Woke up to more blue skies - San Diego has an average annual temperature of 71F and the coldest month is January. It also has an annual rainfall of just 10 inches - this contrasts with Milford Sound in NZ where we were earlier in the month - this has annual rainfall of 9 metres !
Anyway, as the others were not looking like getting up anytime soon, I took the car to the local garage to fill up (just $40 for a tank full of unleaded !), and then headed south along the Silver Strand Boulevard - a man made spit of land about 5 miles long that was built during the second world war to link what was north and south Coronado Island. There are some good views of the city across the bay, and the Coronado Bay Bridge.
At the end of this drive is Imperial Beach - the last town before the Mexican border at this point (although there is no border crossing here). There is though a traditional wooden pier, which again gives good views back to the city.
After this, I drove back to the hotel to meet with the others to go and pick up the San Diego Trolley Bus, which we had pre booked. This takes you on a 2 hour narrated drive around the cities sights, allowing you to alight and return to the bus at specified points on the route.
The journey started omniously when a woman shut one of the windows on her fingers before we had even turned a wheel, meaning that a paramedic that happened to be on baord did some emergency running repairs (a plaster and an ice pack from a nearby pizza parlour), and Bill the driver had to fill in lots of paperwork. About 25 minutes later another trolley bus came along and we jumped on that.
The tour took us from Coronado Island back over the bridge and up freeway 5 to the San Diego zoo. This is one of the biggest zoos in the world, and the car park alone seemd to be the size of a small town. Next it was on to Balboa Park where there are loads of free sporting facilities and museums as well as many buildings built in various architectural styles.
Next it was on to Old Town where we got off the bus to find something to eat. The Old Town is now a recognised California Park - it is where the original spanish explorers first settled. Unfortunately nowadays it has the feel of a film set, The architectural and culteral influences include, spanish, red indian, and American old West. It is certainly the place to buy your souveneirs.
We had some nice mexican food at a small cafe, and then headed back to the bus, which headed down the harbour front. This is a huge long strip and includes a Cruise Ship Terminal, the Star Of India which is the oldest original sea going tall Ship, the vessel that was used in the Russell Crowe film Master and Commander, the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum, the Coronado Ferry, and Seaport Village, which was our next stop. Here there were several street vendors selling all sorts of goods, but we limited ourselves to a stroll along the sea front with views over the bay to Coronado, and the Coronado Bay Bridge. Ali and Naomi found a man with lots of parrots, one of which was placed on their shoulders for a photo opportunity - unfortunately I was not ready with the camera, although Ali confirms that it was yellow parrott and contrasted nicely with her purple top.
Up to this point the weather had been warm and sunny, with totally blue skies, but then at 3.30pm completely out of nowhere a fog fell over San Diego and the tops of the buildings completely disappeaerd, with the temperature dropping several degrees, and leaving me feeling rather foolish in my sunglasses and shorts ! At this point we decided to catch the next trolley bus back to our hotel.
Later in the evening we went to the local Deli/Liquor store to get provisions for the evening and tomorrow - we a=will be travelling north back to LA and our flight back to London.