With four ports in four days there is not much time to recover.  Up early and out on a new adventure every day.

Second port, San Diego.  The cruise ships dock right in downtown, bows facing the city skyline, hotels, condos, and business buildings right in front of you, frontage road only a hundred feet or so away.  Again, clear blue skies, temperature in the high 70’s.

Our choice of excursions was once again an open air trolley tour of the highlights of San Diego.  The driver/tour director was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the area and the various sights that we drove by.  As beautiful as it is with palm trees and lush tropical vegetation, it is hard to believe that San Diego was a flat dessert with nothing but sage brush and cacti in its early years.

The tour took us through downtown, the Gaslight District, the buildings preserved as they were a century or so ago but now with restaurants, bars, and shops.  Over the Coronado bridge to see the world famous Hotel Del Coronado and the island.  Back to Balboa Park, home to many museums, the San Diego Zoo and so much more.  The original California building from the 1915/1916 Panama Exhibition is still standing and preserved as well as many buildings rebuilt to resemble some of the other original buildings from that fair.  Balboa Park also hosted a World’s Fair in 1935 with many of the different “houses” of the participating nations still preserved.

The original settlement of San Diego, now called Old Town, is actually a little ways north of the current downtown, and is a historical state park.  Very Spanish/Mexican architecture.  On the way to Old Town we passed through the various ethnic neighborhoods, Chinatown and Little Italy, many with large and beautiful Victorians.  Like San Francisco, New York and other large cities, San Diego still has distinct ethnically neighborhoods.

Until next time,
Bin Voyage