Tuesday 3 January 1984 – San
Diego #2
Another
great day! I was awake at six, actually worrying about money believe it or not.
Rab has been going on a bit about running short. We have about $2,000 left so I
think that is a little unlikely but I am not at my logical best in the early
hours of the morning.
I went for a
run again this morning – it is about one and a half miles as it turns out and
then Matt and I worked out in the fitness centre on the beach before having a
swim. What a start to the day!
We had our
home brewed coffee in our room (we had
learned from our first trip to the USA that it was not easy to get a decent cup
of coffee in the hotels we stayed at, so we bought a small kettle and coffee
and made it ourselves) and got going soon after 09.00 I was a bit wary of
driving in the rush hour, but there were no problems as we headed for Seaport
downtown. It turned out that the shops only opened at 10.00 but the Jolly Roger
was open so we went there for breakfast – and what a meal it was – first decent
breakfast we’ve had since we arrived. Matt and I had pancakes, bacon and fried
eggs with hash browns on the side while Rab swapped the pancakes for toast but
had the rest of the items.
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| Shopping at Seaport |
Fully fed we
wandered around the shops down there until about 12.00 and bought a few bits
and pieces. Then we headed up to Fashion
Valley where there was
the most enormous shopping mall with four department stores including Nieman
Marcus and over one hundred small speciality shops! Took us quite a time to
look around I can tell you! I got a couple of denim shorts on Woolworths sale –
for $4.00 – and Matt got a Star Wars T-shirt for $2.50. incredible buys. Rab
found a material shop to her delight and managed to buy a couple of metres
more. I restrained myself as far as the books were concerned as there was an
incredible bookshop there.
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| Matt and me on Point Loma |
We didn’t
eat lunch after our big breakfast – apart from sharing a very tasty sausage in
pastry and a couple of ice creams. When we finally dragged Rab away from the
mall we went off to the local equivalent of the Bluff in Durban – Point Loma. There is an old
lighthouse there and a whale watching station. The grey whales are passing down
the coast now to their breeding grounds in Baja. In fact I was hoping we could
go on a whale-spotting trip, but the helicopter rides were $69 each and
the boat trip was vetoed by my co-travellers with memories of the QE2 still
fresh in their minds.
It was a
beautiful afternoon and the view of the Pacific and the city was stupendous. We
parked our car and walked up to the lighthouse which has been restored and is
furnished in appropriate style – very nice. We walked over to the whale
spotting station which had an interesting recorded commentary on whales and I
was thrilled when I spotted a couple of spouts. They were a long way off but
clearly seen through my binoculars.
The sunset
was spectacular as was the thought, as
one guide book said, that we were about as far West as it is possible to go
without going East. (thinking about this
now, this does seem like a piece of travel hyperbole!) the sea was like
glass and dotted with little craft. A cruise would have been quite safe this
afternoon after all.
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| A fishing boat comes home |
We strolled
back down the hill to the Cabrillo
Monument which records
the first white man who landed in this area in 1565 or so – quite a long time
before we got there. I took a shot of the lighthouse silhouetted against the
sunset which should be one of my better ones if it comes out.
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| Not such a great shot after all! |
We had thought of
going down to the tidal pools at the foot of the Point but light was fading and
Matt had urgent need of a lav. One of the reasons for this was that he had gone
to the restroom at one of the department stores in Fashion Valley
but was disconcerted to find that there were no doors on the stalls and that
four out of five were already occupied by squatters. It all proved to be too
inhibitive and affected his performance.
We had
spotted what looked like a very nice fish restaurant on the pier this morning –
Anthony’s – and as it had a good write-up in the guide we headed there. Matt
was able to relieve himself in private and although we had to wait half an hour
because there were so many people it was no problem as we sipped our draft
Coors and watched the lights on the bay. We got chatting to a very nice couple
from Illinois
so much so that we missed our call. We were pretty peckish by the time we got
our food and dived into seafood cocktails, prawns, crab etc etc. all very good
value.
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| Sunset at Anthony's |
Home to
watch TV for a while ahead of an early start tomorrow.
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