We stayed near the Gaslamp District which enabled us to walk to Seaside Village (shops) or to the Embarcadero (restaurants & docks) or downtown (restaurants, bars, nightlife). For the first day, we walked everywhere we went. After that, we rented a car.
Whale watching was great fun, but I was disappointed that the whales weren't closer to the boat. I got some photos of spouts and flukes, but I fear they won't amount to much. Even with the zoom lens, there isn't much to see. We enjoyed the boat ride, however, and the Common Dolphins that rode the wake alongside us.
The San Diego Zoo is the best I've seen anywhere. If you're an animal lover, it's a must-see at least once in your lifetime. I got some great photos. Even though we spent most of the day there, we still didn't see everything.
Before returning to the hotel after the zoo, we drove over the Coronado Bridge to the Hotel del Coronado, and when we win the lottery we'll stay there next visit. I could get used to that sort of pampering and atmosphere!
The Wild Animal Reserve is also a must-see. It's worth the extra money to board the trucks for an adventure right out among the animals. We hand-fed giraffes and rhinos! Talk about photo ops! The drive to Escondido is scenic in itself. We passed a huge ostrich farm as well as a vineyard. For a native of the east coast, seeing the different flora and fauna found on the west coast was intriguing.
By the third day of seeing animals, my better half was ready to see something else. Like Torrey Pines' golf course. We headed west from Escondido and caught Hwy. 101 back down the coastline. La Jolla was just as Frommer's described: very high rent and upscale shopping and dining, but very scenic. Beach towns south of there are similar to beach towns everywhere in my opinion - commercialized with great vistas.
I'll doctor up my photos and post some of the more interesting ones next week. I have a good one of a lorakeet sitting on the top of my head. I loved it.
We were fortunate on this trip to skirt the torrential rains that pelted Southern California. The only real inconvenience from the weather was in our departing flight being an hour behind schedule which caused us to miss our connection in Cincinnati and thus get home past midnight. I noticed a photo on the web this afternoon of someone paddling a kayak through the streets of one of the very beaches we drove through! We must've been very lucky indeed!
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I'm still working on learning HTML, and I'm slowly getting there. The new template you see isn't my design; I imported it from a site called Blogger Templates. I used a graphic I found from Pat's Graphics. There are a few more tweaks I want to make to the page once I figure out how to do them. It continues to be a work in progress, but it's better, don't you think?
Till next time . . .
Till next time . . .
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