Ah, while our friends and family on the East Coast were getting hammered with an early winter snow storm, we were enjoying a lovely weekend, complete with blue skies and temperatures in the 70’s. This was our final weekend in the San Diego area and we had lots left that we wanted to see and do.
But before I share our weekend adventures, I wanted to share the view we get every time we leave camp. It doesn’t matter if we’re heading into San Diego to go to the zoo, or just driving to Jamul to pick-up a newspaper, when we crest the first hill, this is what we see –

Now to be honest, we can’t always see the Pacific Ocean for the “ocean haze”, but even without the shimmer of the ocean, it’s a very impressive view.

The spot where I took the picture from is also the spot where we can get cell phone coverage. Yep, it’s a pretty popular hangout!
But I digress.
We got a late start on Friday (due to having some work done on the truck), but since it was such a beautiful day we decided to drive out to Coronado.

We pretty much drove through Downtown and crossed over this beautiful bridge to Coronado.

Even the view crossing the bridge was delightful –


And looking back at the city after crossing the bridge-

Coronado is home to (among other things!) the Hotel Del Coronado, a true Victorian hotel built in 1888, that somehow has managed to keep its doors open through the years. The film “Some Like it Hot” with Marilyn Monroe was filmed there, and today it is a true “high end” hotel experience.


We thought we’d check out the interior, but first we passed this –

We were a little puzzled, but within minutes, it looked like this –

Oh, right. Ice Skating. Southern California. Yeah, I get it.
($25.00/3 hour session – including skate rental. Just so you know!).
We opted NOT to go ice skating, but continued on exploring the beautiful hotel –


The place was all decked out for Christmas –

We ended our time in Coronado with a lovely walk on the beach,


and then took the “long way” (down the peninsula) back to downtown and our next destination – The Gaslamp Quarter.

I was glad we got to the Gaslamp Quarter, but in all honesty, it wasn’t really our cup of tea. Apart from some interesing architecture

it was all pretty much expensive (and delicious, I’m sure) restaurants with a couple of pricey shops in-between. It was an interesting walk, but we didn’t come close to using up all the time on our parking meter. Good news for the next guy!
After a quick stop at an In-N-Out Burger joint (a little more our speed), we called it a day. We needed to rest up for our big ZOO day on Saturday!
So – the San Diego Zoo.
Lots of folks had recommended the San Diego Zoo as a MUST SEE for our time in the area. We were delighted when we were given two guest passes since we weren’t sure we were going to be able to spring the $70.00 needed for our two tickets. It’s a beautiful zoo – and we were exhausted by the time we left just after dark. I’m not very happy with the pictures I took, but here, without too much commentary, is a selection of Zoo Pictures.


(how come they are never looking at the camera?)

These guys spend a lot of time sleeping.

I think zebras are amazing.

The closer the camera got

the more amazing it was!
Sorry, but evolution just doesn’t work here.

This panda wasn’t looking at something on the ground.

She was sound asleep high up in the tree.
I hope she doesn’t roll over!

For all his humps, I thought he looked kinda cool.

Who you lookin’ at……?

And of course, the flamingos. Some of the ducks just come for the free lunch program!
We got there early in the day, when the view from the tour bus looked like this –

And when we left, it looked like this –


Yep, a good (and long) day.

After church today we packed up the house, ran the vacuum cleaner, dumped the tanks, and bungeed down the coffee pot. We have a week to kill before we get on a plane to see the kids and grandkids for an after-Christmas Christmas. Could be an interesting week.
But the good news is that wherever we might be driving, it most certainly won’t be in snow!

Stay Warm, Friends!

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