absolutely delicious. The plantain potato was especially good and had a nutty flavour to it. I’d never had one of these before but mmm it was so good.

We were not going to have any food photos in these reports but have made an exception in this one as the food really was so good.

[Jools]

After dinner we continued our walk around the town, they do have some huge cacti here.


From Old Town we went to the Harbour in San Diego, it was getting dark and looked lovely all lit up. We had a look around Seaport village and just sat for while watching the sunset. Bill didn’t take 194 photos of the sunset this time (he did at Key West last year), he just took this one.


We then had a walk along the front of the harbour, which is also where the cruise ships are berthed, before returning to the Hilton and having a walk around the marina there. Then it was back to the room where we got tiddly on the champagne, before lights out. We’d had a lovely day and would certainly return to San Diego again, maybe for 3 or 4 nights next time.

One final photo and this one is for Ali S. We couldn’t possibly do a report on San Diego without including a picture of the Pipe Organ for you Ali . I hope this brings back some good memories for you

[travelmam]

I really like San Deigo, we will be going there next year on out trip.

[Strommie]

Lovely day. San Diego sounds like a great place to visit. We like little bus tours too while we're away

[donnakirby]

what a great day.

it looks really lovely.

[Guest]

I am glad you liked San diego,we love it to bits, it is a fantastic place to stay

[kevbrydon]

Great report! San Diego looks fine! ... were was that district with them girls of the nite! only joking..

[truesdpr]

Oh it looks beautiful Jools - room looks great. Did Bill enjoy his bit of romance then?

Pam.

[Jools]

Well he enjoyed the champagne and the breakfast Pam