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.