The flight to LA is about 10.5 hrs, and I thought it would
be over the North Pole , but my geography let me down and it was across Norway,
the north of Iceland (the rumbling volcano stayed quiet), then across
Newfoundland, Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes. The flight was pretty crowded,
and we had a couple of very loud women and an extra loud crying baby. So,
despite the lower pressure in the cabin, the big windows and the fantastic
lighting, it wasn’t a great experience. The seats are pretty cramped, but then
Norwegian is a low cost carrier. Fortunately we had selected to prepay for
food; the dinner meal was OK but the breakfast snack was barely edible.
The clearance through LAX, was a pleasant surprise. The new Customs
and Immigration Hall works really well, and we were through in good time. The
Agriculture check point was likewise pretty quick. “You got food?” yes
chocolate, “Where you from?” New Zealand. A shake of the head and a wry “You’re
all done now” had us on our way.
We had a shuttle to the Travelodge LAX, so sat out on the
concourse watching the traffic mayhem, as we waited. Five or six lanes of buses,
shuttles to everywhere and a few intrepid cars. Not quite as entertaining as a
boat launching ramp, but you have to make the best of what you have. Travelodge
LAX has a long history, many Hollywood artists have stayed. Roy Rogers and his
partner were regulars; not sure that Trigger got to stay. It’s a very rambling
'old-style' place but quite OK for an overnight stay as it was for us.
Breakfast was provided,
and I just had to try the waffles and maple syrup. The bank of waffle irons was
hot and ready to go, so pour in the mix, and two and a half minutes later you
are chomping into lots of calories and very likely some undesirable weight
gain. I won’t try it again but as well I won’t die wondering what waffles and
maple syrup are like as a breakfast choice.
San Diego airport is right in the middle of town. Flights come in over Hob Nob Hill, about 800 metres from the airport and about 150 metres above the rooftops. Pretty dramatic and very noisy for the residents. Planes come in or depart every 90 seconds on the single
runway international airport. The military presence in SD is a dominant
feature. There are two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers moored across the
harbour, a big Coastguard presence, a large Navy facility with over 200 ships,
Navy seals train here, marines train here in another facility, Stars and Stripes fly on many buildings, and the sky and the harbour have constant
military activity. Blackhawks patrol the skies on a regular basis, landing
craft type boats escorted by several armed RIBS with blue flashing lights are
often in the harbour. The RIBs chase off any vessel that dares to come to
close to their formation.
We shuttled back to LAX to catch the bus to Union Station
and the train to San Diego. That all worked pretty well and as we drove across town
I was pretty happy we hadn’t decided on the hire car option to get to SD. We
arrived at Union Station just in time to catch the train an hour earlier than
what we’d booked. The attendant advised us to sit on the RHS of the train to
enjoy the ocean view, it wasn’t crowded so Ann got to pick a looking forward
seat, so we were comfortably off on our two and a half hour trip. Not quite
clickety-clack, but not smooth and silent like the Euro trains.
We went through tinder dry countryside, very close to the
ocean surf beaches. Not so many California Girls on the beach Surfin’ USA, it
appeared to be mostly families and grey nomad types. The beaches go on mile
after mile, and look beautiful and white in the sun.
The military have lots of this coastal country, and it is
dotted with old facilities and helicopter landing pads. One had one of the odd
looking vertical take-off aircraft, doing a practice landing not far from the
train line.
Lots of the houses have desert-style cactus and palm
gardens, and a few small towns we stopped at had pretty good marina facilities
and resort-based industry. The AMTRAK train had Wifi, so Google maps added a
bit of a dimension, we could identify exciting things like a nuclear power
plant adjacent to the rail line and right on the beach. The hills to the east
are quite steep and very scrubby with virtually no trees. The land mass looks
like layer upon layer of sedimentary material, mostly fine clays, but with
intermittent layers of round pebbles. Just as well rainfall is so low, it
wouldn’t take much to erode it all away into the sea.
Our Hotel Urban Boutique is in “Little Italy” about a
km walk from the station, on a gentle uphill.
We were a few minutes before the 3 00 pm
designated check in time so could wait in the breakfast room and enjoy a cold drink.
Our room, home for a week, was fine, with good space so we headed down to the waterfront to
the information centre. There is plenty of apartment building activity going on
(one straight outside our window) and plenty of new apartment towers. The
town looks pretty prosperous.
Lots of very butty F150 type utilities, Mustang
convertibles, Camaros and Dodge Challengers. The convertibles look pretty cool,
but their limitations are apparent as we watched fellow guests with two large
suitcases departing later in the week. Who wants to travel with a large
suitcase in the backseat, it rather diminishes the image!!
The harbour is great, surrounding the downtown area.
In fact on our “trolley” tour of the city the next day the driver
asked “Has anyone been in the military” and a few hands went up. “Welcome,” she
says, “and thank you for your service and keeping us safe.” The bus passengers applauded
spontaneously. Quite touching really and indicative of the way the military are
viewed in the USA; they are an important part of the SD economy but as well are
appreciated as the protectors of the land of the free and the brave.
Our visit to the tourist office lined us up for the trolley
bus tour of the city, and a tour of the USS Midway, a 1945 vintage aircraft
carrier moored downtown and functioning as a museum and event venue. Ann was
keen on the SD Zoo, but we kept our powder dry on that, I’m a little sceptical
about whether I need to go to see the koala bears advertised on the zoo’s promo
material.
It was an early dinner at Filippi’s, an iconic Italian Restaurant just
around the corner in the main Little Italy street. A quick pasta was all that we required, got
that, but in spades and it was a mistake to order the salad and the garlic
bread as well. One of the pasta meals would have sufficed for both of us. They
do offer take-home doggy bags but that’s not for us and our itinerant lifestyle,
although the room does have a reasonable size fridge with a freezer too. It's a popular choice for dinner; for the entire weekend the evening queue for a table stretched way down
the street.
Urban’s breakfast is continental and can be taken
on the sidewalk outside the hotel (my father will be turning in his grave,
people eating on the footpath was always an anathema to him). But the
temperature is pleasant out there and the one-way street is fairly quiet apart
from the construction site next door.
Good food: fresh fruit salad,
muesli and heaps of pastries and bread as well as juice and coffee so plenty to
set up the day well.
Our pick up for the hop on hop off trolley tour was just around the corner from the hotel, and we headed first to the Old Town.
Trolley
driver Patrick gave a pretty good commentary on Little Italy as we headed
north, interspersed with a bit of music and a sing-a-long. Frank Sinatra was
here often with others of “the rat pack” so that required a good old rendition of
“That’s Amore”. As we left Little Italy we looked down onto the runway of SD
airport so we swung into “I’m leaving on a jet plane”. Pretty slick tour guiding in my view. Old Town has lots of
museums, some historic, some theme and lots of tourist stores and stalls.
We did the self-guided walk around the Estudillo hacienda which belonged to one of
the original settling families. Interesting stuff and a very tough place to live in the 1830's.
John
Spreckels,a developer from around the late 1800's and early 1900's, who as we saw later, ended up owning the Coronado Hotel, also had some interests in
the Old Town. It was his idea to restore the home of the Estudillos, and have it as a destination for travellers, helped by the
links of the house with a Victorian romance book, Ramona, supposedly set in the
hacienda.
It was tough times here in some of the early days; disease
took its toll. The weather was unhelpful, two droughts in consecutive years
1863 and 64 delivered 125mm of rain and 100mm of rain respectively, well short
of the usual 250mm. Cattle were driven off the cliffs into the sea as there was
nothing for them to eat. Smallpox decimated the area in the 1860s.
There is a river here but it was pretty unreliable. An early visionary, Fredrik Horton arrived and decided that a town a little further
down by the harbour made better sense, so he bought a few hundred acres for the
princely sum of 22 cents/acre and laid out the new town with quite small
blocks, so that he optimised the number of corner sections which had higher
value from a retail perspective. He then set off selling the sizzle of this new healthy town where "the climate is so fantastic you will enjoy a longer life". It worked, the people came.
One of the entrepreneur businessmen here early was Wyatt
Earp of Tombstone city fame. He ran several gambling, drinking and whoring
establishments aimed at the demand from visiting seamen from the nearby port.
His actress wife was a little more refined and built the first theatre for the
new city.
Further on in the trolley tour we stopped at the boat harbour and its village, then the Horton Plaza
build by well-known Aussie Wesfarmers, and then over the bridge to Coronado. Great
views of the city on the bridge, and on a good day you can see all the way down to Mexico, but a little hazy today. Come back in winter for the best view. Coronado has two claims to fame: the
best beach in Southern California, and the Hotel Del Coronado. The beach is
spectacular, huge stretch of fine golden sand and calm sea, protected by nearby
Point Loma. No doubt it is groomed often.
The hotel is amazing. Built in
about 1888, in only eleven months, it is a huge white wooden structure with dark
wooden-panelled interior lobbies and halls and lots of chandeliers. It makes a dramatic statement from the road and the seaside.
Sadly
the 1890 financial crash which coincided with finishing of construction hit Elisha
Babcock and Hampton Story, the men who built it and the financier, John Spreckels took
it over.
It is certainly an iconic structure, and boasts a gallery of
famous guests including Marilyn Monroe. The movie Some Like it Hot was filmed here.
We finished the day up in Balboa Park, a large expanse of
botanical gardens, parks and entertainment facilities.
A 737 going
overhead every 90 seconds would take a little away from the enjoyment of the
outdoor facilities when performances are on. From here it’s a steep downhill ride through Bankers Hill with some lovely houses built by the wealthy early
residents.
Having had a largish lunch we settled for an apple, cheese
and cracker picnic dinner down at the harbour. Unsure about the drinking in
public places rules here, but we didn’t get arrested so assume it’s OK. It was all
go with the incoming jets to our right, Coastguard and military Blackhawk
helicopters overhead, ferries and yachts on the water and the ships of the Maritime
museum to our left, so it was a good spot to enjoy the ambience of San Diego
harbour and the city lighting up.
We started our third day with a stroll down to the
waterfront to look at the giant sculpture Embracing Peace which is an
impressive piece of work.
There is also a tribute to Bob Hope, which includes
continuous broadcasts of his shows playing and a cluster of brass statues of
military personnel around him as an audience listening to the great man giving one
of his concerts. It was fun to stop and listen to him and his classic
one-liners for a while.
We lined up at opening time for our tour of the USS Midway.
It was commissioned in 1945 and named to commemorate the great sea
battle of 1942 where the outgunned American fleet harried and defeated the
superior Japanese forces. Lots of battles are critical, but this one took out
four Japanese carriers and many support ships and weakened the Japanese fleet
significantly.
We started with the guided tour of the tower of this immense
ship, 70 000 tonnes all up, 305 m long, 4 acres of flight deck and with a crew
of 4500. She served for 47 years and was decommissioned in 1992. Her length of
service is exceeded now only by USS Enterprise.
It was set up as a museum in 2004, and has a team of
volunteers doing tours and looking after visitors. The guides do a great job, I
think they are mostly ex-military, and they take you through all the aspects of
the ship. Another good example of what well-informed, enthusiastic tour guides with lots of stories can achieve. We had an informative and entertaining control tower tour.
We then were fascinated
by another presentation around the technology for launching planes. This happens via a steam catapult and
gets a 40 tonne jet airborne in about 240 feet of runway. We didn’t have
time to check out the landing technology. You could easily have spent a day
looking at all the displays, aircraft and interpretive signage. So many stories
were told.
We had booked a guided tour in the Gaslamp district, the oldest part of the new town, now distinguished with gas
lamps for no particular reason.
On the walk to the start of the tour, we passed the saloon where Tom Cruise serenaded his girl
in the movie Top Gun.
This town has heaps of such memories. The guided tour was
most informative. Because of its proximity to the port, the Gaslamp Quarter was popular with the sailors and renowned for its gambling dens, saloons and red light district. There are some lovely old buildings restored to their
original Victorian painted glory with plenty of ornate trimming.
Wyatt Earp featured again in this tour as he came here when he left Tombstone
City with a view that there was money to be made in this new port town. He set
up several gambling houses and brothels, and did very well until the crash, at
which stage he departed for Alaska. We visited old bars, boarding houses and
the very ornate old Hard Rock Café. The glass dome in the ceiling was
originally destined for San Francisco, but the intended building was destroyed
in a citywide fire so it sat in a warehouse for years until the owners of this
building acquired it.
The old boarding house we went into has quite small rooms, and one of
the party asked the receptionist the room rate; it’s a surprising $170 per
week. But I’m pretty confident we wouldn’t be game to stay there. It did have
some great historical features, like the old wooden phone booths.
It was Anthony’s, a seafood restaurant on the waterfront
for dinner. This is an establishment of more than 75 years standing, and the food was good.
Great views out over the harbour.
Friday was what you might call a lay day, but you’ve got to
do the washing sometime! The laundromat produced another crazy man and Ann was
pretty happy I was there. This one was drunk and very talkative and intrusive,
but no harm done. He even gave us helpful advice, like ‘Use dryer 6. It’s the
Devil’s number and it’s hotter.” The laundromat is right under the main
approach to the airport so we got a pretty good look at the undersides of the
aircraft as they do their rapid descent to the runway at the bottom of the
hill.
The day rounded out with a casual picnic on the foreshore and a coffee
and some book reading in the Seaport Village.
The harbourside was getting busier with an international sandcastle competition being advertised, and more people and entertainers around.
Mari and Joe, our Colorado friends we met in Australia, arrived about 5 30 pm and we had pre-dinner
drinks and debrief at the hotel. They are craft beer aficionados, and this was intended as a central focus of the weekend. So we headed to Ballast Point Brewery for sampling
and a light meal. It’s just a couple of blocks walk and the venue was very full
and very noisy with a mostly youngish crowd. We decided to try their flights of
six beers so we could all sample.
They have a staggering line-up of 55
taps, all their own beers and you can select whatever style and flavour you
like. It’s not just the traditional hoppy, malty type of choices, but honey,
apricot, coffee, strawberry, raspberry, chilli to name but a few. They serve food
as well, so we sampled two flights of 6 beers, had some snacks and called it a
day. It was a very good introduction to craft beers, and interesting to see the
sort of support given the concept by the locals. The brewery is also right
under the flightpath so we had regular overflights contributing to the ambience.
The weekly farmers’ market was happening in the adjacent
street on Saturday so we visited on our way down to catch the ferry to Coronado.
The market had some great-looking veggies and all of the other stuff that
farmers markets do, eggs, bread, wraps, fruit sweets and confectionary. Scale
was probably the only thing differentiating it from what we’d see at home.
Getting out on the ferry was good, a different perspective on the city, and we had another chance to spend some time across on Coronado. We
lunched at the Coronado Brewing company and sampled another 5 beers there before heading back to the city for more brewery visits and more sampling on our walking tour.
First call was at Half Door Brewery, then Stone
Brewery and we surrendered after that. There were some very nice beers, but it
all promotes a bit of a change in behaviour. You could never be a Speights man
or a Lion Red man again, there is just too much choice in this world of craft
beers. We’ve learned about nitro beers (heavier foam and softer, a more mellow
taste) and bitterness and alcohol ranges. One we tasted today was 12%, not a beer
you could drink for an evening! High alcohol beers are served only in 10oz
glasses, lower alcohol beers in 16 oz glasses.
Sunday over breakfast we were entertained by the players
warming up for the world stickball competition being played out in our street
for the day. The ball is a small soft rubber version, the stick is a 2m length
of maybe 50mm dowel and it is played like baseball, but without the benefit of
a stadium or much infrastructure at all in fact.
We hired a rental car and headed north to La
Jolla (or La Hoya) as you would speak in the language. La Jolla is seaside and
sea life. First stop was Sunny Jim’s cave with a 146 step walk down to the sea,
to look out at the SUP paddlers outside and a sea lion on a rock in the cave.
When the sea lion is asleep the profile of a face is quite apparent. People thought it looked like a character on a cereal package called Sunny Jim, hence the cave's name.
We then walked along a shore filled with sea lions basking and fighting, pelicans and other sea birds, and on the small sandy beaches, hordes of
people snorkelling, scuba diving, swimming and frolicking. 
Interestingly
the beaches also had sea lions frolicking in the water and on the sand, in very
close proximity to the people. The sea lion population is increasing, bringing
the aromatic problems associated with that, water pollution, and a real issue
with them coming ashore and up onto the roads. They plan to discourage them,
and the technology proven best for that is to get them wet by squirting them!!!!!!
There was lots of organised kayaking groups, lots of ocean
swimmers, plenty of yachts on the horizon, most of the locals out enjoying a
holiday long weekend.
Lunch at the iconic Georges (a recommendation from Joe’s
boss) was lovely; out on the top deck, sea view, clear blue skies and great food.
(It makes the top Californian restaurants list on a regular basis.)
We
drove further north, and up into the Torrey Pines National Park, where we
walked down to enjoy the spectacular coastal views. The forest park was a bit
underdone in terms of the trees, but this is tough country, probably only 250mm
rainfall pa, and even the cactus was struggling. It is rattlesnake country but
unfortunately we missed that treat, just saw a lovely blue tailed fence lizard.
The erosion into vertical wind sculpted gullies is quite striking and
indicative of the problems in preserving the environment.
Beer has to come into this somewhere and we headed further
north to Cardiff by the Sea, and visited THE LOST ABBEY Brewery. The bar is
called 'The Confessional', and we did a sampling of a flight of four beers each
couple.
There were some real nice beers, The Board Meeting was
the favourite, a lovely brown ale with coffee and cocoa nibs. This topped the
poll for all of us. The beers have great names, especially here: Road to
Helles, Temptation, Last Judgement, Ten Commandments were our choices.
The trip home took us along the coast road, and by the time
we dropped the car back at the airport and walked back to Little Italy it was
dinner time at Barbuso. This was a recommendation from Yelp.
Food was good, Ann and I abandoned the beers and sought refuge in a glass of Marlborough
Sauvignon Blanc with dinner.
Monday was Mari and Joe’s last day, so we trained back to
Old Town to look in more detail at the museums and displays after our hour
there on a trolley tour on Wednesday.
The displays by Wells Fargo on
their history and also the stagecoach museum covering all aspects of moving
goods by coach and cart in the development of San Diego were both very good.
Enjoyed a fresh flour tortilla too.
The early graveyard had some still-marked graves. Details of
many have been lost, but where details are known, the grave has a little sign
adjacent telling a bit about the fortunes or misfortunes of the internee.
One guy stole the only rowboat owned in the town, and for that offence
he was hanged. They convicted him of stealing a horse so that they could hang
him as stealing a rowboat wasn’t a hanging offence! A road was later built over
a section of the graveyard, so now there are markers in the footpath and road
indicating the presence of a grave below.
We had our last supper at lunch this time with Mari and Joe
who head back to Denver this afternoon, ready for work tomorrow. One last brewery visit for us, but if you wanted to more there are 178 in Southern California. Our last stop, Karl
Strauss, was actually the first of the craft breweries, established by two young men after their visit to
Australia and its brew bars!
Labour Day holiday today, big baseball game in town so busy streets full of Boston Red Socks supporters and the local team supporters, the Padres. Gunfire salutes from the harbour, and a most patriotic lighting of the County building to commemorate the day.
For us it’s a quiet end to the day, and getting ready to get back on the highway tomorrow heading for San Francisco via the scenic (mainly) coastal route.
No comments:
Post a Comment