San Diego Trip - Day Three (The Zoo)

DAY THREE

I’m an idiot. A moron. Not the brightest bulb in the box. A few fries short of a Happy Meal. More on that later.

My third day in San Diego started with a hotel switch. I was staying on my own money at a Quality Inn, in the not very affluent section of town. With the work convention starting on Friday evening, I switched to the ritzy Marriott Hotel and Marina, located next to the convention center on the bay. Missouri tax dollars at their finest. I opted for a cab for the transit between hotels and had what I would say is the fastest service imaginable. I called the cab company from my hotel room, with bags already packed and ready to go. As soon as I hung up the phone, I grabbed my luggage, went down the elevator four floors, walked out into the lobby, and the cab was waiting outside the front door.

After arriving at the Marriott, it was like night and day. For one, I could speak English at the check-in desk and not feel like I was speaking a foreign language. The Quality Inn staff spoke Spanish as their primary language. My room is on the 18^th floor, which is what I wanted, something as high as possible for the best view. Unfortunately, the view out my window faces the downtown area, and not out over the bay and the ocean. But I can see Petco Park – home of the San Diego Padres – about four blocks away from my window. That should be great the next few days when they have home games with fireworks after each game.

After checking in and getting settled, I headed out for the famous San Diego Zoo. It is an extremely large zoo and has a number of various animals and species. However, it would have been nice if some of those animals and species would have actually been on display. The koala bears were the first stop and there were a number of them out. Pretty boring though, as they sleep about 20 hours a day (my heros!). I then went to the elephants just in time to see them being led inside so their keepers could clean, and next to them the Rhino was sleeping and looked to be dead.

I made my way from there to the bear and lion area, only to discover one bear and no lions. Then it was off to the monkey area – never a disappointment. The gorillas were in their afternoon rest mode, so they weren’t very active but still funny to watch them watching us. One of them was sitting on a log with his back to the viewing area almost as if he were doing it on purpose. Every so often he would turn his head and sneak a peek to see if people were still watching him, then quickly turn back around and sit in a statuesque pose facing away from us. It was almost as if he was deliberately not turning around so we could see him. The orangutan were next and were hilarious. There was one baby and a mom and dad who were wrestling. The baby eventually went off on his own playing with branches of food, while the mom and dad continued to “wrestle.” I say wrestle, but it looked like maybe they were getting frisky. At one point, the male was on his back, legs spread and wrapped around the body of the female, with his hands on her head, holding it down in his crotch region. I’m not sure what monkeys consider foreplay to be, but there were a lot of parents blushing when their kids were asking what the monkeys were doing.

I moved on from there to the tiger and hippo area, only to find another missing animal. There was no tiger anywhere to be found. The hippo was there, just chillin’ in the water and was right up against the display glass, which was very cool. He kept opening his eyes and looking at all the kids tapping the glass in front of him, almost as if it was an expected but irritable part of his day. Next was the panda exhibit, which was very cool. There were only two on display, but they were eating and active and were really cool to watch. From there I went to the Polar Bear Plunge, only to find no plunging and no polar bear. I even went and got a quick snack - $7 for an ice-cream bar and water, ouch – and then came back to double check and still no polar bear.

Next was surprisingly one of the better areas, the horn and hoff mesa, that featured a lot of takins, deer, gazelle and giraffes. The takins are surprisingly cool to watch. They have them at the St. Louis zoo as well. They have a body like a cow, with the head that looks somewhat like that of a horse and tiny horns on top of their heads, and long, thick fur, and for some reason are always fun to watch move around. I got to the giraffe area in time to watch them being fed and quickly running around to be first in line at the food area. Another disappointing area was the cat canyon area, that was supposed to contain various wild cats, but contained nothing but empty cages.

I had now circled the entire zoo, and since I was back to where I started, I went back to the elephant and rhino area. With their play space cleaned, there were now three elephants walking around and doing their thing, so my decision to circle back to this area was a good move. One was washing himself, using his trunk to drink water then flipping his trunk back over his body and spraying the water on himself. Such a normal and simple daily task for an elephant that was funny to sit there and watch. The rhino was also awake and active, just walking around his large play area. It was amazing to watch an animal that weighs close to 4,000 pounds just walking around.

Before leaving, I stopped by to catch the sea lion show. Like Sea World a few days earlier, it was fun to watch the interaction of the trainers and the animals – although these trainers didn’t wear full-body diving suits. Overall, the zoo was just average. The paths and directions around the place were very complicated and hard to follow. I could never tell exactly where I was or how to get from one place to the next. I just had to walk around and hope for the best. The lack of animals in certain areas was disappointing as well. They had a wide variety of endangered animals and animals you don’t see at other zoos, but the lack of some of the popular animals (lions, tigers and bears, oh my), was a bit disappointing. They do have a ton of various birds around the whole place, but I’m not a big bird watching fan, so that didn’t appeal to me that much. Anyone from St. Louis, take pride, as I would rate the St. Louis zoo higher than the San Diego zoo. It may not have the variety of animals San Diego has, but it’s easier to find your way around and of course, the price is right.

After leaving the zoo, I decided to walk around Balboa Park, the area immediately around the zoo in the middle of the city. It houses a number of different museums and gardens, but I decided not to visit the museums as the cost for admissions was higher than the satisfaction I would have gotten from the actual museum. There just weren’t any museums that focused on things that would have been of interest to me. It was neat to walk around the park area and see the buildings though. Many of them had very intricate details etched in the buildings and the architecture reminded me of a lot of the buildings I saw when visiting Barcelona a few years ago.

From there it was back to the hotel and a shower, where I realized what a complete and total idiot I am. Or should I say reaffirmed what a complete and total idiot I am. After getting sun burn on my forehead the first day at Sea World, I figured I had conquered that problem by buying a hat. After the trip to the zoo, in which I wore the hat the whole day, I discovered that I should have bought I hat that had a bill in the back as well. I was wearing a regular t-shirt, which allowed the back of my neck to get completely fried. It got more red and burnt then even my forehead did two days earlier. Sad part was I actually had a small, travel size bottle of sun tan lotion with me. When I say with me, I don’t just mean in my hotel room with me on the trip, I mean it was in the pocket of my shorts with me at the zoo all day. Did I put it on at any point? Nope. Does that make me twice as dumb as normal? Possibly three times as dumb as normal. I just didn’t think about and it didn’t bother me until I got back to the hotel and went to take a shower. The minute the water hit my shoulders, I realized what a moron I am.

After a quick shower, it was off to the historic gaslamp district of San Diego for some dinner. There area about a gazillion restaurants in this area specializing in every different type of food imaginable. I settled on a simple Irish pub near the baseball stadium and ate outside before going back to the hotel and walking along the piers and bay area. While there, I ran into a couple of people I know from the convention. It was great to finally see familiar faces, but I have to admit I was a bit disappointed in being sidetracked from my plans to visit the park behind the marina to see the sunset, but what can you do? The rest of the night was spent sitting in the hotel visiting with a group of people from the convention until the wee hours of the night. At that point, I realized the fun and vacation part of the trip would have to be put on hold temporarily as the work part of the trip kicked in for the next few days.

San Diego - Day Two

It’s funny how things somehow seem to work out. I started my second day in San Diego by sleeping in and not starting until around 9 am. My plan was to go to Cabrillo National Park and Point Loma Lighthouse. I left the hotel thinking I had the bus schedule down pat. Turns out I didn’t. The bus stop by the hotel was the correct route, but evidently there is an A, B and C route for bus 28. The bus arrived, and I got on bus 28B. About 10 minutes later, I realized I needed to be on bus 28C. My first clue was when we passed the sign on the road that said “Cabrillo National Park – Turn Right,” and the bus went straight. A half-mile or so later, we pulled up to a security checkpoint to enter the US Naval Sub Base. At that point, I talked briefly with the driver about my dilemma of being on the wrong bus, and he said he would help me out. Since I do not have proper military credentials, I had to leave the bus and wait at the checkpoint while the driver continued his route through the base and back out through that checkpoint. After a 15 minute wait, he arrived and I got back on the same bus. At this point, the driver, who was an incredibly nice guy, basically said I had two options. The first option was to ride this current bus all the way back to the terminal area (about a 15-20 minute ride) and then get on a bus for route 28C. Since this involved another 15-20 minute ride back over basically the same route, I decided that was way too much time on the bus and not doing anything. Option two was I could get off the 28B bus a few stops down the road, cross the street and wait for the 28C bus to come by in the opposite direction. I went with option two. The driver stopped where I needed to get off and showed me where the stop was across the street that I needed to be at and gave me a bus time schedule/map. I thanked him and left. Once I got to the designated stop, I opened the time schedule/map and realized that the next 28C bus would be coming by that stop at around 11:05 am. I looked at the time and noticed it was currently 11:10 am. Opps. No problem, I’ll wait for the next bus, which, according to the schedule, would be arriving around 12:10 pm. Okay, that’s a bit of a problem. That’s a lot of time to kill. At this point, I was rather frustrated with myself and my unfortunate bad decision making and timing and set out to figure out a way to waste the next 45-50 minutes. I was determined to be at the correct stop at least 15 minutes early so as not to miss the next bus.

At this point, I started wandering around the area. The first place I stopped was a small, mom and pop drug store. After my complete breakdown in common sense the day before and the sun burnt forehead, I planned on getting a baseball hat of some sort to use the rest of the week. Originally, I planned on going to the national park and paying about twice as much for a normal hat and just get one there. Turns out, this mom and pop drugstore had San Diego baseball hats for $10. Sold. Problem one solved. Next, since I missed breakfast by sleeping in a little, and reading on a brochure that the Cabrillo National Park had no food services, I decided to grab some lunch. That killed an easy half hour and next thing I knew, it was 11:45. Perfect time to get to the bus stop. As I saw the 28C bus coming to the stop, I got up to get on the bus and saw a familiar face. The driver was the exact same driver I had earlier in the day when I was on the wrong bus. As he opened the door, he had a big grin and was somewhat chuckling and said this time I was on the right bus to get where I wanted to go. We had a pleasant chat over the 15-minute ride as he asked about my visit and I told him all the places I was hoping to visit while in town. Once we arrived at the park, he pulled out his back pack and gave me bus route schedules/maps that went to all the places I mentioned I wanted to see during the week. It was very gracious and will undoubtedly be helpful throughout the rest of the week.

The park itself was very nice. Nothing overly spectacular, but offered some amazing views of the city of San Diego and the harbor area. Sitting high atop a hill at the end of a peninsula just north of the downtown area, it is easy to see why this spot was chosen as a spot for the area’s first lighthouse. And why the US Army used this hill area as a defensive fortification during WWI and WWII. The park featured a 1.2 mile trail that went from the Point Loma lighthouse down the side of the cliffs and along the bay, which was very scenic and wasn’t a bad walk at all. But the 1.2 mile return trip, all uphill, was a different story. Still scenic, but a lot slower pace and a lot more breaks. The neat part was hearing all the seals out there on the rocks barking, but I couldn’t see them. Once going down the trail, I thought to myself this is a dry, sandy area with a lot of dry brush. I then worried whether or not I would encounter any snakes on the trail, which made me a little nervous. I did what I could to put that though out of mind and concentrated instead on the view of the ocean, the pelicans and seagulls flying around and the informational signs along the trail. Then I came to the sign that talked about how the California Rattlesnake was very common in this area. Great, just what I needed. The remainder of the trail walk featured a rather quicker pace on my part. Having not encountered any snakes or any other animals, I survived the trail other than being a little winded by the end. It was well worth it though to see some of the views the trail provided. As a whole, the park was like most national parks, it was a very scenic and offered tremendous views of nature, the water and of the city itself.

After a brief stop by the hotel room to relax a little, it was off again on the fabulous San Diego bus system. And believe it or not, this time I made no mistakes and found my way to where I was going and back with no problems. I took up the advice I got on the bus ride home yesterday, and went to Ocean Beach. It was a very interesting place to say the least. All of the stores and restaurants in the area were small, family owned places. Not one national franchise place around – except a Starbucks – which was nice. There were a handful of bars, Mexican restaurants, small cafes, little stores selling tie-dyed t-shirts, candle shops, and about half a dozen tattoo parlors. The people were another feature of the area that made it unique. You name it, and that type of person was there. Muscular tattooed guys, long haired hippies who came straight from the 1960s, the typical California surfer dude guys, and I swear I saw a dead ringer for Jason Mewes’ character Jay from the Kevin Smith movies. I also thought I smelled the smoke from some really strong cigarettes – the kind that are illegal in our country, or so I thought. Another interesting feature was the surfers. Not that I was surprised to see surfers in the ocean, but I was surprised to see a bunch of eight and nine year old kids out there surfing and doing it well.

I ended up eating at a place called The Blue Parrot, mainly because the name sounded cool. Not as cool as The Drunken Parrot, (inside joke) but it’ll work. As I left, I couldn’t help but wonder if cute waitresses see a single guy eating alone, and intentionally use words like “darling” and “sweetie,” knowing that it increases their chances at a higher tip. If so, it works. After eating, I took a stroll down the beach and walked in the Pacific Ocean, which is now the fourth major body of water around the world I’ve walked in (Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean Sea). I’ve always heard that the Pacific Ocean is fairly cold. As I walked and the surf washed up on me, I couldn’t help but wonder about the penguins I saw at Sea World the day before and if they came from this beach given the water’s temperature. The walk in the water didn’t last long due to the numbness in my feet and fighting through all the kelp that was washing up. It was amazing how much kelp was on the beach. It was everywhere and gave it a trashy appearance.

After strolling on the beach for a while, I then walked over to the Ocean Beach municipal pier, which is the second longest pier on the west coast. It was a T-shaped pier that extended forever out into the ocean, then split at the end for a couple hundred feet in both directions. There were fishers everywhere up and down the length of the pier, and provided a really good place to see the sunset. One of the oddities I did notice once I was out at the end of the pier on one of the ends of the T, I could see the outward facing side of the opposite end of the T. There was a wooden sign on it, facing out towards the ocean. I couldn’t help but wonder, who was that sign directed at and who did they expect to read it? A person would have to be at the top of a tall boat coming right up to the edge of the pier to have a chance at reading that sign. It was beautiful watching the sun disappear over the horizon from the pier though. It was mesmerizing to watch the sky change colors from a bright yellow, to a soft orange glow, to a bright red and finally to a purplish-pink color in the end. At one point, a sailboat crossed right in front of the sun as it approached the horizon, and numerous pelicans dove into the yellow reflection in the water going after their dinner for the evening. It was a very peaceful and relaxing experience.

San Diego Trip - Day One

Following the lead of a friend of mine who is chronicling his journey with posts on the web, I too figured I would write about my trip. Granted, my trip is not exactly on the same scale as Matt’s trip. I’m in San Diego for eight days, half of which is work related, the other half is vacation. Matt’s trip is a year-long journey to visit all seven continents and see as many wonders of the world as possible. I still thought it sounded like a good idea though. I likely won’t be nearly as good or as witty in my writing at Matt, but hey, if you don’t like it, just click that little “x” in the top right corner of your browser. (By the way, if you want to read about Matt’s journey, go to: www.tallmatt.com)

One important note to keep in mind when taking a trip, which I realized on the way to the airport: using a smaller suitcase and jamming in full of clothes and other items does not make it lighter than a larger suitcase that is packed partially full, just because it’s a smaller suitcase.

All airports now have stricter security in the post-September 11 days, and I have absolutely no problem at all with that despite the inconveniences. I totally understand. My only complaint on this trip was the 80-degree, 80% humidity weather in St. Louis was a bit uncomfortable, and waiting in the long security line with the air conditioner in the airport apparently off made the long wait incredibly annoying.

Once the flight started and the beverage/snack service began, I had my first encounter with the biggest scam in the airline industry. Since when do we have to start paying for food and drinks on a 3 ½ hour flight? I kid you not. And of course the prices were outrageous. Small, turkey sandwich on a bite-size bagel - $5. M&M Cookie - $3. Half-sized bottle of water - $2. All this after paying $450 for a ticket and they’re going to charge for snacks on a long flight like that? Is American Airlines in that much financial trouble? My next thought was to come up with some bogus medical excuse on why I needed a bottle of water to prevent some life threatening dilemma. That or look for some loose change in my floatable seat cushion. Mental note to buy some food at the airport before boarding the plane for the ride home. Check that – buy food at a store before arriving at the airport to avoid their equally over-priced food selections.

After getting checked into the hotel by a little past noon, I decided to hit Sea World for the afternoon. I love animals and any type of theme park that features animals, so I knew I would have a good time. Unlike a zoo, where the animals just sit there and you watch them, Sea World was more of an educational experience with workers constantly talking about the animals and doing “tricks” with them for the crowds. How appropriate that coming from St. Louis, the first thing I saw upon entering was the Anheuser-Busch area that featured a Clydesdale decked out in full Budweiser, pull the wagon gear. The Wild Arctic area featured a pair of white beluga whales which were different looking, and the penguin exhibit was next door so that came next. Having just missed the start of the dolphin show by about five minutes, I moved on and made a mental note of the start of the next show.

Next was the manatee rescue area, which I made just in time for their afternoon feeding. I’ve read and heard about manatees and the problems with them being endangered, but I had never really seen one before. They had three of them in the water and they were huge. It was amazing they could actually move around in the water and avoid staying afloat without sinking to the bottom. Despite their massive size, they were very smooth just gliding through the water. Next door was the shark encounter, which started off very disappointing. It was just a big tub of water with various types of small sharks swimming around. At the end, it saved itself a bit, with a big conveyer belt taking you through a tank with larger sharks swimming on both sides and directly above you. Very cool views of some very scary fish.

Next came some stalling, trying to find things to do in the area I was at so I could make sure to catch the next dolphin show. I stopped by the flamingo area, which was more interesting than I would have thought. Watching the weird looking birds was pretty amusing. Their next or so long and flexible, it led to some very odd looking contortions by the flamingos as they were cleaning themselves. It got real comical when a few starting fighting and biting each other and making one of the most annoying, god-awful shrieking sound I think I’ve ever heard.

I then went and watched an even louder animal, the sea lions, and their barking and belching sounds. There were a pair laying on the rocks that looked cute. One was laying on his/her belly, stretched out. The second was laying next to the first and had his/her head laying on the shoulder area of the first. They very looked comfy and content.

Another animal I saw while wasting some time was the sea turtles. I love them. Animals after my own heart. They all just sat there doing nothing but resting. One poor guy though, tried twice to climb up out of the water and onto the makeshift sand/beach. Both times he/she got the front half of their body out of the water and front flippers in the sand, but just couldn’t get the back side out of the water and he/she slid back into the water both times. I felt so bad because I could see this big ‘ol thing trying and literally grunting trying to pull him/herself out of the water but just couldn’t do it.

Then it was on to the dolphin show, which was really fun. I think the most amazing thing I noticed was watching the trainers – and it had nothing to do with the full-body, skin tight diving suits the female trainers were wearing. It was very interesting though watching the interaction the trainers had with the dolphins during the show. I don’t want to say the trainers controlled the dolphins, because they’re animals and are naturally unpredictable in their actions. But the hand signals the trainers used to communicate with the dolphins and the relationship between the two parties was really amazing to watch. Not to mention watching the amazing things the dolphins actually were doing. All in all, it was a great show that went by incredibly fast but was well worth it.

Next on the list was the best known inhabitant at Sea World – Shamu the killer whale. There were actually four or five of them, but Shamu is the headliner. Like the dolphins, I was again fascinated at the female trainers in their full-body, skin tight diving suits. And again, was amazed at the communication and interaction they had with these incredibly large animals. Where the dolphins were smaller and quicker, the killer whales were huge. It was amazing though to see these incredibly large animals easily glide through the water so smoothly and gracefully. They were so large, yet the trainers would get in the water with them and do tricks going under water and these big, strong whales were so delicate and precise in what they were doing it was amazing to watch. With their grace though, they also demonstrated their strength and power by using their tail to throw water up about 16 rows into the crowd. Following the show, I lingered around the back side of the stadium area and was able to see more the trainers and the whales doing things together and it was great to watch.

Then it was time for the ride home. I carefully studied the San Diego public bus transportation system and used their website to figure out what bus to take from the hotel, and where and witch bus route to switch to in order to get to Sea World. Where I failed was not looking up specifics for the ride back. I assumed it was the same as getting there, just in reverse. I was partially right. It was a different bus route leaving Sea World to the bus terminal where all routes converge, but that was no big deal. We had probably the most happy, enthusiastic public transportation driver I have ever seen in my life. This was a man who truly enjoyed his work. Upon arriving at the terminal, I departed that bus and went to the area for bus route 28C. I took 28B from the hotel to the terminal, and 28C was the same route, but in the opposite direction. However, I got very nervous when the bus at the sign for route 28 said 28A on it, and the time table chart informed me that the last 28C bus for the rest of the night left about 20 minutes ago. About the time I was ready to start looking for the cab stop, I asked a fellow bus traveler if this 28A bus would still go by the stop at Nimitz Blvd, the road where my hotel was located. She said it did and that was actually her stop as well. We then chatted on the bus ride and she was very kind and provided me with information on restaurants in the area I was staying, as well as other points of interest to visit while in San Diego and I was grateful for the bus stop help and the information on my visit.

After getting back and having dinner, I returned to my hotel room and realized what a complete and total idiot I am. I have always had this problem, thanks to my father, of having skin that is very sensitive to the sun and I burn easily. I especially burn easily on my forehead, where my hairline in continually moving backwards. I realized that the one thing I forgot to pack for my trip was a hat. I had suntan lotion, which I conveniently left back at the hotel, but I forgot the hat and now my forehead is burnt to crisp and glowing red. My plans for the second day are unknown for now, but whatever I decide to do, it will involve finding a store that sells hats.