San Diego

Sculpture on San Diego waterfront. USS Medway Museum aircraft carrier on right.
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The last city on our trip was thoroughly enjoyable. San Diego had a much more relaxed vibe than Los Angeles and Las Vegas, everyone we met was friendly and we were put at ease straight away.

Joined the thousands of other tourists from around the world and hit the famous San Diego Zoo and Seaworld on our second day. Maybe we had overhyped it a bit, because the zoo was actually pretty average. It was a huge place with lots of variety, but nothing special. Didn't help that it was very hot, we spent half the time getting cold drinks and sitting in the shade.

San Diego had a much more relaxed vibe than Los Angeles or Las Vegas

Sunset over fishing boats on San Diego waterfront.
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Seaworld was a big improvement. Just as big as the zoo, but much bigger animal enclosures and tanks (which the girls were more pleased about) and lots more interaction. Highlight was the pool where you could reach in and feed the manta rays by hand. Also enjoyed the Orca show, though it was a bit overly patriotic for us non-American tourists at times.

The next day we decided to head down to the border and visit Tijuana in Mexico. Some last minute advice from the hostel was to leave the car on the US side and walk across. This turned out to be call of the day, since the queues of traffic coming back that evening would have meant at least an hours wait. US$8 to park up for the day and we wandered across the busiest border crossing in the world with no problems.

San Diego Zoo
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Getting mobbed by small kids and peddlers trying to sell you anything they could was a bit annoying to start with, but the girls soon got into bartering for cheap silver jewellery and it became a bit of a game. As in Thailand, you soon learn to ignore them and they just become part of the street scenery.

Visiting Tijuana means walking down just one street, the Avenida Revolucion. This is The Strip of Tijuana, with dozens of drugstores, souvenir shops and bars. We stopped and took a rest from the heat in one bar, had a few beers and a shot of tequila. Jay got to practice his Spanish, which was miles ahead of any of the rest of us.

Tequila shots in Tijuana
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There was a half hour queue of people waiting to walk back across the border to the US side, passports at the ready. I found the difference in security between travelling one way or the other quite amusing. Went for a bit more shopping at one of the outlet centres near the border crossing, then headed back into San Diego for a relaxed dinner in the Little Italy district.