Down the coast to San Diego

Outside San Diego Zoo
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Great beach town but not the ideal time of year for it. The dogs however didn't seem to mind and were having a ball on their beach - trailed by dog owners picking up after them.

Highlights:

• Dog and owner watching at Dog Beach
• Balboa park - a must even if you don't go to San Diego zoo
• The free pancakes at the hostel for breakfast

Lowlights:

Seaport Village
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• Not seeing the beaches packed with people as it just wasn't the right time of year

Details:

Day 12. After leaving LA we drove down the coast via Newport and Laguna Beach. The scenery while driving is magnificent and it's definitely worth hiring a car and being able to do it at your own leisure.

We struggled to find accomodation at first but searching finally paid off and we booked into a great hostel for 2 nights. It surprised Shawn and I how many older folk there are staying in hostels. You can tell that some are old school hippies and others are just travelling on their own and it's not worth getting an entire hotel room when all you need is a bed.

We spent the afternoon casually strolling the beaches and getting a feel for the city.

The hostel was extremely homely and we joined in the Saturday night braai which consisted of hotdogs, hamburgers and potatoe salad - not bad for $3 each.

Day 13 (after some free pancakes for breakfast) was spent at Balboa Park. It's a large green area with museums, greenhouses, gardens and the legendary San Diego zoo. We decided not to go into the zoo but rather stroll around the park and then move onto the Gas Lamp district in the afternoon. There happened to be an open air art festival on the waterfront and we spent a short while there too.

Being so close to Mexico (and believe me you can tell) we decided to have mexican for dinner complete with margaritas and the works. Then back to the hostel for another whipping at table tennis - apparently Shawn doesn't feel the need to let me win a game to help my ego!

3 more pancakes for breakfast and we were ready to head towards THE GRAND CANYON.