SAN DIEGO

I am back from San Diego. The trip had only a few flaws–all related to the travel itself. Somehow I wound up in a middle seat on the Tampa to Denver leg of the trip. I really dislike that, but at least the travers on either side were civil and didn't slop over into my seat. I do not, however, that the first person to sit down is always the one occupying the aisle seat, while the last person in takes the window seat. There must be a better way to do that. I traveled out on Frontier airline which provides you a free headset for the in-flight movie and then charges $5 if you want to see the film. Delta, which I took to return, has free movies, but charges $2 for the headset. It's a racket. I have to remember to take my own headset next time or maybe buy one of those cute DVD players, only they make you turn that sort of thing off. Despite these little inconvenience, I'd much rather fly than ride in a car. You've got a much better odds on a plane than a car or, worse yet, a taxi. I thought several times on the short trip from the airport to the hotel we were goners. Yipes. After that, I walked everywhere or took a trolley.

Since I arrived in San Diego around 9 p.m., I didn't get top see things until the next day. I had scheduled the first three days in Balboa Park, about a half-hour walk from my hotel. The weather was cooler than Florida, clear and dry. The bridge to the park runs across one of the many gorges that wind through the area. The scenery is quite impressive, I see why people want to live here. Florida is sub-tropical. This part of California is a dessert that comes down to the Pacific Ocean, a very different climate. I had to get used to climbing up and down hills. Babloa Park was the site of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Many of the buildings are recreations of the original exhibit buildings. You can still get a feel of what a turn of the century world's fair would have been like. That houses numerous museums. I think I covered thirteen of them in three days. Many of the museums had small exhibits compared to what I have been used to in larger cities. I was particularly fond of the Timken Museum of Art and the Model Railroad Museum. Part of my plan in going to San Diego was to see the special exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Very interesting to see the scrolls themselves (actually fragments of scrolls.)

Of course the big attraction is the San Diego Zoo. I remember my parents mentioning that they saw it when they visited San Diego just after WWII. It is the most impressive zoo I've ever seen. The big attraction are the Pandas. They actually have a breeding pair. This zoo also has cokes for $3.99 and hamburgers for $7.99. I waited until I left the zoo to eat. I spent one morning going through Old Town, the site of the original town of San Diego. It's one of the fortunate twists of history that the center on the city was moved to a new location (the present downtown) thus preserving many of the structures from the period of 1821-1871.

In my travels I happened to pick up a magazine featuring houses for sale. Most of them were in the 1.5 to 2.5 million dollar range, although I did find a little 3br 2.5 bath place for a mere $949,900. There's a site (not house, just a site) for 10 million and a nice villa for 15 million. I did see an ofer of one mansion for 24 million, but I think that had eight bedrooms so you expect to pay a little more. No wonder the tour guide at Old Town joked about this little one-room Mexican house probably renting for $2,000 a month. What kind of work do you do to afford such places? I guess if you have to work you CAN'T afford such places.

One of the highlights of my trip was attending a performance of the Nut Cracker by the Moscow Ballet. It was the first time I had seen a professional company in a good many years. Of course they worked with a local studio so that there were kids performing also. It was staged quite differently than I have seen before. There were many large animals added to scenes in the second act. My guess is this is some kind of Russian tradition. I was surprised that all the sets were done only with flats, but I realize that would be the only way you could travel from place to place. As an added treat, there was a girls chorus performing Christmas songs in the lobby before the performance and they also sang during a part of the ballet.

Now I have to talk about eating. San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter is filled with restaurants. For reasons of economy I could only try a few. First was Sammy's Woodfired Pizza. I understand that woodfired pizza is a California specialty. I had one with more traditional toppings. Athens Market Taverna was next–Greek food, naturally. Also naturally I had lamb shank, so tender it fell from the bone. The last special place was Chopahn, an Afghan restaurant. Delicious lamb again, but broiled on skewers. Yumm. A few other interesting meals: twice I had lunch at the Japanese Tea House in Balboa Park. They even had a variety of loose teas that you could choose from. If only every place had that. Now, I quite behaved myself by only having dessert twice the whole time I was away. The first one was early one when I hiked maybe an extra mile to Just Desserts, a wonderful little pastry shop where I bought a chocolate something-or-other. Then on the final night, I stopped at Ghiradelli's, the famous California chocolatier where I had my first hot fudge sundae in many years.
It was the most marvelous vacation in years. Since this was also supposed to be continuing education, I'll try to make my next blog about the educational portion of the trip. In the meantime, wherever your travels take you, may the Lord God bless you on your way and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne