Welcome to the final installment of The Cruise Diaries - make sure to read previous installments here first! Follow my journey from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to the Caribbean Islands, through the Panama Canal, up through the countries of Central America, and finishing in San Diego, California. New installments coming every few days so make sure to stay tuned on the blog and Twitter @CiarasCountry - on with the trip!
Day 17
No one seemed to care that we had a red-eye flight upcoming in the evening as we were called out of bed at an ungodly hour to clear immigration onboard the ship before they would let us onto US soil. At least this meant a long and leisurely breakfast consisting of pancakes, French toast & fried bread (carbo-loading, baby)
Afterwards it was a case of waiting for our badge colour to be called so that we would be allowed to disembark. Our bags had already been carried onshore as soon as we'd docked, so it was an easy enough case of rushing off the gangway, collecting our luggage (which had grown considerably since the beginning of the holiday - always leave room for souvenirs!), and heading to our tour coach.
Whilst needing to be at the airport early afternoon for our flight, we made the unusual decision to risk arriving at the airport less than our usual four hours earlier and opting for a Holland America organised tour of San Diego Highlights and then an included airport transfer.
The bus was pretty full as we pulled out of the port and made our way into downtown. We drove through the Gaslamp Quarter where every shopfront was a different restaurant - what a hobby it would be to try a different restaurant every time you went out. Nicely, the city was designed with small blocks to take advantage of higher rent you could charge for corner front properties, which meant pleasant views up and down the streets at regular occurrences.
Our first stop was Balboa Park, the largest urban park in the States, and with enough things to see to make us get out and have a bit of a walk around. The architecture here is stunning with huge frescos adorning many of the buildings. You could easily spend a day here with the number of museums to visit in the park, as well as the stunning collections of gardens you can spend hours wandering around. Definitely somewhere to return to.
Back on the bus, we crossed the Coronado Bridge and headed towards La Jolla - 'The Jewel' of San Diego. The beautiful beachfront properties here are marred only slightly by the stench of guano in the air, but with views like that I'm sure you'd be willing to make sacrifices. What is particularly interesting about this area is that if passed down through generations, properties here only have to pay tax for their original price, so if your house is now worth $3 million but was bought for $10,000, you only pay tax on the $10,000. Not a bad deal, eh?
We took a stroll along the seafront, admiring the sea lions and seals who basked in the winter sun, barking when stupid tourists got too close to them. Whilst it was a pretty cold day in California standards, there were still people in swimming and snorkelling in the pretty blue waters which I'm sure only get busier during the summer months.
We drove back into San Diego's Old Town where we had an hour to wander around this lovely old style saloon town. The buildings here are in excellent condition and are now home to eclectic shops and plenty of Mexican restaurants. I got pulled in by the brightly coloured paintings adorning a gallery front and left with yet another painting (I've thus far accumulated quite a few despite not having a house of my own!), special not only for its lovely colours but that it was painted by local art students who received scholarship contributions from the gallery - plus they were doing a half price holiday sale, and I simply can't say no to that.
Old Town was another place I could have spent countless hours but alas we only had one, so we walked through the main plaza and up to the old graveyard which has helped to inspire numerous ghost stories about the area. A ten minute drive later, and we were dropped at the airport at the end of yet another memorable trip - I certainly hope you've enjoyed reading about it!
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