San Diego, Part 1

“Hey Dad, it’s me. I just wanted to let you know that we’re at the airport and we’re heading out to San Diego for a week.”

“Really?” he asked. “You have to go to Point Loma,” he said. “Just drive until you run out of road then look at the view. If you look to the south or the west, all you can see is ocean. Then you look to the east and you can see all of San Diego and Coronado Island. Please go there, it’s great.”

He was right. We went to Point Loma first thing on Saturday morning. It was a bit hazy, but we could see all of San Diego. After that, we asked ourselves the question we always ask each other when we are traveling “Which of the 5,000 fun things are we going to do today?”

Here's a ship coming in through the haze, taken from Point Loma:

After Point Loma we hopped in the convertible and drove up the Pacific Highway for a few hours. In the excitement of being in a new town, neither of us thought to bring either of the two bottles of sunscreen I bought prior to leaving Rhode Island. We both ended up burned after the day was up.

Here's Todd in our hot ride, pre-sunburn:


We drove to a beach near Carlsbad, and waded into the ocean, we stopped in Encinitas to poke around in the shops and to get an ice cream.

These are rocks on North Ponto Beach:

Here's the view of the beaches near Carlsbad, and an inadvertent self portrait:

When we returned to San Diego we decided to check out the Cinco de Mayo celebration in Old Town. We took a taxi there, planning on taking advantage of the many margaritas being served, but I have a chip and salsa problem. Really it’s an addiction. If you put a plate in front of me I will eat and eat and eat and eat them until I make myself sick. I filled up on chips and salsa, and was too full to drink anymore. I have issued a chip and salsa moratorium in our house until I can attend a few meetings and get this addiction under control.

I don't know what this guy was doing, but it looks like he just peed in the server's station at the restaurant where we had dinner:

The Mexican food in San Diego, as you can imagine as the city borders Mexico, is spectacular. Even the crappy little roadside taco stands are gourmet compared to what you'd get here in Rhode Island. We went on a week long taco bender, and I am still recovering.

Sunday morning we woke up and asked the “Which of the 5,000 things are we going to do today?” question. We decided to rent jet skis at Mission Bay for an hour. We got on the bikes and rode through the no wake zone until we arrived at the speed zone. I gradually acclimated myself to going faster and faster until eventually I managed to ride it full throttle. I watched the speedometer climb though the 30s, then the 40s. It hovered at the high 40s, and then ticked over to 50, then 51 and finally 52 miles per hour. I strained to hold onto the bike, and felt my cheeks flap in the breeze until I released the throttle and felt the wake catch up to me as I slowed down.

We ditched our wet bathing suits in the trunk of the car and headed for Sea World. The weather began to drastically cool down, and we bought some fleece sweaters from the gift shop. We took in the Sea World attractions, but the one that amazed me the most (not that dolphins jumping into the air isn’t amazing, because really it is incredible) but the Pets Rule show was spectacular. Sea World had rescued 50 some odd dogs, cats, birds and even a pig from local shelters and trained them to do this incredible show. They had cats scaling the underside of the high wire, dogs playing jump rope, birds flying here and there—all on command. I have never seen anything like it. And I would love to say that my dog is trained to open the fridge and help himself, but sadly he came up with that one all on his own.

Here's a cat that is scaling the underside of a highwire. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen a cat do and I wonder how on earth this cat was trained to do this. It's not like you can say to a cat, "Seriously pal, trust us. You won't fall. Just hold on with your paws like this..."

If you've never seen dogs jump rope, now's your chance:

We took in a few more of the exhibits and then headed for the Shamu Rocks show after dark. It’s the usual enormous whale hijinks but it is set to music and a light show. We ended the day watching the fireworks over Sea World, contemplating the 5,000 activities we will have to choose from on the next day, and the remainder of the week.