Sunday, April 14, 2019

159 SAN DIEGO TROLLEY TOUR AND OLD TOWN


When I woke up this morning, I discovered that all the blistering was gone from both arms and legs.  There is a bit of peeling going on from the burn, but it has settled down and turned into mostly a tan, but I think I may peel pretty good.  Oh well, what’s a little burn for all the fun I’ve had in San Diego.

I’m left now with two full days left and not a clue what to do.  I have done all 7 of the activities I set out to do and have managed to photograph essentially all the animals that I wanted to get shots of.  So, now I had to decide what to do today.  I’ve had numerous suggestions to go and visit old town.  I’m not so sure what I’ll photograph there.

Anyway, I decided that I was going to go and look.  I can always turn around and go back to the hotel.  When we got there, the first thing I saw was the hop on hop off trolley tour that people have been telly me about it.  So, off I went.

We got a great narrated tour aboard the trolley and saw all the different areas of San Diego.  Some, of the places that I had already visited.  I didn’t feel like doing the jump off, jump on thing, so just say in the very cramped seats and enjoyed the tour.

Old Town is literally where California got started.  At various times through history, very large segments of San Diego were owned by one man.  These men parlayed their large chunks of land into multi-million-dollar fortunes.  We’re talking in dollars from the 1800’s so you can’t imagine what it would be worth now.  One section where sections of land were obtained for free now sell for between one and two million dollars each.

We went over the Coronado Bridge, which was scary as hell.  It’s 268 feet tall at mid-span.  Sitting in an open trolley, travelling at 70 mph and no railings on my side.  I concentrated on trying to take photos of the harbour area so that I didn’t even think of looking straight down.  Geez, I can’t believe I did that.

Coming back wasn’t as bad since there is a sidewalk and a bicycle lane between the edge and the trolley.  We passed the Coronado Naval Base where the US Navy Seals train.  In fact, I may even have seen a couple out on the water in an orange inflatable boat.  I even saw one of the new stealth Navy destroyers, cool.

I saw the place where Wyatt Earp lived as well as the business where he went broke.  He had moved to San Diego from Tombstone.  He lived in San Diego for awhile before moving to Alaska where he made a fortune selling liquor to miners.

The San Diego Airport has a plane taking off or landing once every 90 seconds, this despite having only one runway.  The airport closes at 11:00 PM every night and re-opens at 6:00 AM every day.  That’s cool when you think about how many passengers come through San Diego every day.

There is a commuter railway, the red cars, called the trolley, even though it’s a train.  There’s a second train which will take you to Tijuana, Mexico, or North to Los Angeles.  The freeway system is amazing as well.  The smallest freeway I’ve been on has been 8 lanes, 4 lanes in each direction.

Once the tour ended up back where we started at Old Town, I decided that I would wander around and see what was around and what was available to photograph.  There were lots of shops and restaurants.  It’s apparently very popular as every restaurant was jammed to overflowing.  I haven’t been eating lunch anyway, and I sure wasn’t going to stand around waiting for 20 to 40 minutes, just to go in and eat.

Finally, my legs and feet could take no more and my sunburn was starting to bubble again.  So, I called for an Uber and headed home.  My Uber driver had a little dog with her who sat very quietly on her lap.  He looked like a tiny version of my Toby and what a coincidence, this dogs name is also Toby.  I also saw a little shop in Old Town called Toby’s.  So, no wonder I’m thinking about the big guy tonight.

I have no idea what I’m going to do tomorrow, but I’m thinking I should probably take it easy.  Make it a rest day, since there will be an awful lot of walking on Tuesday with the trip home.  Walking through both airports.  I know how bagged I was getting here as well as how tired I was getting home from Orlando.

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