Travel: Anaheim to San Diego

Ants and I were up at 6am so we were ready for the Contiki tour. The bus left at 8am. We also made it a little late because we didn’t know that we had to had in some slips of paper out of our Contiki bags. Oh well.

The drive to San Diego itself was uneventful. Our Tour Manager (Ally) introduced our bus driver (Gary) and explained the house rules (sarcastically), “this is not a booze cruise”, and you will be left behind if you are not on the bus on time. She also outlined how we wouldn’t be going to Tijuana for the afternoon because of all the fighting between the drug lords. By the time she’d gone through all of this, we were in San Diego.

The first thing that we could do was go on a boat cruise around San Diego harbour. It was $14 each. It was cold out there. I’m glad I’m not as dumb as Ampony who didn’t take a jersey. It was a little boring because San Diego is mostly a military port based there since WWII, so most things that were being pointed out to us were of a military nature. It was interesting how much extra security they’d put in since 9/11. We saw submarines, and old war ships, and dolphins playing on the waves at the front of the boat.

Frigate that is also a Museum

The Star of India

A Riverboat. Nobody knows what to do with it.

Coronado Bridge

Sea lions hanging out in restricted Naval areas.

Dolphins playing on the waves

Huge helecopter

We also saw the Star of India which is at this port. It goes out in the harbour every day, just so they can keep it’s record of it being the longest running ship.

We went for a drive around San Diego, down the Gas Lamp district, which used to be the seedier side of town but was then beautified in the 1980-90s. This is where we’d be going for dinner and drinks later.

We drove around Balboa park, on our city tour. Balboa park had many attractions, and we all wished we were going there at some stage, but there wasn’t enough time.

We then drove over the Coronado bridge to Coronado Island.

View through the bus window from the Coronado Bridge

We were allowed to get lunch there, and do some shopping – we had a whole half hour (sarcastic ooooohhhh). Ants and tried Taco Bell for lunch, which was totally not worth it. They had huge drinks though, and free fountain (i.e. softdrink) refills. We didn’t stay at Coronado long, and some girls got left behind (because they were a couple of minutes late).

Our next stop was Horton Plaza.

It was a huge mall, with tonnes of clothing shops. Nothing cheaper though. What you would pay US$20-30, you would pay NZ$20-30 for. I didn’t really have an idea of what clothing size I was either, so I didn’t bother trying anything on. Some things were cute, but most singlets we saw were made of that stretch fabric that has vertical line in the fabric. Not so nice, but it seems to be a rage. Ants and I came to the conclusion that had known we were going there, we would have held out for better food and eaten there. We had two hours at the mall, which really was too long. Ants and I ended up sitting around for quite a while. I brought some postcards though for scrapbooking.

Next we went to Old Town, which was basically a substitute for Mexico.

Guy playing the guitar

Woodfire oven

There was something about this archway that caught my eye. I really liked it.

County Jail

School house

Again was a very romanticised view of the immigrants and cowboys of that era. Definitely a place my parents would have enjoyed. I took lots of photographs though. I tried on a €˜One Size’ dress that was quite pretty. It would have been nice to have a sundress of sorts. I couldn’t tie it up tight enough though to make it worth spending money on (even though it was only $10). I tried to convince Ants that we should go to happy hour at the local bar. Tried being the operative word.

They have a thing called “free pour” here. Whenever you buy a drink, you have to tip (of course) so the idea is you tip $1 for the first drink, and 50c after that. The bar tenders don’t measure how much alcohol they’re putting in, it’s just kind of… start pour… say something to someone… oh, that’s about enough… stop pouring. Ants said that from an accountants point of view, he didn’t like the idea lol . From a consumer point of view, I enjoyed it. Hurrah for cheap alchs.

Finally we went back to the hotel. Ants and I got some washing done before we headed back to the coach to go to dinner.

We were taken to a restaurant called Dicks Last Resort, which was (supposed to be) precisely what the name was. All the waiters and waitresses were (supposed to be) rude, obnoxious, and horrible to their customers. You’re allowed to throw napkins at other customers (there was many a napkin war) and later on the wait staff came around with paper hats with rude things written on them. The food was terrible. I tried to be fairly healthy by having a Caesar salad, and it was covered in so much dressing, I couldn’t taste anything else. I wish I’d gotten a bucket of chicken like most other people. As far as the rudeness goes, it wasn’t that much different to home. Both the Kiwi’s and the Aussies agreed that they could have been worse. There was a man there making objects with balloons. He refrained from making rude ones until after the family-time crowed had been through.

Our lovely Dicks napkins

Brit Boys

“I like to Fart in Bed”
It was Nathan’s Birthday, and he was very reluctant to wear his birthday hats.

Nathan’s second birthday hat by the balloon guy

“I make out with my dog” Onya Maia

Typical Rachel
“I fart under the sheets”

“I pee in the shower”

“I bite my toenails”

We were invited out with Ally, who was going to show us the town, but Ants got a migraine, so we went back to the hotel, and I looked after him.

On our way back, Zoe, Anthea and Nicole were going to find some decent food. We’d been told there was a farmers market around, and to find that for decent fruit. We popped over the road to the mall, and went into one shop that looked like a supermarket. We asked “Do you have fruit here?” the teenager behind the counter didn’t understand us “Sorry?”
“Do you have fruit in the store?”
“Sorry?”
The manager walked by as we were asking the second time, and repeated “Fruit!”(in her American accent) and I swear she wanted to add “you dumbass” to the end of her sentence. We were directed towards Henrys’ Farmers Market, which had the bestest fruit ever. It was so so so good to have good fruit, and for quite cheap. Oh my bananas, how I have missed you. I also brought apples, nectarines, plums, and a haauuge container of strawberries (about 500gms). I scoffed down a banana and half the container of strawberries as soon as I got back to the hotel room. I felt a zillion times better. It’s amazing what some fruit will do.

Ants and I watched the final of American idol, which was weird because only last week we were half way though the season.

Apparently the weather is meant to be pretty lousy for the rest of the weekend.

~~*~~
Point of Interest: American history is very romanticised for the tourist. I wish they’d just tell it like it was

Current Fashion: Warm clothes.

Current Mood: flirty & confused

Tags: California, Contiki, Coronado Island, Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego, travel