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Friday, June 29, 2012

San Diego - Day 6

It was a bit of a shock to go from being totally immersed in technology to having pretty much no technology all day, but it was another very busy day. Today, we left the hotel early in the morning and didn't return until early evening. We took a trolley tour through San Diego. As we toured through San Diego, the trolley stopped at 11 different spots where you could get off and spend some time there if you wanted. We did not get off at all the spots, as there would not have been enough time and because we had already been to some of them, but the ones we did get off at were very interesting.

Our first stop, and one where we did get off, was Old Town. Old Town is one of the oldest parts of San Diego, and at one time, it was even a ghost town. Over the years it was 'revived' and now it is a tourist attraction. The buildings have been restored or 'rebuilt' to look the way they originally did, and the people who work there dressed in the original dress. It was pretty neat!
After Old Town, we went back down to the harbor area. We didn't get off at any of the first harbor stops as we had already been there, but we did get off and spend some time in Seaport Village. I specifically wanted to spend some time here, as I remembered the t-shirt Sian showed me that changed color in sunlight. I knew they had a store in Seaport Village that sold these t-shirts, and I wanted to get some for my grandchildren. Thanks for the idea, Sian! :-)


The next time we got off was in the Gaslamp Quarter. We didn't stay long here, as this is an area we had already passed through several times, as it was near our first hotel. We did stop long enough to have lunch, as it is known for all of its authentic and different ethnic restaurants. As we ate, we watched as the area was being set up for some company's block party later that day. They had closed off two or three blocks on the major street in the Gaslamp area, and were bringing in furniture, a sound system, stages, and even trees and shrubs. It was going to be one very impressive block party! Qualcomm was the company that was having the block party. I had never heard of it, so I googled it and found out that it is a world leader in 3G and next-generation mobile technologies.

From the Gaslamp area, we continued to travel around San Diego to several more stops. We traveled across to the beautiful Coronado island. The only 'bad part' was the bridge we had to cross over to get to the island. With my 'problems' with height and fast movement, it was almost more than I could handle. The bridge was super long, and it felt like we would never get across. I just put my head down, hung on tight and never looked up or let go of the handrail until we were safe on the other side. The whole time I was 'fretting' about having to do it one more time to get back to the mainland. It was worth it though as Coronado Island is truly beautiful.

The next time we got off at a stop was my favorite of the tour - the San Diego Zoo. We spent a fair bit of time there looking at all the different animals and doing lots of up and down walking. My favorite was the polar bear swim! I must have taken a 100 pictures of the polar bear as he swam around playing with his favorite toy - a ball!

The zoo was our last stop, but we had to stay on the trolley and go through a couple of 'stops' again to get back to the place where we could catch the trolley that would shuttle us to the hotel. We had just changed hotels that morning, and as Mrs. Maley and her husband took our luggage for us so we could go on the trolley tour, we hadn't even been to the hotel yet. It worked out great for us though, as the man who drove the trolley showed us stuff and continued to talk about the area the whole time. It was like another mini tour!

It is hard to believe, but only one more full day before we fly home!