153 SEA WORLD SAN DIEGO

I woke up this morning and was so stiff and sore that I could hardly move.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and I was seriously considering staying inside because of it.  However, it was not an option, since I had already purchased non-refundable tickets to Sea World San Diego.  This would be kind of cool, having seen Sea World on the opposite coast just a couple of months ago.  I’d be able to compare the two.

However, I still had to be able to deal with not being able to walk.  The Uber driver dropped me off at the designated spot, and it was quite a long walk to get to the entrance gate.  I very slowly made my way there, and let me tell you, it was difficult.  Once inside, and through the second bag check in two days, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

Then it hit me.  There was a souvenir stand close to me, which also rented those little scooters for people with mobility issues.  I was very reluctant to do it, as it will really be acknowledging my disability, but it was the only way I was going to be able to see it.  So, I rented one.

SCOOTER KING

The first order of business was to try and figure out how to get my heavy backpack, and me onto this thing.  Plus, I needed to have my camera out to be able to photograph the displays and such.  I finally figured out that I could put the bag between my feet on the floor and balance the camera on the handlebars.  Holding it for dear life with my left and the strap around my neck.

Off I went.  Except, I ground very quickly to a stop.  One of the straps from the backpack was hanging over and I ran over it.  I finally got all the straps properly tucked away.  The park itself may have been open at 10:00 AM when I arrived, but none of the exhibits were open until 10:40 AM.  Oh well, on my neat little scooter, I went all around and checked out locations.

The first to open was the sea lion and otter show.  I wheeled into the spot designated for handicapped seating.  There was one other guy in a scooter as well.  But the show was going on and neither of us could see a thing.  So, we both quickly abandoned that.

I was driving around and quickly found the Killer Whale show, which was already in progress.  I pulled into the designated parking spot and had a great view.  Yes, San Diego still has Killer Whales and has no intention of bowing to the pressure to shut it down.  All their whales have been born in captivity and would not be able to survive in the wild if released.  The show was impressive and the kids and adults sitting down low got absolutely drenched.

I moved on from there to numerous other exhibits all wheelchair and scooter accessible.  Even the bathrooms, I was able to drive in and drive right into the handicapped stall.  I did notice that there were lots of souvenir and food stands that were not open during the time I was there.  It’s kind of odd, but the park was not at all crowded and the shows that I did go to there was lots of empty seats.

I couldn’t figure this out since it is spring break for the kids in San Diego, however it is Monday.  Apparently, Mondays are their least busy day at any time of the year.  I was kind of grateful for that. Maneuvering the scooter around was easy, but you really must pay attention because, as always, people are totally oblivious to their surroundings or just don’t care.  Even on this less crowded day, the number of people who would walk right in front of me was mind boggling.  I don’t know how many times I had to slam on the brakes and on a crowded day it would have been near impossible.

The other thing I started to become painfully aware of, is that this is the hottest day since I have been here.  I could feel my arms and legs burning, and I was trying to drive in the shadows as much as I could.  I didn’t bother wearing the sunscreen I brought with me to San Diego and of course it was back in the hotel.  But really, with the way the weather has been, I have not needed it until now.  Even in Florida I never needed to wear it.  Well, I’m paying for that oversight now.  My arms and legs were pretty red and stinging by the time I got back to the hotel.  But I was in for the evening and I applied generous amounts of Solarcaine.  Some cool compresses helped as well. 

After dinner I got back and the private airshow from Miramar began.  Two F-18’s were circling and they came so close that the window in my room was vibrating.  I quickly grabbed the camera and went outside to watch.  This was the closest the planes had been in the week I have been here.  I blasted off over 100 shots trying to get the two jets framed between two palm trees.  I got the shot, but it’s not particularly great due to the low light.

They must have been practicing night maneuvers as they were still flying at 10:30 PM.  Didn’t bother me though as I was sitting and editing photos and writing the Blog.  The noise however from the new people in one of the other rooms was really annoying.  It sounded like they had a heard of kids and were letting them run free.  Running back and forth on the long balcony above.

152 USS MIDWAY MUSEUM

After the aquarium visit yesterday where I didn’t do near as much walking, I’m feeling pretty good today.  So, it was off to breakfast, carrying my camera backpack as usual.  For some reason here, I keep the camera pretty much hidden away until I get onsite of my photo shoot.  In Orlando, that thing was out on view all the time.  I guess because I have no relationship with the staff like I did in Orlando.  There, I saw staff every day and had conversations with them and ended up on a first name basis with a lot of them.

Here, I have seen the front office staff once when I checked in and once a few days later when I stopped in to complain about the lack of internet.  That was a different set of staff members.  I also talked on the phone to someone again about the internet.  I think the ones I have had the most contact with is the serving staff in the restaurant, but I think that’s an independent organization.

Anyway, I digress.  An Uber ride later and I was staring up at this huge aircraft carrier.  The lady at the ticket booth seemed determined to save me money.  She asked me a series of questions.  They included, was I over 62?  Yes, discount.  Did I have AAA?  BCAA, good enough, discount.  Was I a current or retired member of the military?  No, ok.  Are you or were you a member of law enforcement?  Retired, discount.  It ended up only costing me $10 to go in.

This is the first attraction I have attended where a mandatory bag search was conducted.  Understandably so, since this is a military installation, albeit decommissioned, but it is a museum.  A quick check, and the retired sailor, who was impressed by my array of gear let me pass.  I looked up this long flight of stairs and the staff member there could see my hesitation and directed me to the elevator which took me up to the hanger deck.

Inside, there was an impressive array of aircraft, mostly from WWII.  Some hanging from the roof, others parked as if they were ready to be wheeled onto the aircraft elevator and sent into battle. There was a photo booth setup, where they take your pic in front of a green screen and then superimpose you onto various backgrounds.  It cost $39 US or translated into Canadian $51.  No matter, I’m trying to make a point of getting some photos of me.  You get one large print (5x7) and three smaller prints (2x3) and digital copies of them, emailed to you.

I continued walking, front to back of the hanger deck and I did that about 4 times and went side to side as well.  I’m not normally a shopper, but I did go into the souvenir shop and purchased some stickers for my suitcase as well as 2 baseball caps.  One is a Top Gun hat, both from movie fame, but also because the actual Top Gun school, Miramar Naval Air Station is in San Diego.  In fact, I get a private air show at the back of the hotel, every day.  The other hat is a US Navy retired cap.  I just liked the logo.

Now it was time to head up a second elevator onto the flight deck, where I was greeted by another impressive display of aircraft.  They spanned the ages from Vietnam era jets, prop planes and helicopters, right up to F-18’s.  I’m assuming they are decommissioned aircraft as the catapults have been removed from the deck and there would be no way to launch them.

Again though, I walked the deck front to back and side to side about 4 times, all the while taking photos.  It’s a beautiful day, with a breeze blowing off the water, keeping the temperature at a very pleasant level.  When I finally had seen all, I needed to see.  It was time to go up to the bridge and/or down to the engine room, I was unable to do so as there were no elevators to either level and I didn’t feel confident enough to do all those stairs.

So, off I went.  As if I didn’t have enough walking, I walked all the way to the end of the pier to take photos of the bow, then walked all the way to the stern of the ship for more photos.  From there I walked over to a park I had seen from the deck, where I could see the iconic statue of a sailor kissing a nurse marking the end of WWII.  I wanted a photo of that, since the #metoo movement is so pissed off about it and who knows if the statue will survive.

It's kind of funny, the statue is huge and the nurse’s skirt billows out, but I saw numerous men walk by and avert their eyes as if the statue was a real woman.  The funny part is how many women walked under the skirt and looked up.  I don’t know what’s under there, whether it’s anatomically correct or not, since I was one of the gentlemen who averted my eyes.

Finally, I walked all the way to the other end of the waterfront, where the maritime museum with tall ships and a submarine are located.  These I did not board.  The biggest reason is that the waters were really wavy with the wind and the ships were bounding up and down, and I had no desire to get seasick at the dock.

151 BIRCH AQUARIUM AND ABBEY'S REAL TEXAS BBQ

This morning I woke up early at 5:00 AM and looked outside.  It was raining so hard that I didn’t think I would ever see the sun again.  I crawled back into bed with the laptop and did some more editing of the photos from yesterday.  It’s now night-time and I still haven’t finished them and now have another 900 pics to edit.

By the time I went for breakfast it was still raining lightly and I had no opportunity to research what I was going to do today.  I figured though, that with the rain, it would need to be an indoor activity.  I was already thinking of going to the aquarium and I was able to use cellular data to find an address and call Uber.

When we started out it was still raining enough to use wipers, but by the time we got to the aquarium, not only had it stopped raining, but the sun was shining.  I was wandering through the aquarium and taking videos with my iPhone and had not even taken out a camera or lens yet.  I got all the way through and went outside.  I got more photos with the iPhone and got a random stranger to take my photo in front of The Pacific Ocean.

Afterwards, I decided I should probably take some shots with the Nikon, so I opened the backpack and pulled out the “big” camera, which immediately provoked a conversation.  It ended up with a couple more followers on Instagram.  Those cards come in handy.  When I went inside, I ran into another photographer and we got chatting about gear.  She’s using Canon and me Nikon.  But even that resulted in another follower on Instagram.

I went completely through the aquarium again and ended up taking 900 shots.  Once done with that, I stopped and had lunch at their café before calling an Uber to take me back to the hotel.  It was then that I discovered that I had forgotten to change the shutter speed and all the shots were under-exposed and mostly black frames.

This is going to result in a lot more work in editing, to recover at least some of the shots.  I had some good ones too, I think.  We’ll see what happens.  I’ve done it before where I have rescued a prize-winning photo from a near black frame.  This is all as a result of shooting RAW or in Nikon’s case NEF.  Recovering a JPG file in this condition would be impossible.

The hotel internet finally came back on, so I tried to catch up on email, bills etc.  It only lasted about 45 minutes before dropping out yet again.  By now it was getting to dinner time and I really have a craving for BBQ Ribs.  Last night I had asked for ribs at the hotel, but the owner of the restaurant said that they don’t do ribs.  However, he recommended I try Abbey’s Real Texas BBQ.  He said they have the best BBQ ribs in the city.

So, I called another Uber and the restaurant is only about 4 miles away as the crow flies, but with all the freeways, it was really a big circle route to get there.  Once I got inside, It’s a quaint place with a bunch of young people behind the counter.  It turns out that the restaurant has been in operation for 37 years and all family owned, and all the employees are family members.  The current ones are the Grandchildren of the original owners who brought it from Texas.

I ordered the full rack of ribs, thinking they would be the small pork ribs like at home.  I was wrong though.  These ribs are huge.  They are almost the size of beef ribs but are pork.  They came with two buns, spicy fries and coleslaw.  Plus, complimentary chips and salsa to snack on while waiting for the order.  I even had root beer instead of water for a change, and it turned out to be bottomless.

After dinner, I called another Uber and headed back to the hotel.  Once in the room I discovered that the internet was still down.  So, I started to write this out.  Within about 45 minutes, the signal came back on, but who knows for how long.  It’s a bit frustrating.  So far this is pretty much the only negative to the trip so far, well, ok, the rain isn’t great either.

150 SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM

Wow, if I thought I was sore yesterday morning, today has brought a new level of pain into play.  I hate like hell to admit that I might be doing too much, and I don’t know why I seem to be trying to get it all done in the first few days.  Lordy, I have 2 weeks, although, I do want to go back to both the zoo and the safari park.  See if I can catch up on animals I missed in both parks, or who were sleeping when I was there.

I think on the return visits though, I’m going to book special safaris where I get driven around in a cart.  I’ll research it first though.  I don’t want to go if it’s like the train tour I took yesterday.  It was nice to see the different animals that I did, but it was hard to get good photos, and that’s the whole point of being here.

My right foot was very sore and badly swollen, especially around the ankle area.  So, I resolved that if I was going to go anywhere, I would tape the foot and force the swelling down.  An ice pack would probably help, and I’ll have to see if I can come up with a plastic bad from somewhere.  Then a quick trip to the ice machine.

I was very seriously considering calling this a forced rest day today, just because I was hurting so, but when I looked out the window and saw it pissing down rain, that pretty much sealed the deal.  Although, when I thought about it, I could go visit the Air and Space Museum.  It’s going to be all flat surfaces and should be an easy walk.  So, photos presided over common sense, and I went.

When I arrived, by Uber, I was surprised to see the entrance flanked by an SR71 Blackbird and another jet of some type.  I don’t know what impression I had but the SR71 is about 10 times bigger than I expected.  That would come into play later as well.

I went inside and paid my admission ad the lady gave me the seniors rate.  Even when I told her I’m not 65 yet, she just said “close enough”.  So, I got inside for $15, pretty much what happened at Gatorland in Orlando.  It’s very impressive inside with aircraft and spacecraft sitting on the floor and hanging from the ceiling.

The actual Apollo 9 Command Module is there.  Some of the other highlights include a Spitfire, a P51 Mustang and a Messerschmitt 262, the world’s first jet airplane.  Another thing that caught me by surprise by how big it is, was a mock-up of the Mars Rover.  I don’t know why, but I had always assumed the Rover was the size of an R/C controlled car.  This thing however is the size of a small SUV.

I wandered around taking tons of photos and talking to the volunteers.  I also got chatting with a paramedic from Florida.  Every so often, he would say things like “I smell something” and when I asked what he meant, he said, “I smell the pile” and I wasn’t quite sure what he meant.

Two rooms further on, we spotted a badly damaged New York police car.  Of course, the car was damaged in the aftermath of 9/11.  He told me that he had worked on “the pile” for 2 months after the attack and it has a distinctive smell.  He could smell the remains of the police car from 2 rooms away.  I guess its part of an air museum, since the disaster was caused by two crashing airplanes.

It took me about 2 hours to go through the museum, and even with the easy surfaces and leisurely walk, I was again hurting pretty well by the end of it.  So, I made the decision to go back to the hotel.  While I was sitting on the park bench though, I noticed that aircraft heading for the San Diego airport all passed directly over the Air and Space Museum, which I think is a cool touch.  So, I spent some time taking photos of planes coming into the airport.  When I got back, I discovered that the Internet was down yet again.  So, while I was waiting for it to maybe come back up, so I could make yesterday’s blog post, I fell asleep.  When I woke up 90 minutes later, the internet was back up and I managed to get the previous blog post up as well as some photos.

I went to the usual restaurant and had a great steak and shrimp dinner and they were setting up for another live performance, but I decided that I was too tired and sore to stick around.  I did finally capture a few images for my own private airshow, with a couple of F-18’s doing a flyby.

149 SAN DIEGO ZOO SAFARI PARK

First off, one thing I have noticed is that the wi-fi signal in the hotel is hit and miss at the best of times.  It’s been difficult to post Blog updates and even more difficult to post updates to Instagram.  It was even playing hell with editing, because I couldn’t upload photos to online directories.  Even when it is working, the connection is not that fast.  Other than that, I have no complaints about the hotel.  It’s clean and quiet, except when the airshow from Miramar is going on, but that is just plain cool.

Anyway, when I woke up this morning, I was hurting pretty good.  My back and legs and more so my feet.  Why I didn’t tape my right foot, I couldn’t say.  I have the supplies with me.  It was cloudy and looking very much like rain, so I was trying to decide what to do.  Air and Space Museum or San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

By the time I finished breakfast, it still had not rained and was looking a little brighter.  So, like an idiot, I ignored what my body was telling me and went on safari.  I had absolutely no concept.  I figured it would be more open, but less hills than the zoo itself, but roughly the same size.  I should have gotten a better idea when the Uber ride to 35 minutes to get there.

I still had no idea until I got inside.  I was standing chatting with a San Diego police Sergeant who was working overtime.   After a bit, I headed off on my trek, I even bumped into him several more times.  I had several animals that I was targeting on this “mission”.  Lions, tigers, elephants, rhinos, gorillas and so on.  There is also a huge butterfly exhibit I want to see and photograph as well.

There is plenty of space and lots of walking.  I found several primates, and birds and there was the gorilla enclosure.  These ones were somewhat more active than the ones in the zoo yesterday.  I can’t remember all their names, but the one that sticks out for me, was “Frank”.  Probably because that was my Dad’s name.  Frank is apparently the “boss man” and I found him lounging in a tree in a hammock.  Some of the others were keeping busy, while a couple of the big “Silverbacks” were hiding and sleeping.

FRANK IN HIS HAMMOCK

By now, the sun was trying to come out and it was warming up quickly, compounding my misery.  It’s only a couple of hours in and I’m hurting and limping big time.  I made a point of stopping and resting and drinking a Gatorade.  That helped a bit.

It was around this time that I got talking to one of the employees.  I mentioned that I had been walking about as long as it took to see the zoo yesterday, but it didn’t feel like I had covered much.  This is when I learned the difference.  The zoo is built on about 90 acres of land, while the safari park is on 900 acres, so it is 10 times bigger.  Who knew?  No wonder I was so worn out, especially with starting at a disadvantage.

GOLDEN EAGLE, HE'S HUGE

MACCAW IN FLIGHT

He suggested I take the “train tour” around the outer perimeter of the African section.  It came up in conversation that I am now considered disabled.  He directed me to the ticket booth, where I showed my disability card.  I got the ticket free and with priority boarding, so I didn’t have to stand in the lengthy line. 

The tour was great and got lots of information, I even got some decent photos of giraffes, and the rhino with a few others.  The tour lasted about 30 minutes and it was good to be off my feet for a bit.  Once back, I resumed my walk and discovered a bird show.  Where they had several different species of birds showing off.  Again, it was good to be off my feet.

RHINOCEROUS

Finally, though, at the 7.5-hour mark of mostly walking, I decided it was time to head back to the hotel.  It was then that I discovered how far away from the entrance I was.  I also discovered that I was absolutely spent.  There was no way that I could make it back.  It was hell to admit that to myself, but even harder to admit that to another staff member.  She assured me it was not a problem and it happens so often, that they have a special shuttle just for these occasions.  Long story short, they drove me back to the entrance and I limped out.

Once I got back and had a rest, I went over to the restaurant for dinner.  Boy if this isn't an awful sign of the times. I'm eating dinner in the restaurant and a young family walks in. There is Mom, Dad a young boy maybe 5 or 6 and a baby, maybe 3 months old. Mom and Dad sit on one side. Little boy sits next to the baby in its carrier seat. Mom and Dad break out their cell phones and start doing whatever they're doing. They just weren't paying attention to the two kids. Baby starts to cry, neither parent reacts. Little boy gets up and very tenderly picks the baby up and cradles it. He rocks the baby, gives it the soother and continues to rock it and pats it on the back. The poor kid is trying everything to console the baby, again, no reaction from parents. Finally, after about 10 minutes, Mom slams down her phone, takes the baby away from the kid and glares at him like he did something wrong. Geez!

148 SAN DIEGO ZOO

The start of my first full day in San Diego, didn’t look good for the plans.  When I woke up very early and looked outside, it was raining hard.  So, I started to write yesterday’s Blog and play around on the internet.  Of course, that seems to be a hit and miss proposition.  It was down, most of the evening and caused me to miss the Canucks game.  When I got up and logged on, it was working but quickly went down again.  Thankfully, I don’t need the internet to write the Blog, just post it.

Anyway, by the time I got done, had my shower, packed my gear and was ready to head out for breakfast, it had stopped raining, but the cloudy skies were looking threatening.  Cloudy skies are certainly not a deterrent for photography, and so I decided to carry through with my plan of the San Diego Zoo.

My Uber picked me up and drove me to the zoo and it was then that I discovered that Spring Break is different from ours.  While our kids went back to school on April 1, theirs just started.  It seemed like there were 400,000 kids waiting to get into the zoo.  An exaggeration of course, but there was a lot.

It is different here than in Florida.  There are no x-ray scanners or physical bag checks to get into the zoo.  In Florida, there were x-ray scanners and physical inspections at Universal Theme Parks and straight up physical searches at Disney Theme Parks.  It was busy inside.

I managed to get to the Panda exhibit before the massive lines I saw later in the day.  Unfortunately, the one Panda that was outside, was fast asleep on a tree branch.  I got what pictures I could of her and then kept moving.  Of course, after I was out of prime photo range, she was up and moving.

In Florida I didn’t take advantage of all the photo ops offered in the various theme parks, except at NASA.  This time I did.  I had my photo taken in front of a green screen at the photo exhibit.  They took 3 poses and I was able to pick the prints up later.  Cost me $25 US for 2 prints in a cardboard frame, where they added in the Pandas.  You get digital downloads as well.

GREEN SCREEN PANDA

GREEN SCREEN PANDAS

I kept, wandering and taking photos and ran into a couple of other photographers using the same big lens.  One fellow was using a Nikon D4s and the Tamron 150-600 the same setup as mine.  The other was shooting with a gasp, Canon.  I couldn’t chat with the Nikon guy as he was from Japan and did not speak any English.  We each gave the other a thumbs up though.  I couldn’t chat with the other guy as he was shooting a, gasp, Canon.

When I got to the gorilla enclosure, again I was met by sleeping animals. But there were lots of other primates close by to get some shots of.  Tigers, sleeping.  Jaguars and leopards, sleeping.  I couldn’t find the polar bears and the hippo was underwater.  There was an interesting animal that appeared to be half deer and half zebra.  I can’t remember what it was called and couldn’t get a full-on body shot because he kept hiding his butt.

SLEEPING PANDA

SLEEPING GORILLA

With all these comments about what I couldn’t shoot, you’d think I got nothing.  That’s not the case however as I came back with 1138 shots.  I spent almost 7 hours walking around the zoo, up and down the hills with almost 30 pounds of gear on my back and front.  I never took any other lens out of the backpack, so I won’t take it on the next trip to the zoo.

I’ll likely be using more of the lenses and flash at the Flight and Space Museum, if that’s where I end up today.  If I go to the Safari Park, I’ll take it all, because I have no idea what I will need there.  I mentioned all the hills in the zoo.  Last time I was here, I remember a far more wide-open area and wide gravel roadways.  Maybe that’s the safari park, only it wasn’t called that then.

All over the zoo, there are signs commemorating donors who thorough their generous contributions, allow the zoo to not only keep operating, but carry on with conservation efforts throughout the world.  The biggest contributor, judging by all the signs is Mr. and Mrs. Ray Kroc.  Owners of McDonald’s Restaurants.

147 CALIFORNIA HERE I COME

Well, I’m pretty much all packed and ready to go, except for a few last-minute things to go in the morning.  I tweaked my back a few days ago, of course on a Saturday and no way to get physio treatment on it before I leave.  But, with all the physio I have undergone in the last few years, I did my own treatments on it.  So, I’m hopeful.  It’s painful, but I can still walk, it’s just it takes that much longer to get moving.

Of, course, I wake up bright and early, at 3:30 AM, not intentionally.  I roll over and try to go back to sleep, but it’s just not happening.  I lie there until 4:30 AM and then give up and get up.  Off to my office I go and start killing time on the computer.  The flight isn’t until 1:35 PM and the plan is, I’ll leave at 9:30 AM to beat rush hour and have a chance to partake in breakfast at the Maple Leaf Lounge.

Finally, with all the last-minute items packed, I’m ready to go at 8:00 AM and I cannot think of anything more to do to keep busy and I wandered out and got my truck and loaded up.  Not wanting to just sit around, I headed for the airport at 8:20 AM.  I figured that I can at least wander around the airport and take pictures.

Well, how wrong I was.  Everything was smooth sailing until I get down on the perimeter road when the traffic starts to build.  Finally, it comes to a standstill and the road is a parking lot, and I’m not even halfway to the airport yet.  Traffic reports on the radio aren’t helping much and the hosts on TSN 1040 are late because of the traffic.

What was supposed to be a 1 hour and 15-minute drive turned into a 3 hour and 5-minute ordeal.  But I got there.  Not enough time to wander around taking pics.  I checked in, checked my suitcase and then went through the Nexus and US Customs lines.  Had a little trouble getting the machine to scan my passport and fingerprints, but it finally worked.  The US Customs agent was impressed with my travel plans of photographing the San Diego zoo.

Now, the next challenge.  Finding the Maple Leaf Lounge.  I spoke to 3 different Air Canada gate agents and an Airport cleaner and none could really tell me where to find it.  I just got vague instructions.  I ended up at the far end of the airport.  With no other option, I started the long walk back toward the gate, which I had passed early in the trek.

Finally, I found the lounge.  It turned out, by riding the moving sidewalk to save my feet, I had gone right past it and not noticed.  By the time I got upstairs, I found I had missed breakfast, but they were just laying out a light lunch.  I had a bowl of the most wonderful Minestrone soup, some salad and melon.  Just as I finished, they put out some very nice pizza, so I had a couple of pieces of that.

But that pretty much used up my time and I had to report to the gate.  We boarded the Bombardier CRJ 900 which is pretty much the smallest commercial aircraft I have been on.  I ended up with an entire row of seats and nobody right behind me.  The takeoff was smooth as was the whole flight.  The only annoying thing was some guy about 4 rows back was coughing up a lung and not covering his mouth.  I hope I don’t get sick.  I positioned the air conditioning fans, to blow back towards him, so here’s hoping.

DEPARTING VANCOUVER

They fed us on the plane too.  I had a tasty salad and a choice between Butter Chicken and a cheese/pasta dish of some kind.  I chose the Butter Chicken, because I’ve never had it before.  It was amazing.  She did warn me the plate was hot, but I thought, it’s an airplane, how hot can it be?  Turns out, it was burn my fingers hot.  I forgot about the perks of business class.  Desert was an amazing piece of Cappuccino Cheese cake.

We got to San Diego and the clouds were just breaking and the temperature was a pleasant 19C.  I had a little trouble getting my Uber as my phone would not log on to the airport Wi-Fi.  Once I got that settled and got my car, it was off we go.

LANDING IN SAN DIEGO

San Diego, like Orlando has changed so much since the last time I was here 35 years ago.  The driver I had was a pleasant fellow and we had a great chat all the way to the hotel.  He told me about all the changes in the city and we talked about places to see.  We drove past Old Town San Diego and it looks really cool.  I’ll have to go there too.

After getting into my room, it was now 6:00 PM and surprisingly, I was hungry, so I headed over to the onsite Restaurant/Pub.  First Item on the menu was real, Southern Fried Chicken (the Chef is from Georgia), mashed potatoes with Chicken Gravy, two southern style biscuits and Zucchini chunks in a tomato sauce all for $19 US, of course that translates to $31 Canadian.  I’ll tell you though, it was amazing.  I have never had fried chicken like that.  There were 4 large pieces of it.  I am not usually a gravy fan, but I’ll make an exception for this.  I forgot to order it with no gravy.

I got back to my room, just in time to stream the Canucks/Sharks game but the internet went down and the last score I saw was 2-1 Sharks in the first period.  I channel surfed trying to find the game on TV but no luck and fell asleep around 10:00 PM.  It was a long day.