January 19, 2014
We started
the day with a buffet breakfast in the hotel atrium, with custom made two egg
omelets, hash browns, cantaloupe cubes, watermelon cubes and coffee at 7. The
day was overcast would be clearing and at 8 was 54 F outside with little wind
and eventually reached a high of 74 F.
We took our light jackets and departed at 8:10, after saying hello to
several group members having later breakfasts, to walk a self guided tour of
the Victorian Gaslamp district covering a 12 block area of historical buildings
with interesting histories, like the Horton Grand Hotel. It is actually two 1886s three storey hotels
combined with atrium after being saved from demolition. They are furnished with vintage furnishings
and are a working hotel. It even has a resident ghost! We saw 30 Victorian
buildings. It took about an hour to see the old buildings on the tour. We took
a picture of the Balboa Theatre as one of the Gaslamp district building during
our tour. On the way, we took a picture
of the Sledgehammer Theatre and the modern building surrounding it at 6th
near Cedar. Then we walked for twenty minutes up 6th Street to Elm
Street to Balboa Park’s south-west corner and took a path to Sefton Plaza to
arrive at the Cabrilo Bridge, which spans Hwy 163 and was constructed in 1915
for the Panama-California Exposition. We met one of the group couple’s at the
San Diego Air & Space Museum, they took the City Tours Trolley from the
Seaport terminal, near our hotel, and were planning to go to the Old Town
later. We did heard the 100 bell Symphonic Carillon every quarter hour while we
wandered the park, visiting its gardens and the Natural History Museum with our
guidebook in hand, taking pictures of the interesting 1915 buildings. There is a wonderful Artist’s Centre with
more than 50 artist’s shops from pottery to jewelry, paintings, stained glass
and sculpture. After nearly four hours at Balboa Park, we had finished looking around,
we then bought a bag of popcorn to sustain us on the walk to San Diego’s Old
Town, the distance to which we grossly underestimated. It took 90 minutes to
amble through residential districts including Hillcrest and Mission Hill
following a map that only showed the major streets to arrive at San Diego’s Old
Town. Just before getting to San Diego’s
Old Town we found a liquor store and bought two bottles of wine to take on
board the ship tomorrow. Our first stop on
San Diego Avenue was at the El Campo cemetery which was established in 1850 and
restored in the late 20th century by a gentleman who searched for
the remains and stories of the people buried in the small cemetery. We walked another 5 minutes to the actual Old
Town Park with its historical buildings and stopped for a combined dinner and lunch
at 4 p.m. to rest our tired feet and order fish tacos at a restaurant in the
Fiesta de Reyes section which had live Mexican music. They were excellent. After having already walked about 20 kms we
decided that there was not enough time to walk back to the hotel for the 5:30 evening
Reception and were able to catch the 5:23 p.m. trolley leaving from Old Town
station and were back at our hotel within 25 minutes instead of two hours if we
had we walked. We changed quickly and joined fellow group members, Lavorna and
Roy for drinks and veggies and dips. We
returned to our room shortly after 7:30 to write the blog and organize the 95
pictures that we took today.
This last picture is Claire in front of a fig tree.
January 18,
2014
We started
the day by shoveling snow for about 30 minutes due to a 2 cm accumulation overnight.
It felt mild, even though with a light wind, overcast sky, and the temperature
was -17 C, but it was a warmer than last weekend.
We were at
the airport by 10 a.m. and through security screening by 10:20 a.m. We will see
out suitcases again in San Diego. Our hosts arrived shortly after, then, more
of the group of 45 or 50 trickled in by noon.
We met neighbours waiting for their plane to start their journey to
France, where they were taking a few days vacation with their daughter, who was
going for a four month course to southern France. We were 15 minutes late
leaving the gate and then needed to go through de-icing before taking off at
1:10 p.m. The plane was an Embraer 190 (9 business class & 88 economy class
passengers). The flight to Toronto was 2 hours 23 minutes, we arrived at the
Pearson Int’l Airport arrival gate about 4:30 p.m. Toronto time. After leaving
the plane, our group gathered to proceed to U.S. Customs, which used electronic
kiosks to check the passports and answer the U.S. Customs questionnaire
initially. Then you waited until your ID code appeared on a display board for
the usual interview by a Customs agent, then we went through security again to
get to the departure lounge with 60 minutes before our plane departed. We went in search of a snack and found a Tim
Hortons in the other arm of the terminal, about a 6 minute walk away from our
gate. After eating our sandwiches, we strolled
back with our coffees to find that boarding had begun and most of the passengers
were already on the plane. There were a few people behind us in line. The Airbus 319 plane (12 business class &
106 economy class passengers) departed on time at 6:05 p.m. for San Diego with
a usual flight time of 4 hours 36 minutes.
We landed in San Diego at 7:57 p.m. their time, due to very little wind resistance.
We were over 30 minutes early. The San
Diego temperature was 21 C and partly cloudy.
After everyone’s luggage was collected, we boarded a chartered bus for a
10 minute drive to our hotel in the Embarcadero area on the western edge of the
Gaslamp Quarter, which we hope to explore tomorrow. It is just a five minute walk from the USS
Midway museum in the harbour and only about a kilometer walk to our cruise ship
terminal. You can see the harbour and the USS Midway museum from our room. Check
in was very efficient, after ensuring that our bags were removed from the bus,
we were given an envelope with our room cards and just registered a credit card
at the front desk. There is free WiFi in the business center in the lobby. Our
6th floor, 500 sq. ft. two room suite has a king size bed, bathroom,
dressing area with a sink, living/dining room with a kitchenette with a bar sink, microwave, bar
fridge and coffee maker. (Our stateroom
on the ship will be 170 sq. ft.) The luggage was delivered to our room while we
were out for a walk to stretch our legs after the flights. About 9:15, we walked, without even a light
jacket, around a two block area near our hotel at the corner of Pacific Coast
Highway and West Harbour Drive and found several restaurants. During our
stroll, we saw several neon rope light lit bicycle rickshaws, which could
transport two or three people and several red San Diego Trolley trains as well
as a freight train cross the traffic light controlled level crossing at G
Street and West Harbour Drive. We chose a Cheesecake Factory restaurant, where,
on the patio, we shared a Dulce De Leche Caramel cheesecake accompanied by one café
mocha and one nut brown ale. We recognized
several other couples from our group having dinner there. We returned about 10:30 p.m. to check curling
scores on the lobby WiFi and compose the blog before calling it a day after 1
a.m. Winnipeg time.
