San Diego 2005

For our 30th anniversary (as I type this I'm shaking my head - it doesn't seem possible but yeah, it's been 30 years), Jo & I traveled to San Diego. I had visited San Diego a couple of years ago for a library conference, really enjoyed my time there, and thought that Jo would enjoy it as well. We spent some time in San Diego and some time on the road, renting a car and heading up through a bit of wine country, then over to the coast (still south of L.A.), and returning down the coast to San Diego.

We flew out of Dulles early Sunday morning, and landed in what should have been sunny southern California before noon local time. I say "should have been" because it was Tuesday before we first saw the sun! In looking over the trip, the only thing that disappointed me was the weather those first couple of days. But the weather improved each day, and regardless of what the weather was at any particular time, Jo & I had just a wonderful, wonderful time.

After checking into our hotel - the Grand Manchester Hyatt - we grabbed a bite to eat and headed out for a two-hour cruise of San Diego Harbor. Although it was fun - the guide knew a lot about the harbor and especially the military's history and presence in San Diego Bay - the day was just too cloudy to get any good pictures of the ships (aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, cruise ships, etc.) or wildlife. But here's a shot of our hotel from the water.

Monday morning, we hopped on a tour bus taking us to the San Diego Zoo. The tour package was good - bus to the zoo and back to the hotel, admission to the zoo, a ride on a 45-minute narrated tour of the zoo on a double-decker bus, and a ride on the zoo's sky lift. And the zoo was fabulous! Lots of animals, obviously well cared for, and really good, clean, and interesting exhibits. The weather was again cool and cloudy, but with all the walking we did, I think the weather actually was good for our visit to the zoo.

I didn't take too many pictures, but of course, we had to see the pandas. I'm not sure if it was a case of shyness, or they just had better things to do ... like eating! ... but the pandas were very good at ignoring visitors. We also had to check out the koalas. There was a really nice outside exhibit, but each koala managed to sit so that their back was to us. Fortunately, they also had an inside exhibit with some baby koalas, and I managed to get a picture of one of them napping. We also saw polar bears, giraffes, elephants, and much more. We had an excellent time at the zoo - spent all day there and had a ball.

Tuesday morning we checked out of the Hyatt, checked our bags at the front desk, and hopped on yet another tour bus, this one taking us on a four-hour city tour. This was the same city tour I had taken when I first visited San Diego, so I won't put up pictures here of the same sights ... except for a couple of pictures of La Jolla. There's just something about that place - could it be the Pacific, or the sand and rocky shore? Whatever it is, we stopped back to see La Jolla again later in the trip.

After the city tour and lunch, we picked up a rental car and our luggage, and headed north and inland to Temecula Valley. We checked into the hotel and then went exploring - we wanted to make sure we could find where California Dreamin' was located, because the next morning we had reservations for a hot-air balloon ride at dawn!!

Wednesday morning, long before dawn cracked, I called California Dreamin', as instructed, to make sure the balloon ride was one ... and it was! There was very dense fog, and I was glad we had scouted out their location the previous day. I have to confess that I was worried that because of the fog, our ride would be cancelled. But when we got there, they reassured us that the flight was on. They had a large van and a trailer with the balloon, and we hopped on with a local couple and their son (celebrating his 5th birthday) and a couple from Wisconsin celebrating their 35th anniversary. It was a good group.

We headed east, away from the coast and fog, and stopped when we had cleared the fog. Then the crew started to get the balloon ready, putting the basket on its side and positioning two large fans on either side to help fill the balloon with hot air. Then they fired up the burners, and the balloon started to inflate. I remember thinking that if the ride was half as interesting & entertaining as the assembling process was, that we were in for a very good time.

In very short order, the balloon was ready, we climbed in, and away we went! It was very cool - very quiet, except when the burners were on, and very smooth & gradual, and a whole lot of fun. I tried to take some pictures - here's one - that showed some of what we were seeing (as you can see, we hadn't escaped the fog by much!), but I don't think any of the pictures really captured the experience. Only once were we somewhat high - maybe 200 feet? The rest of the time we were relatively close to the ground, and also close to houses, trees, and power lines, and dodging all of that made me thankful that our pilot had been doing this for the last 25 years. I got a picture showing the balloon's shadow on the ground, and another that showed the area in which we landed. But the experience was far beyond my ability to capture in pictures. If you have a chance, check it out for yourself. I wasn't sure I would like it, but I loved it, and would like to do it again!

After our excellent balloon adventure, we headed a little bit more to the north, then turned west and headed for the coast. We stopped in San Juan Capistrano for lunch, and right across the street from the restaurant was the original mission, so after lunch we went over to check it out. The grounds were beautiful, as was the mission. Here's a picture of a small courtyard with a fountain, and the mission bells in the far wall.

We then continued north, hoping to get close to L.A. before heading west and hitting Long Beach. But the traffic really picked up the closer we got to L.A. (no surprise there!), and so we headed to the coast earlier than planned, seeing the Pacific again when we reached Huntington Beach. It was here that we first dipped our toes in the Pacific. {smile} We then continued down the Pacific Coast Highway to Laguna Beach, and checked into a hotel for the night.

Thursday we continued our trip down the coast, heading for San Diego. But son-of-a-gun, the road took us to ... La Jolla! And I couldn't resist taking another picture or two. But although I could have easily spent the rest of the day there along the coast, we had another La Jolla destination in mind ... the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. This is a very nice aquarium, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. In addition to all the great water critters, the aquarium also has a really cool simulator ride, and we went "diving with dolphins" - neat stuff.

Then we headed to our last hotel of the trip, another Hyatt, the Hyatt Regency Islandia at Mission Bay. We were on the 15th floor overlooking part of Mission Bay and the Pacific beyond the Bay. Here's the view we had from our balcony. We went over to a park on the other side of the bridge, and took this picture of the hotel from a nice beach at the park.

We chilled out at the park for a while, enjoying the beach, then went to Lotsa Pasta for a great dinner. Then it was back to the hotel and out on the balcony to watch the sunset. It was a nice way to end the day, and our visit to (sometimes) sunny southern California. We had a wonderful time, and it was a great way to celebrate the first thirty years!

The Related Links below include our favorites from this trip.