Trip Journal: 30th Anniversary Excursion to San Diego - Part 1
San Diego and Joshua Tree National Park, California
Thursday, October 25, through Saturday, November 3, 2018
Part 1: Introduction, Planning, Day 1 (travel) and Day 2 (San Diego Zoo).
Part 2: Day 3 (Safari Park), Day 4 (Balboa Park) and Day 5 (Coronado Island).
Part 3: Days 6 and 7 (Joshua Tree National Park).
Part 4: Day 8 (lazy day), Day 9 (Old Town), Day 10 (travel) and Wrap-up.
Thursday, October 25, through Saturday, November 3, 2018
Part 1: Introduction, Planning, Day 1 (travel) and Day 2 (San Diego Zoo).
Part 2: Day 3 (Safari Park), Day 4 (Balboa Park) and Day 5 (Coronado Island).
Part 3: Days 6 and 7 (Joshua Tree National Park).
Part 4: Day 8 (lazy day), Day 9 (Old Town), Day 10 (travel) and Wrap-up.
Introduction. The genesis of this trip was just a spur of the moment idea that I had sometime after we returned from our Page, Arizona, trip for the 2017 UTAH meet-up. As I recall, I just asked Lynn if she would like to do something special for our 30th wedding anniversary, which would be about a year out at that point. Is there someplace that she would like to go, with my suggestions that we stay in the continental U.S. (since we have a couple big trips coming up in the next couple of years) and be someplace warm (because we live in Ohio and winter will be approaching). She rattled off a few ideas then I told her to think about it for a bit as there was obviously plenty of time. We talked about this several times over the next few days. Lynn had her short list and I threw in my two cents as needed. We actually pretty quickly converged on San Diego as the destination. Lynn wanted to get back to see the zoo and Wild Animal Park (now called the Safari Park as we later learned), the weather is always great there and they have an outstanding craft beer scene. Sounds like a winner. I like zoos and beer, so I'm in! Now the fun of planning the trip can commence.
Planning Notes. I tend to divide a trip into three phases, the planning, the trip and the post-trip (very much the same as the three phases of a wind tunnel test project at work, pre-test, test and post-test). As usual, as soon as we had a destination and the general dates, I started the research and trip planning. Our exact dates were not etched in stone, but we knew we were centering the trip around our anniversary and since we are going to the west coast, we'll make it a worthwhile duration, something on the order of ten days.
Lynn got more involved with the planning for this trip as well (she usually lets me work out the details then she acts as the review board). She started looking at rental houses in the Balboa Park area and found a nice looking cottage on HomeAway. Looks like a nice location, probably walking distance to the zoo and there are plenty of dining options nearby as well. I contacted the owner and we secured our tentative dates. The owner worked with us and allowed us some flexibility in setting our dates. Once we get the airfare in place we can lock in the exact dates.
I was also working on transportation, both airfare and ground. If we were just going to be doing local stuff in the vicinity of our rental house we could have gotten away with just walking or ride-sharing (Uber and Lyft) for the trip. But we will be going to the Safari Park which will require a car at least for a day. Plus it looks like Joshua Tree National Park is within a reasonable driving distance of San Diego so we will try to work that into the itinerary. OK, a rental car will be needed. I looked for off-airport sites, but there was nothing near our house, so renting from the airport is the path we will take.
I started looking at airfare in early November which was too far out for our dates but would start to give me an idea of cost and itinerary. As expected there were no direct flights from CLE to San Diego. When we visited in 2004 we flew direct into LAX and drove to San Diego. That worked out well and I'll keep it on the list of options, but I would prefer just flying into SAN as that just takes the whole LA traffic wildcard out of play. The initial look at flight costs (again, not our exact dates so there could be some play in the numbers) showed the cheapest round-trip fare to San Diego at $600 while there were flights into LAX for around $200. Cost wise, if we can get CLE to LAX direct for that rate then make the 2-hour drive to San Diego that could be the way to go. However, if we do fly into LAX, I will need to include into the mix when to travel to minimize traffic issues. Weekends are probably lighter traffic. What about Friday evening driving into LA from the south? If we fly out of LAX, a morning departure would be desired so we would probably stay near LAX the night before. There are a lot of details to consider so that we can make this a smooth, low-stress trip.
The other point that I found during my preliminary flight research was to pay attention to the travel dates. For example, a one day difference in return date made about an $800 dollar difference in the flight cost for the same flight times (looking at United flights). But airfares for flights into San Diego were starting to drop into the $400 per person range for round-trip with one-stop each direction, so that's becoming reasonable. Plus I have United vouchers available from the SNAFU on the flight to Glacier (the thinking was to use the vouchers on this trip or the Wyoming trip, but we ended up using United miles to pay for Wyoming, so I did end up using the vouchers for San Diego).
During one of our date night visits to Fat Heads tap house in early December, we continued our planning and I checked flights. Our dates were finally available. There was a good looking itinerary and rates for Thursday 10/25 departure and return on Saturday 11/3 (returning on Sunday would cost an extra grand!). Once we were home I got on United.com to make the reservations; the costs actually dropped since I looked at Fat Heads! We got our flights for just under $800 total, less the $300 in vouchers, so about $250 per person. I'll call that a good deal.
OK, house and flights are booked. Time to circle back to the car. Renting from the airport is still the best option logistically. From a cost perspective SixT had the best price (OK, there were better costs from the cut-rate companies, but I try to avoid the lower tier providers; SixT is not high on my list but I have had success with them in the past, so I'll roll the dice on them again). I got an intermediate SUV for 10 days for $360 at the airport, so not too bad. Again, if we had a firm schedule on when we would need the car, I might have been able to rent just for a couple days, but since we knew we were likely to shuffle our plans each day it was better just to have the car available to provide the flexibility and keep the headaches to a minimum.
Now all the pieces are in place. We will travel out on the morning of Thursday, October 25, and return on Saturday, November 3. That puts our anniversary on Monday, right about the middle of the trip. None of the activities that we are thinking of require advance reservations, so our schedule in San Diego is completely flexible. We know we'll visit the zoo, the Safari Park, Balboa Park, probably Old Town and Coronado Island and at least a day-trip to Joshua Tree. Plenty of time to fit all and more into our schedule.
For Joshua Tree National Park, we kept vacillating on making this just a day-trip or an overnight excursion. It is a three-hour drive to the park, so doing this as a day trip would make for a long day of driving and would limit our time in the park. The overnight gig would mean paying for a room when we already have the house paid for, but that's not a major cost (there are plenty of low-cost yet nice looking lodging options just outside the park). We did not settle this debate until our trip to Ohiopyle State Park in May when we met-up with Donna, Oscar, Rhonda and Chris (members of the TripAdvisor Herd). Their unanimous and emphatic advice was to go for the overnight stay. It is a National Park and there is plenty to see and do that would require the better part of two days. Plus, Joshua Tree is a dark night sky park, so just another reason to be there overnight. Besides, Lynn and I both think this is likely to be our one shot at this park, due to the relative remoteness, so might as well give it the additional time. And this keeps with our theme of reducing the stress. OK, that's settled. When we go during the trip will be a game-time decision, but we'll figure that out based on weather and just what we feel like doing.
Now that we have that point settled, I had to put the planning for the San Diego trip on the backburner through the summer and early fall, basically until just a couple weeks before the trip. That was due to a very busy travel schedule throughout the summer, but particularly from early August. Once we got back from the UTAH meet-up in Torrey, then I was able to put a little more thinking into the trip.
A quick Google search provided a lot of information on the local beer scene. Seems that 30th Street through North Park is a hopping place and there are several great sounding options for food and beer. I came across a handy walking tour of the top ten beer pubs and breweries along or just off of 30th Street; that will be useful. Plus I reviewed a few other websites for menus and tap lists. One that really piqued by interest was Beer Fish. I mean the name just sounds like a winner. The food menu is more along my tastes more so than Lynn's but I think that she can find something that she likes. But the clincher was the current tap list. They have Pliney the Elder! I've tried this mythical Imperial IPA once and it was very good, but I would really like to try it on tap. We’ll just have to see if I can get there before they blow the keg.
Typically I'm able to find answers to most of my travel questions just by searching through the TripAdvisor forums (no sense asking the same questions over and over), but I did post a couple questions on the San Diego forum, primarily about the timing of our excursions to the Safari Park and Joshua Tree in order to avoid crowds and traffic. The collective wisdom of the forum regulars was that the weekend would be best for traffic but crowds were not expected to be an issue at either location. I also got a lot of great recommendations for restaurants and breweries in the North Park area of San Diego, where our rental house is located. Plus just reading the existing posts and replies on Joshua Tree forum really paid off as I found a gold mine of suggestions in one post from LA_Dweller; great information on hiking and things to see in the park. Gotta love TA!
On Tuesday the 23rd, so just a couple days before departure, Lynn and I met one of my buddies from work to get his perspective on the San Diego beer scene. Joe has been to San Diego several times over the past couple of years for business and to visit friends and has explored the beer scene there. So we convened at the new Fat Heads location in Middleburg Heights, had some frickles, a few beers and talked about places to try new beers in San Diego. Joe had a list already written up for us, so we went over that (he also provided some additional detail the following day based on our discussion:
Planning Notes. I tend to divide a trip into three phases, the planning, the trip and the post-trip (very much the same as the three phases of a wind tunnel test project at work, pre-test, test and post-test). As usual, as soon as we had a destination and the general dates, I started the research and trip planning. Our exact dates were not etched in stone, but we knew we were centering the trip around our anniversary and since we are going to the west coast, we'll make it a worthwhile duration, something on the order of ten days.
Lynn got more involved with the planning for this trip as well (she usually lets me work out the details then she acts as the review board). She started looking at rental houses in the Balboa Park area and found a nice looking cottage on HomeAway. Looks like a nice location, probably walking distance to the zoo and there are plenty of dining options nearby as well. I contacted the owner and we secured our tentative dates. The owner worked with us and allowed us some flexibility in setting our dates. Once we get the airfare in place we can lock in the exact dates.
I was also working on transportation, both airfare and ground. If we were just going to be doing local stuff in the vicinity of our rental house we could have gotten away with just walking or ride-sharing (Uber and Lyft) for the trip. But we will be going to the Safari Park which will require a car at least for a day. Plus it looks like Joshua Tree National Park is within a reasonable driving distance of San Diego so we will try to work that into the itinerary. OK, a rental car will be needed. I looked for off-airport sites, but there was nothing near our house, so renting from the airport is the path we will take.
I started looking at airfare in early November which was too far out for our dates but would start to give me an idea of cost and itinerary. As expected there were no direct flights from CLE to San Diego. When we visited in 2004 we flew direct into LAX and drove to San Diego. That worked out well and I'll keep it on the list of options, but I would prefer just flying into SAN as that just takes the whole LA traffic wildcard out of play. The initial look at flight costs (again, not our exact dates so there could be some play in the numbers) showed the cheapest round-trip fare to San Diego at $600 while there were flights into LAX for around $200. Cost wise, if we can get CLE to LAX direct for that rate then make the 2-hour drive to San Diego that could be the way to go. However, if we do fly into LAX, I will need to include into the mix when to travel to minimize traffic issues. Weekends are probably lighter traffic. What about Friday evening driving into LA from the south? If we fly out of LAX, a morning departure would be desired so we would probably stay near LAX the night before. There are a lot of details to consider so that we can make this a smooth, low-stress trip.
The other point that I found during my preliminary flight research was to pay attention to the travel dates. For example, a one day difference in return date made about an $800 dollar difference in the flight cost for the same flight times (looking at United flights). But airfares for flights into San Diego were starting to drop into the $400 per person range for round-trip with one-stop each direction, so that's becoming reasonable. Plus I have United vouchers available from the SNAFU on the flight to Glacier (the thinking was to use the vouchers on this trip or the Wyoming trip, but we ended up using United miles to pay for Wyoming, so I did end up using the vouchers for San Diego).
During one of our date night visits to Fat Heads tap house in early December, we continued our planning and I checked flights. Our dates were finally available. There was a good looking itinerary and rates for Thursday 10/25 departure and return on Saturday 11/3 (returning on Sunday would cost an extra grand!). Once we were home I got on United.com to make the reservations; the costs actually dropped since I looked at Fat Heads! We got our flights for just under $800 total, less the $300 in vouchers, so about $250 per person. I'll call that a good deal.
OK, house and flights are booked. Time to circle back to the car. Renting from the airport is still the best option logistically. From a cost perspective SixT had the best price (OK, there were better costs from the cut-rate companies, but I try to avoid the lower tier providers; SixT is not high on my list but I have had success with them in the past, so I'll roll the dice on them again). I got an intermediate SUV for 10 days for $360 at the airport, so not too bad. Again, if we had a firm schedule on when we would need the car, I might have been able to rent just for a couple days, but since we knew we were likely to shuffle our plans each day it was better just to have the car available to provide the flexibility and keep the headaches to a minimum.
Now all the pieces are in place. We will travel out on the morning of Thursday, October 25, and return on Saturday, November 3. That puts our anniversary on Monday, right about the middle of the trip. None of the activities that we are thinking of require advance reservations, so our schedule in San Diego is completely flexible. We know we'll visit the zoo, the Safari Park, Balboa Park, probably Old Town and Coronado Island and at least a day-trip to Joshua Tree. Plenty of time to fit all and more into our schedule.
For Joshua Tree National Park, we kept vacillating on making this just a day-trip or an overnight excursion. It is a three-hour drive to the park, so doing this as a day trip would make for a long day of driving and would limit our time in the park. The overnight gig would mean paying for a room when we already have the house paid for, but that's not a major cost (there are plenty of low-cost yet nice looking lodging options just outside the park). We did not settle this debate until our trip to Ohiopyle State Park in May when we met-up with Donna, Oscar, Rhonda and Chris (members of the TripAdvisor Herd). Their unanimous and emphatic advice was to go for the overnight stay. It is a National Park and there is plenty to see and do that would require the better part of two days. Plus, Joshua Tree is a dark night sky park, so just another reason to be there overnight. Besides, Lynn and I both think this is likely to be our one shot at this park, due to the relative remoteness, so might as well give it the additional time. And this keeps with our theme of reducing the stress. OK, that's settled. When we go during the trip will be a game-time decision, but we'll figure that out based on weather and just what we feel like doing.
Now that we have that point settled, I had to put the planning for the San Diego trip on the backburner through the summer and early fall, basically until just a couple weeks before the trip. That was due to a very busy travel schedule throughout the summer, but particularly from early August. Once we got back from the UTAH meet-up in Torrey, then I was able to put a little more thinking into the trip.
A quick Google search provided a lot of information on the local beer scene. Seems that 30th Street through North Park is a hopping place and there are several great sounding options for food and beer. I came across a handy walking tour of the top ten beer pubs and breweries along or just off of 30th Street; that will be useful. Plus I reviewed a few other websites for menus and tap lists. One that really piqued by interest was Beer Fish. I mean the name just sounds like a winner. The food menu is more along my tastes more so than Lynn's but I think that she can find something that she likes. But the clincher was the current tap list. They have Pliney the Elder! I've tried this mythical Imperial IPA once and it was very good, but I would really like to try it on tap. We’ll just have to see if I can get there before they blow the keg.
Typically I'm able to find answers to most of my travel questions just by searching through the TripAdvisor forums (no sense asking the same questions over and over), but I did post a couple questions on the San Diego forum, primarily about the timing of our excursions to the Safari Park and Joshua Tree in order to avoid crowds and traffic. The collective wisdom of the forum regulars was that the weekend would be best for traffic but crowds were not expected to be an issue at either location. I also got a lot of great recommendations for restaurants and breweries in the North Park area of San Diego, where our rental house is located. Plus just reading the existing posts and replies on Joshua Tree forum really paid off as I found a gold mine of suggestions in one post from LA_Dweller; great information on hiking and things to see in the park. Gotta love TA!
On Tuesday the 23rd, so just a couple days before departure, Lynn and I met one of my buddies from work to get his perspective on the San Diego beer scene. Joe has been to San Diego several times over the past couple of years for business and to visit friends and has explored the beer scene there. So we convened at the new Fat Heads location in Middleburg Heights, had some frickles, a few beers and talked about places to try new beers in San Diego. Joe had a list already written up for us, so we went over that (he also provided some additional detail the following day based on our discussion:
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Joe had not explored along 30th Street, so no help there but he provided a lot of other great ideas. I rattled off a few of the places that I had studied to see if they rung any bells. He thought that he had been to Mike Hess Brewing but later remembered that it was Karl Strauss and that was where they found their favorite fish tacos. I mentioned Beer Fish that they had Pliney the Elder on tap. Joe concurred that this was a must do!
Almost time to go! Wednesday the 24th was our last day in the office before the trip. Not a lot of ambition this morning. But we made it in and my day was fairly relaxed, just chunked through the to-do list, answered a few emails and made sure that things are covered for next week. Looks like all is well.
We left work on time at 4:30, then home for chores and trip prep. I had a couple work items to clean up from a late afternoon telecon, but everything was done by 8:30 and we were staked out with a Bloodhound Blood Orange IPA and watching "Where Eagles Dare" by about 9:00. Vacation is upon us! We have our plans for tomorrow morning in place. Maybe just a little bit of a rush but it should not be too bad since we have the vast majority of the trip prep done.
Our starting plan was in place, but we both knew that this was all tentative and we would shuffle things around as needed. But it is always best to have a starting plan in place so we don't waste time with the "I don't know, what do you want to do?" dilemma.
Almost time to go! Wednesday the 24th was our last day in the office before the trip. Not a lot of ambition this morning. But we made it in and my day was fairly relaxed, just chunked through the to-do list, answered a few emails and made sure that things are covered for next week. Looks like all is well.
We left work on time at 4:30, then home for chores and trip prep. I had a couple work items to clean up from a late afternoon telecon, but everything was done by 8:30 and we were staked out with a Bloodhound Blood Orange IPA and watching "Where Eagles Dare" by about 9:00. Vacation is upon us! We have our plans for tomorrow morning in place. Maybe just a little bit of a rush but it should not be too bad since we have the vast majority of the trip prep done.
Our starting plan was in place, but we both knew that this was all tentative and we would shuffle things around as needed. But it is always best to have a starting plan in place so we don't waste time with the "I don't know, what do you want to do?" dilemma.
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That's as much of a plan as we had. We'll figure out the details as we go.
Day 1, Thursday, October 25, 2018 - Getting to San Diego. Lynn's alarm sounded at 0455, so I turned off my 0500 chime. Time for a quick stretch. I scratched Peanut's ears when she walked across the bed to say good morning, then rolled out from under the warm covers to get the day rolling. We still have to get ready, finish the final packing details, complete the normal morning chores and still be on the road by 6:30. We decided just to grab breakfast at the airport and for efficiency sake, Lynn hit the shower first while I went about my chores. Somewhere between feeding the cats and finishing the packing, I got the text from United, time stamped at 0526, stating that our flight from CLE to Houston was delayed from 9:05 to 12:00. Yikes, that might be cutting it close on the connection even considering the 3-hour layover we have. I checked the itinerary and sure enough we were down to 35 minutes between our scheduled arrival in Houston and departure to San Diego. That will be cutting it close. Hopefully United will be watching out for us. With the delay, we can relax a bit this morning, but we will still get to the airport sooner rather than later to see what options we have.
We finished getting ready, loaded our gear in the Edge and were on the road at 7:05. We could have made our original 0630 departure time, but instead spent some time with the cats. Cold this morning at 30 F, under partly cloudy skies. The Hunter's Moon was really lighting up the otherwise dark morning. The sun was just starting to cause a bit of color on the edge of the eastern horizon, just thin lines of purple, crimson, orange and yellow. We enjoyed watching the sunrise evolve as we drove north. We're just heading straight to Park Place this morning, no sense in messing around with the Orange Lot as the offsite parking is cheaper and just as convenient. Plus with the rewards card I will get points for free parking, so bonus. We were quickly parked, loaded on the bus and headed to CLE at 0745. The temperature reading on the Park Place sign read 35 F. Better than in Medina, but still chilly.
Quick ride over to Hopkins, then the short walk from the shuttle drop into the terminal. The escalator up to the ticketing level is still out of order. It has been like this since we went to Torrey; how long does it take to rebuild one of these contraptions? Not very crowded this morning. We stepped right up to one of the United check in kiosks but it told us to talk to an agent as there is an issue with our flight. We knew that, but it is good to know that United is working the issue. Turns out that the guy at the next kiosk is in the same boat, I mean plane, and he and the agent are looking at options for San Diego. Sounds like there is a viable work around. Another agent, Mary E., stepped up to help us. Turns out that we were already rerouted through Chicago. Odd that I did not get a text about this but that's OK as I am now working with a real person rather than just a phone. Mary said she could get us out on an earlier flight to Chicago, but that one was leaving in less than 30 minutes and we still had to get the rebooking details in place and get through security. Hey, we're on vacation, let's take the later flight as already scheduled and keep to the relaxed plan. Mary was good with that. She tapped a few more keys, checked our IDs and gave us our boarding passes. We are back in business. The funny thing is that we get into San Diego 30 minutes earlier than our original itinerary. That truly is a bonus.
Off into airport land. Through security at 0815, so still pretty quick from the time we left home, even with the ticket rework. We made the standard stop at the bookstore for Lynn then headed to the United Club. We might as well use the last of our free passes as they expire in November anyway. Besides, it is nicer here than just hanging out at the gate.
We chilled in the lounge until boarding time. Decent array of items for breakfast, but nothing hot except oatmeal. But the chairs are comfy, the power outlets are plentiful and it is quiet, except for folks on their phones (of course I was guilty of making a call as well). We arrived at the gate just after the initial announcements, so almost perfect timing. We queued up at the back of the boarding mob 2 and waited. But we all got on and were off to Chicago with an on time departure.
Quick hop from CLE to ORD but a bit bumpy. Once off the plane we got the gate reassignment update. Rather than being right next to our arrival gate in the C concourse our departure is now from gate B5 so we have a little hoofing to do. No worries, the walk will do us good and the underground path has some interesting lighting features. Now that we have found the gate we looked for something to eat. Not a lot of options. We finally grabbed a sandwich from a Mediterranean fast food place then went back to the gate to eat. We swapped halves of our sandwiches for a little variety but agreed that we each liked the one we ordered best, not that either was great but it was fuel.
Looks like United has overbooked our flight. No surprise there. The gate agent is looking for one passenger to take a later flight. Not my problem today. Their initial offer was a $500 voucher but they had to sweeten the pot to $800 to get a taker. They must have gotten someone as we boarded on time and departed a couple minutes early.
What's up with all the Fighting Irish folks? There were several on our flight from Cleveland and even more on this fight. It finally dawned on me as I was watching more Notre Dame fans in their gaudy green garb file onto the plane, they are playing Navy this weekend in San Diego. I must say, Notre Dame fans do travel well. This will probably be like a home game for them as I only saw one old guy sporting a Navy hat when we got to San Diego. All I can say is Go Navy!
Day 1, Thursday, October 25, 2018 - Getting to San Diego. Lynn's alarm sounded at 0455, so I turned off my 0500 chime. Time for a quick stretch. I scratched Peanut's ears when she walked across the bed to say good morning, then rolled out from under the warm covers to get the day rolling. We still have to get ready, finish the final packing details, complete the normal morning chores and still be on the road by 6:30. We decided just to grab breakfast at the airport and for efficiency sake, Lynn hit the shower first while I went about my chores. Somewhere between feeding the cats and finishing the packing, I got the text from United, time stamped at 0526, stating that our flight from CLE to Houston was delayed from 9:05 to 12:00. Yikes, that might be cutting it close on the connection even considering the 3-hour layover we have. I checked the itinerary and sure enough we were down to 35 minutes between our scheduled arrival in Houston and departure to San Diego. That will be cutting it close. Hopefully United will be watching out for us. With the delay, we can relax a bit this morning, but we will still get to the airport sooner rather than later to see what options we have.
We finished getting ready, loaded our gear in the Edge and were on the road at 7:05. We could have made our original 0630 departure time, but instead spent some time with the cats. Cold this morning at 30 F, under partly cloudy skies. The Hunter's Moon was really lighting up the otherwise dark morning. The sun was just starting to cause a bit of color on the edge of the eastern horizon, just thin lines of purple, crimson, orange and yellow. We enjoyed watching the sunrise evolve as we drove north. We're just heading straight to Park Place this morning, no sense in messing around with the Orange Lot as the offsite parking is cheaper and just as convenient. Plus with the rewards card I will get points for free parking, so bonus. We were quickly parked, loaded on the bus and headed to CLE at 0745. The temperature reading on the Park Place sign read 35 F. Better than in Medina, but still chilly.
Quick ride over to Hopkins, then the short walk from the shuttle drop into the terminal. The escalator up to the ticketing level is still out of order. It has been like this since we went to Torrey; how long does it take to rebuild one of these contraptions? Not very crowded this morning. We stepped right up to one of the United check in kiosks but it told us to talk to an agent as there is an issue with our flight. We knew that, but it is good to know that United is working the issue. Turns out that the guy at the next kiosk is in the same boat, I mean plane, and he and the agent are looking at options for San Diego. Sounds like there is a viable work around. Another agent, Mary E., stepped up to help us. Turns out that we were already rerouted through Chicago. Odd that I did not get a text about this but that's OK as I am now working with a real person rather than just a phone. Mary said she could get us out on an earlier flight to Chicago, but that one was leaving in less than 30 minutes and we still had to get the rebooking details in place and get through security. Hey, we're on vacation, let's take the later flight as already scheduled and keep to the relaxed plan. Mary was good with that. She tapped a few more keys, checked our IDs and gave us our boarding passes. We are back in business. The funny thing is that we get into San Diego 30 minutes earlier than our original itinerary. That truly is a bonus.
Off into airport land. Through security at 0815, so still pretty quick from the time we left home, even with the ticket rework. We made the standard stop at the bookstore for Lynn then headed to the United Club. We might as well use the last of our free passes as they expire in November anyway. Besides, it is nicer here than just hanging out at the gate.
We chilled in the lounge until boarding time. Decent array of items for breakfast, but nothing hot except oatmeal. But the chairs are comfy, the power outlets are plentiful and it is quiet, except for folks on their phones (of course I was guilty of making a call as well). We arrived at the gate just after the initial announcements, so almost perfect timing. We queued up at the back of the boarding mob 2 and waited. But we all got on and were off to Chicago with an on time departure.
Quick hop from CLE to ORD but a bit bumpy. Once off the plane we got the gate reassignment update. Rather than being right next to our arrival gate in the C concourse our departure is now from gate B5 so we have a little hoofing to do. No worries, the walk will do us good and the underground path has some interesting lighting features. Now that we have found the gate we looked for something to eat. Not a lot of options. We finally grabbed a sandwich from a Mediterranean fast food place then went back to the gate to eat. We swapped halves of our sandwiches for a little variety but agreed that we each liked the one we ordered best, not that either was great but it was fuel.
Looks like United has overbooked our flight. No surprise there. The gate agent is looking for one passenger to take a later flight. Not my problem today. Their initial offer was a $500 voucher but they had to sweeten the pot to $800 to get a taker. They must have gotten someone as we boarded on time and departed a couple minutes early.
What's up with all the Fighting Irish folks? There were several on our flight from Cleveland and even more on this fight. It finally dawned on me as I was watching more Notre Dame fans in their gaudy green garb file onto the plane, they are playing Navy this weekend in San Diego. I must say, Notre Dame fans do travel well. This will probably be like a home game for them as I only saw one old guy sporting a Navy hat when we got to San Diego. All I can say is Go Navy!
During the flight I worked a few puzzles and caught up on notes from both the Wyoming and Utah trips. Between my Cross Sums book and the Soduku puzzles in the United magazine, I manage to entertain myself. The nice thing about flying out in October and back in November is that I'll get two new puzzles from United to fret about for the return trip since the new magazine will be in the seatback pocket. At some point I glanced out the window and could see the irrigation circles scattered across the plains then snowcapped mountains. Where are we? I could not find the United flight tracking page right away, although it did eventually surface, so I tried Ramblr. Hey, it works! By the time I got this working we were over south central Colorado, cruising at 35,000 feet at around 520 mph. Cool. I kept an eye on both the view and the phone to see if I could recognize any places that we had been. I was in seat 10A so looking south out of our winged tube as we flew over the desert southwest. We ended up passing south of the Grand Canyon and Joshua Tree so I could not see them but I did pick out Cameron Trading Post, Lake Havasu and the Salton Sea. It was interesting to note how brown and seemingly uninhabited the region was until we were descending into San Diego when “Poof!” civilization and vegetation suddenly spring up from the desert. The other interesting observation is how impressive closing speed is for two aircraft traveling about 80% of the speed of sound! I spotted a few eastbound jets passing by at lower altitude. They were gone in a blink if an eye. 1100 MPH.
Since wifi was available on the flight, I did a little web surfing to continue developing our plan, including checking the weather forecast. San Diego weather looks ideal all week, but it will be really hot in Joshua Tree over the weekend (85 to 90 degrees F) but then cools down starting on Tuesday for the rest of the week. Might be good to delay that excursion by a few days. But otherwise, it looks like we'll have perfect weather to do whatever we want whenever we want.
Since wifi was available on the flight, I did a little web surfing to continue developing our plan, including checking the weather forecast. San Diego weather looks ideal all week, but it will be really hot in Joshua Tree over the weekend (85 to 90 degrees F) but then cools down starting on Tuesday for the rest of the week. Might be good to delay that excursion by a few days. But otherwise, it looks like we'll have perfect weather to do whatever we want whenever we want.
We landed about 30 minutes ahead of schedule and over an hour earlier than our original itinerary. Nice to get some time back from the airlines. As we walked through the concourse, Lynn realized that she has never been in this airport since we flew into LAX and drove down for our 2004 visit. I've been through here a few times recently for AIAA travel and remember chatting briefly with Mike Griffin here during one of those trips. As we continued toward baggage claim, I mentioned to Lynn about the heat in Joshua Tree this weekend; she concurred that postponing until later in the trip made sense.
Once we made our way down to baggage claim I scouted the area to see where the rental car shuttle pick-up is. Looks like we are in Terminal 2 so the shuttle should be right outside and across the road according to the email info from SixT. Yep, there's signage pointing the way so no issues there. Now we just need our bags. The bags were a little slow arriving at the carousel but they finally appeared. It is funny to watch folks crowd along the edge of the belt waiting for their bags. Lynn and I generally stand well away from the start of the belt and three or four paces away from the edge, close enough to see but still providing plenty of room for folks to maneuver around and get their bags. By the time the bags starting coming out there were a half dozen people jammed in front of me and Lynn. Of course our bags came out before those of the squatters in front of us so we had to do the "excuse me, pardon me" gig to wade through the pack. But we survived and headed to the shuttle bus pick-up station.
This is the first time I have used the rental car terminal as I just grab a cab or Uber when on business here. Big facility. The canned spiel on the bus indicated that the consolidated rental car terminal is 2 million square feet. That's a lot of space for cars. I hope ours is ready.
This is my third or fourth experience with SixT for a rental car. Past experience has shown mixed results, either a home run or a complete cluster... a real mess. I can usually find a good price with SixT, but they just seem like a typical corner cutting outfit. My experience is that they are a lot less expedient than other rental car companies, just not as organized. I would much rather deal with Enterprise or Hertz, when the price allows. But we got through with minimal hassle. I will say that Alahna, the young lady we dealt with, was pleasant and helpful. She did try to get us into a luxury SUV at “half price,” but we opted to stick with our good deal on the Jeep Compass (I did not even ask what the cost would have been for the luxury model). During the course of the check-in process she asked why we were visiting and I mentioned our 30th wedding anniversary. Alanna suggested Ki's in Del Mar for dinner. Something to keep in mind. She finally got the rental details all sorted out (I guess I booked through Priceline which is not typical for me, and that apparently gives their system fits). She went through the standard disclaimers like avoiding toll roads and not taking the car to Mexico, then sent us to the third floor of the garage to get our ride. Hey, there’s a Ranger Rover; I bet that was the luxury model we could have had. After a quick inspection of our white Jeep Compass (just a few areas of chipped paint) and taking a few moments to get the coordinates from the navicomputer (OK, I just punched in the address for the VRBO into Google Maps on Baby, but I am a Star Wars geek), we were heading down the spiral ramp from the garage an on to our next adventure.
After what seemed like a rather indirect route we arrived at the house right at 4:00, so perfect timing. The entry instructions worked this trip so no worries there. First order of business was to just explore the house and see what we had to work with. This is a great little cottage. Perfect for two people. The outside spaces look very inviting, so we'll have options for our usual afternoon beer on the patio. The interior was very homey and quaint. It reminded me of the house that Uncle Jim and Aunt Lois lived in down in "south" Mullens. This should work out nicely.
We retrieved our gear out of the Jeep and got everything organized in the house and made a quick perusal of the kitchen supplies. Next stop was the grocery store.
As we were getting ready to get in the Jeep, the home owner, Rick, was walking up to the gate. Nice fellow with a great handlebar mustache. He gave us some pointers on places to eat and grocery store options in the area (of course he had already provided an even longer list via email before we arrived). He was just checking in and collecting the garbage cans from the back alley. We asked about Halloween in the neighborhood and Rick indicated that there will be plenty of Trick-or-treaters on Wednesday, if we want to participate or just keep the gate closed if we don't. Living in the country, we never get the little ghouls and goblins, so it might be fun to play for once. We left Rick to his chores and we went out for our scout of the area. Vonn's was my target for groceries but we'll keep an eye open for Rick's suggestions. Since we are just looking for simple supplies, any place will probably do.
We meandered our way over to 30th street. There are a lot of stop signs, some four way some not, and it seems that the right if way road changes from north-south to east-west without reason. And there are a couple traffic circles thrown into the mix just for fun. So we just need to pay attention as we drive through the neighborhood. Once we reached 30th, I turned north looking for restaurants, brewpubs and grocery stores. We found several in all categories, so there was no shortage of beer or food. Shoot there was even a farmer's market set up along one of the streets off of 30th. That might be fun to check out. We turned around just past Adams Avenue. There were plenty of places to check out and lots of people to watch. The advice I had seen about driving was certainly true, this was not exactly the most car friendly place in terms of parking. No worries, we can walk it easily. We had spotted Vons on our northbound trip so we opted just to stop there as it was convenient. This is just s standard supermarket so it had all we wanted, although the beer selection was not as varied as I had hoped, nor did they offer "build your own 6-packs." Maybe that is not allowed in California. Someone should build a website listing the beverage purchase laws by state. That could be useful. Utah would need its own dedicated site.
We went straight back to the house to unload our groceries then turned right back around to look for dinner. This time we were out on foot so we got an even closer look at the area. We headed north on Texas Street then across on University to get to 30th this trip, again heading north when we reached the main drag (there are many variations on the route from the house to 30th, but they all work out about the same). We stopped and studied several places on way; brewpubs with food, small breweries with no food, and a myriad of restaurants. Lots of good information for the rest of the week. We ended up at Rip Current. One of the places that was on the 30th Street brewery and brewpub tour list that I had found as part of my pre-trip research. This is where we first learned about the food service in many of these small, casual beer and dining places. The bar is there, so go get your beer, and the food is ordered at the window but we'll bring it out to you. OK, that works. Just not what we are used to. We'll figure it out. We studied the food menu first then I placed our order while Lynn found us a table. Then the fun began when I went to the bar to get our first beers in San Diego. Hey, Rip Current, that's a big honor for you! The guy behind the bar was very friendly and willing to answer questions about their beers (something that we found to be a common trait among the bartenders along 30th Street). The brightly colored chalkboard menu listed a nice variety of brews (29 taps), from very light to very dark and included three IPAs. Now we're talking. Let's start with tasters of each IPA. Here come three snifters each with a five ounce pour. I'm glad there were only three as there was no tray or handle little flight paddle provided to carry the glasses. How now do I get these back to the table? A new appreciation for the servers in brew pubs is growing as I made a couple clumsy attempts, but with the encouragement of the bartender I figured out how to hold the three snifters and maneuver back to our table without spilling a drop.
We were working our way through the beer samples when our food was delivered. The kitchen is pretty quick. Lynn got a couple of the shrimp tacos and I had the "Holy Crab" BLT (that's right a BLT with a crab cake!). Great sandwich, but I forgot to upgrade to the jalapeño bread. I bet that extra kick would have really set this off nicely. The IPAs that we tried were good but not great. This is an instance were the food outshined the beer. We both thought the Off the Lip was sort of bland (give it a 2.75 rating). The hazy IPA, Sticky Shenanigans was the best of the bunch (3.75), but the Lupulin Lust was not far behind (3.5) as it was a very smooth double IPA; certainly not bursting with flavor but still a good beer. The beer was still good enough to have a second round (I went with the double IPA for my pint; read the sign, how could I not!). This was a good first experience of the beer scene along 30th Street, so I think we are going to enjoy our further exploration of the area.
Once we made our way down to baggage claim I scouted the area to see where the rental car shuttle pick-up is. Looks like we are in Terminal 2 so the shuttle should be right outside and across the road according to the email info from SixT. Yep, there's signage pointing the way so no issues there. Now we just need our bags. The bags were a little slow arriving at the carousel but they finally appeared. It is funny to watch folks crowd along the edge of the belt waiting for their bags. Lynn and I generally stand well away from the start of the belt and three or four paces away from the edge, close enough to see but still providing plenty of room for folks to maneuver around and get their bags. By the time the bags starting coming out there were a half dozen people jammed in front of me and Lynn. Of course our bags came out before those of the squatters in front of us so we had to do the "excuse me, pardon me" gig to wade through the pack. But we survived and headed to the shuttle bus pick-up station.
This is the first time I have used the rental car terminal as I just grab a cab or Uber when on business here. Big facility. The canned spiel on the bus indicated that the consolidated rental car terminal is 2 million square feet. That's a lot of space for cars. I hope ours is ready.
This is my third or fourth experience with SixT for a rental car. Past experience has shown mixed results, either a home run or a complete cluster... a real mess. I can usually find a good price with SixT, but they just seem like a typical corner cutting outfit. My experience is that they are a lot less expedient than other rental car companies, just not as organized. I would much rather deal with Enterprise or Hertz, when the price allows. But we got through with minimal hassle. I will say that Alahna, the young lady we dealt with, was pleasant and helpful. She did try to get us into a luxury SUV at “half price,” but we opted to stick with our good deal on the Jeep Compass (I did not even ask what the cost would have been for the luxury model). During the course of the check-in process she asked why we were visiting and I mentioned our 30th wedding anniversary. Alanna suggested Ki's in Del Mar for dinner. Something to keep in mind. She finally got the rental details all sorted out (I guess I booked through Priceline which is not typical for me, and that apparently gives their system fits). She went through the standard disclaimers like avoiding toll roads and not taking the car to Mexico, then sent us to the third floor of the garage to get our ride. Hey, there’s a Ranger Rover; I bet that was the luxury model we could have had. After a quick inspection of our white Jeep Compass (just a few areas of chipped paint) and taking a few moments to get the coordinates from the navicomputer (OK, I just punched in the address for the VRBO into Google Maps on Baby, but I am a Star Wars geek), we were heading down the spiral ramp from the garage an on to our next adventure.
After what seemed like a rather indirect route we arrived at the house right at 4:00, so perfect timing. The entry instructions worked this trip so no worries there. First order of business was to just explore the house and see what we had to work with. This is a great little cottage. Perfect for two people. The outside spaces look very inviting, so we'll have options for our usual afternoon beer on the patio. The interior was very homey and quaint. It reminded me of the house that Uncle Jim and Aunt Lois lived in down in "south" Mullens. This should work out nicely.
We retrieved our gear out of the Jeep and got everything organized in the house and made a quick perusal of the kitchen supplies. Next stop was the grocery store.
As we were getting ready to get in the Jeep, the home owner, Rick, was walking up to the gate. Nice fellow with a great handlebar mustache. He gave us some pointers on places to eat and grocery store options in the area (of course he had already provided an even longer list via email before we arrived). He was just checking in and collecting the garbage cans from the back alley. We asked about Halloween in the neighborhood and Rick indicated that there will be plenty of Trick-or-treaters on Wednesday, if we want to participate or just keep the gate closed if we don't. Living in the country, we never get the little ghouls and goblins, so it might be fun to play for once. We left Rick to his chores and we went out for our scout of the area. Vonn's was my target for groceries but we'll keep an eye open for Rick's suggestions. Since we are just looking for simple supplies, any place will probably do.
We meandered our way over to 30th street. There are a lot of stop signs, some four way some not, and it seems that the right if way road changes from north-south to east-west without reason. And there are a couple traffic circles thrown into the mix just for fun. So we just need to pay attention as we drive through the neighborhood. Once we reached 30th, I turned north looking for restaurants, brewpubs and grocery stores. We found several in all categories, so there was no shortage of beer or food. Shoot there was even a farmer's market set up along one of the streets off of 30th. That might be fun to check out. We turned around just past Adams Avenue. There were plenty of places to check out and lots of people to watch. The advice I had seen about driving was certainly true, this was not exactly the most car friendly place in terms of parking. No worries, we can walk it easily. We had spotted Vons on our northbound trip so we opted just to stop there as it was convenient. This is just s standard supermarket so it had all we wanted, although the beer selection was not as varied as I had hoped, nor did they offer "build your own 6-packs." Maybe that is not allowed in California. Someone should build a website listing the beverage purchase laws by state. That could be useful. Utah would need its own dedicated site.
We went straight back to the house to unload our groceries then turned right back around to look for dinner. This time we were out on foot so we got an even closer look at the area. We headed north on Texas Street then across on University to get to 30th this trip, again heading north when we reached the main drag (there are many variations on the route from the house to 30th, but they all work out about the same). We stopped and studied several places on way; brewpubs with food, small breweries with no food, and a myriad of restaurants. Lots of good information for the rest of the week. We ended up at Rip Current. One of the places that was on the 30th Street brewery and brewpub tour list that I had found as part of my pre-trip research. This is where we first learned about the food service in many of these small, casual beer and dining places. The bar is there, so go get your beer, and the food is ordered at the window but we'll bring it out to you. OK, that works. Just not what we are used to. We'll figure it out. We studied the food menu first then I placed our order while Lynn found us a table. Then the fun began when I went to the bar to get our first beers in San Diego. Hey, Rip Current, that's a big honor for you! The guy behind the bar was very friendly and willing to answer questions about their beers (something that we found to be a common trait among the bartenders along 30th Street). The brightly colored chalkboard menu listed a nice variety of brews (29 taps), from very light to very dark and included three IPAs. Now we're talking. Let's start with tasters of each IPA. Here come three snifters each with a five ounce pour. I'm glad there were only three as there was no tray or handle little flight paddle provided to carry the glasses. How now do I get these back to the table? A new appreciation for the servers in brew pubs is growing as I made a couple clumsy attempts, but with the encouragement of the bartender I figured out how to hold the three snifters and maneuver back to our table without spilling a drop.
We were working our way through the beer samples when our food was delivered. The kitchen is pretty quick. Lynn got a couple of the shrimp tacos and I had the "Holy Crab" BLT (that's right a BLT with a crab cake!). Great sandwich, but I forgot to upgrade to the jalapeño bread. I bet that extra kick would have really set this off nicely. The IPAs that we tried were good but not great. This is an instance were the food outshined the beer. We both thought the Off the Lip was sort of bland (give it a 2.75 rating). The hazy IPA, Sticky Shenanigans was the best of the bunch (3.75), but the Lupulin Lust was not far behind (3.5) as it was a very smooth double IPA; certainly not bursting with flavor but still a good beer. The beer was still good enough to have a second round (I went with the double IPA for my pint; read the sign, how could I not!). This was a good first experience of the beer scene along 30th Street, so I think we are going to enjoy our further exploration of the area.
We were sort of beat after our full day of travel. Even an easy travel day to the west coast takes a lot out of us. Besides the fact that we are still on east coast time. So after Rip Current we just started back for the house. We did more reconnoitering of places to eat and drink for later in the week, as well as some people watching. There was a lot of activity tonight. The street market was still in full swing (turns out it is an every Thursday gig and runs to 9:00 PM or so). We walked through just to see what they had. Pretty active. Lots of venders selling everything from flowers and fruit to candy and face painting. Free samples galore, but since we just had dinner we passed on most of the offers. I did have to try the salsa that one lady was offering. The hot of course. Yowza! That is hot! But tasty.
We were home at 7:35 following our 2.2-mile round-trip urban hike to Rip Current. We needed the walk after a full day of travel that was largely sitting. We passed out early. Yes, a long day of travel indeed. But for once all the breaks with air travel went our way. Lynn pointed out that our rerouted flights also got us extra legroom since we were in the front of the coach cabin. That had not really sunk in but she was right. Thanks, United!
Day 2, Friday, October 26 - Day at the Zoo. I was awake a little after 0400. No sense just laying here so I sat up and stretched. That got a "good morning" from Lynn. She said she was also slept-out. Ok, up and at 'em.
We kept it simple with a bagel for breakfast. The pineapple orange juice we found at Vons is very good. Too bad we cannot get this back home (funny story, the weekend after we returned from San Diego, we found the pineapple orange juice was now stocked at our local grocery store).
After one night in the house we have determined that we really like it, but it is too small for us even before adding the cats. But that is how houses were built in the 1930s. Tink would like this place with all the shelves and other places to climb. She is small but she is mighty and very vertically oriented.
We reviewed our plans for today and the week. The plan for today is the zoo which opens at 9:00. We'll walk as it is less than a mile from the house (about 0.8 miles from the house to the zoo entrance). The advice on Trip Advisor was to drive since parking is free and it is hilly in the area. I guess "hilly" is in the eye of the beholder. Yes, there are some hills in the area and we drove past some short, steep streets, but I'm from West Virginia and was just hiking in Grand Teton National Park this summer. I don't think the hills here will be an issue. We looked at the map for the route from Texas Street to the Zoo. Looks fairly straight forward. We will roll the dice on the elevation change between here and there.
A check of the weather revealed that it will be beautiful in San Diego all week. Maybe a day or two with some clouds but with highs in the 75 degree range and no rain. Joshua Tree is still showing near 90 F over the weekend but the temps moderate back into the70s by Tuesday. We'll keep an eye on the weather but I'm liking Tuesday-Wednesday for our excursion to the National Park. I guess we will miss Halloween again after all.
We got ready to go. Hats, sunblock, cameras. Ready to roll at 8:40. The most direct route took us south along Texas toward Balboa Park, through the sports complex then west across Florida Blvd and finally to Zoo Street. The only downside to this route is that there is no defined pedestrian trail along Morley Field Drive or crossing at Florida Drive. Fortunately there was not much in terms of traffic on a Friday morning plus the California drivers are very good about watching for folks on foot. We made it across with no issues at all, but I'll look for an alternate route for future notice.
We were home at 7:35 following our 2.2-mile round-trip urban hike to Rip Current. We needed the walk after a full day of travel that was largely sitting. We passed out early. Yes, a long day of travel indeed. But for once all the breaks with air travel went our way. Lynn pointed out that our rerouted flights also got us extra legroom since we were in the front of the coach cabin. That had not really sunk in but she was right. Thanks, United!
Day 2, Friday, October 26 - Day at the Zoo. I was awake a little after 0400. No sense just laying here so I sat up and stretched. That got a "good morning" from Lynn. She said she was also slept-out. Ok, up and at 'em.
We kept it simple with a bagel for breakfast. The pineapple orange juice we found at Vons is very good. Too bad we cannot get this back home (funny story, the weekend after we returned from San Diego, we found the pineapple orange juice was now stocked at our local grocery store).
After one night in the house we have determined that we really like it, but it is too small for us even before adding the cats. But that is how houses were built in the 1930s. Tink would like this place with all the shelves and other places to climb. She is small but she is mighty and very vertically oriented.
We reviewed our plans for today and the week. The plan for today is the zoo which opens at 9:00. We'll walk as it is less than a mile from the house (about 0.8 miles from the house to the zoo entrance). The advice on Trip Advisor was to drive since parking is free and it is hilly in the area. I guess "hilly" is in the eye of the beholder. Yes, there are some hills in the area and we drove past some short, steep streets, but I'm from West Virginia and was just hiking in Grand Teton National Park this summer. I don't think the hills here will be an issue. We looked at the map for the route from Texas Street to the Zoo. Looks fairly straight forward. We will roll the dice on the elevation change between here and there.
A check of the weather revealed that it will be beautiful in San Diego all week. Maybe a day or two with some clouds but with highs in the 75 degree range and no rain. Joshua Tree is still showing near 90 F over the weekend but the temps moderate back into the70s by Tuesday. We'll keep an eye on the weather but I'm liking Tuesday-Wednesday for our excursion to the National Park. I guess we will miss Halloween again after all.
We got ready to go. Hats, sunblock, cameras. Ready to roll at 8:40. The most direct route took us south along Texas toward Balboa Park, through the sports complex then west across Florida Blvd and finally to Zoo Street. The only downside to this route is that there is no defined pedestrian trail along Morley Field Drive or crossing at Florida Drive. Fortunately there was not much in terms of traffic on a Friday morning plus the California drivers are very good about watching for folks on foot. We made it across with no issues at all, but I'll look for an alternate route for future notice.
The parking lots for the zoo are already filling up for the day and there were several school buses pouring out hordes of marauding grade schoolers. We picked up the pace a bit to get to the entrance in front of the kids but the teachers had to slow them down to get them all queued up. Hey, that's one thing I did learn in first grade, how to form a straight line. We were in the ticket line just after 9:00 and had only a short wait as there were less than a dozen folks in front of us and most of them were in groups of three or four so the line moved very quickly. Lynn had done the homework on the tickets, so we knew that we wanted the two-day pass that would get into the zoo today and the Safari Park tomorrow (or whenever we ended up going). Once through the main gate, we found a map and started exploring (click the map below for a larger image).
Typically when we are in a park like this we will turn left and start working our way around in a clockwise fashion (a habit we developed based on advice from Disney World fans who say that most tourists enter and turn right or go straight ahead, so turning left will be less crowded, at least to start. I don't know if it really matters, but at least it gives us a starting direction). However after looking at the map Lynn decided that we would break tradition and work around to the right. Fine by me. I think she wanted to see some of the big critters first. But whatever the reason, we spent the next eight hours covering nearly seven miles as we meandered through almost every area of this amazing zoological park and had lunch and dinner in the zoo (our total mileage was 8.9 miles including the walk to and from the house making it about a nine-hour day). The only area that we did not visit was the children's zoo. While we started out trying to take an efficient path through the zoo, because there was so much to see, we did end up backtracking at times. But that's OK as it just got to see some places multiple times and at different times of day.
We covered a lot of ground but we saw and learned a lot as well. There have been many changes since we visited 14 years ago. In fact it seemed that most of the exhibits had been updated and expanded over that time as there were just a couple of places we remembered from that first tour. One of the key improvements that I spotted early in our tour was the addition of a craft beer cantina. We will definitely have to visit there a little later and keep our eyes open for other beer tasting opportunities.
The volunteers and staff also greatly enhanced our day at the zoo. There were plenty of folks out providing information on the animals and other aspects of the zoo's mission plus just providing helpful information on getting around the area. Everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful. Well, except for the one young lady directing traffic at the souvenir photo station heading into the Panda area; she was not having a good day and getting snappy with the visitors, particularly those of us who just wanted to bypass the photo op stand. Otherwise, it was smiles all around and all day long. Here are the highlights and some of the things that we learned from the first part of our visit:
The volunteers and staff also greatly enhanced our day at the zoo. There were plenty of folks out providing information on the animals and other aspects of the zoo's mission plus just providing helpful information on getting around the area. Everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful. Well, except for the one young lady directing traffic at the souvenir photo station heading into the Panda area; she was not having a good day and getting snappy with the visitors, particularly those of us who just wanted to bypass the photo op stand. Otherwise, it was smiles all around and all day long. Here are the highlights and some of the things that we learned from the first part of our visit:
- They have a lot of Koala’s here!
- We spotted a fair number of animals also visiting the zoo throughout the day. The first were hummingbirds flitting about in the garden at the north end of the Africa Rocks area.
- I found the exhibits on the animals that were part of southern California's past to be very interesting. There used to be mammoths, saber-toothed cats, lions, camels and horses in the region dating back to the Ice Age. This was the Pleistocene Epoch which began about 1.8 million years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago.
- I did not realize that horses had their beginnings in North American, I thought they were introduced by the European explorers. Turns out that the western horse went extinct in North America about 10,000 years ago but not before spreading to Asia, Africa and Europe. The Spanish Conquistadors brought their descendants back to North America about 8,000 years later. Talk about coming full circle.
- Camels also originated in North America then migrated to Asia and Africa. The extinct Western Camel's scientific name means "yesterday's camel." 12,000 years ago, herds of them roamed what is now southern California.
- The pronghorns roaming the plains of Pleistocene North America were almost exactly like the Pronghorns we see today. They could run up to 40 miles per hour, probably to escape from the now-extinct American Cheetah.
- We saw a sculpture of the now extinct Daggett's Eagle which was a huge bird. It was also known as the "long-legged eagle" although it was actually a hawk. Its behavior was similar to the Africa's Secretary Bird in that it hunted and fed on reptiles, amphibians and small mammals that could be swallowed whole.
- There were mammoths in southern California during the Pleistocene. The Columbian Mammoth was larger than modern elephants but probably behaved much the same.
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By 11:00 we had made it around maybe a quarter to a third of the zoo, but it was also getting to be lunch time. We had just completed the elephant area and were standing at one end of the Bashar Bridge that spans Panda Canyon. Lynn noted that there was a restaurant on the other side of the bridge so we walked across to check it out. There were a couple options and we decided to try the Treetops Café to grab a quick bite. Alas the beer selection here was mediocre at best but the sandwiches were good. We were really just looking for fuel at present; we'll find something better for dinner, I'm sure. After our break we were back on the trail working our way around the zoo. We first recrossed the bridge then continued down the hill toward the polar bears. From there I just followed Lynn since anywhere we went was sure to be interesting.
- The Southern Gerenuk gave me a chuckle. First of all, they are an odd looking critter, sort of a combination of a gazelle and a giraffe with their long necks (their name comes from a Somali word that means "giraffe-necked). But what was really funny was the male walked over to one of the females that happened to be lying down and kept gently tapping her with one of his front feet. He obviously wanted her to get up so they could, well, let's just go with "play."
- At the bottom of the hill before starting up toward the Pandas we heard a very loud squawking and went to investigate. Obviously a bird calling but it was loud and making quite the ruckus. We found the culprit in an enclosure with a nice water feature and several goose-sized birds. It was the appropriately named Southern Screamer, from the tropical wetlands of South America. The sign near the enclosure said that its call will carry for almost two miles. I would have thought further!
- We continued up the canyon toward the Pandas but the line to see them was fairly long so we opted to postpone this and perhaps double back later in the day. Our thinking was that it was better to cover move ground than stand in line.
- There is certainly a lot of engineering that goes into a zoo, and one sort of odd engineering and horticultural marvel was highlighted along the Monkey Trail area. Seems that the huge ficus tree that sort of dominates the trail was actually transplanted there from near the zoo entrance. Two years of planning went in to moving the big tree 214 feet. After an initial hole was dug around the tree's massive, rectangular root system, Zoo horticulturists fed the tree extra nutrients so it would stay healthy during its journey. To lift the entire tree, steel pipes were pushed through the soil there to four feet below the root ball. A beam was placed under each end to form a raft. Slowly the raft was lifted using four hydraulic jacks, one on each corner of the raft. The tree and its root ball were computed to weigh an amazing 220 tons, as much as a herd of 35 elephants! The jacks had wheels and they rolled in unison on two tracks to move the tree to is new location. During the course of four weeks, at about 91 inches per day, it was moved to its new spot. It was lowered into a huge hole that would accommodate the root ball, replanted and has been growing heartily there ever since.
- The tiger was looking very regal in its enclosure, sort of chilling in a cave. This was one of the better photo ops of the day with the light and the lack of fence to shoot through (that is one of the downsides to zoos is that it can be hard to get good photos of the critters; either the animals are not cooperating or there is some part of the enclosure blocking the best shot. We just have to take what we can get. Today I was more about enjoying the views rather than taking pictures).
- I spotted a memorial marker near the Orangutan enclosure for Ken Allen (February 13, 1971 - December 12, 2000). Turns out that Ken Allen was one of the most beloved animals in the Zoo. He was a Bornean Orangutan who was born and raised at the San Diego Zoo. He became internationally famous in the mid-1980s for escaping from his enclosure. While this made him a household name, Kenny was already part of San Diego Zoo history. He was named for keeper Ken Willingham and security guard Ben Allen, who rescued him when his mother neglected him. He was hand-raised in the Children's Zoo nursery. Over the years, Kenny's intelligence and playful spirit challenged his keepers. He unscrewed the bolts on his nursery crib and every light bulb he could get his hands on. Joan Embery took Kenny, then nine months old to her first appearance on the Tonight Show. Ken's nicknames included "Boom Orang" and "Hairy Houdini." His colorful personality made him a favorite with Zoo visitors. In November 2000, he was diagnosed with an advanced state of lymphoma, a malignant cancer that also affects humans. With his death the San Diego Zoo lost one of its most beloved residents.
- The next big cat we saw was the jaguar. There was a crowd around its enclosure since he had a big chunk of meat in a tree, sort of a lunch and enrichment combo. He had to stand up and stretch to get to it. Reminded us of the Black Jaguar enrichment we saw back in 2004 where the keepers had a big slab of meat on a pulley and were making the big cat leap for the prize. The cat did not seem to mind and the tourists got quite a show.
- We walked through several aviaries today. Certainty the best way to see the colorful birds as we were now in the large bird cages with them. The best were in the Africa Rocks area with the brightly colored and very active Bee-eaters had the bee eaters. Turns out that Africa Rocks was a newer area of the zoo, having opened in 2017.
The time was approaching 2:00 by the time we got through the Africa Rocks section, Lynn suggested that we should take a break and find a beer. Capital idea! She thought the Sabertooth Grill around toward the elephants might be a good option, but it turned out to be a bust. So we hoofed back to the little craft beer place that I had seen near the Outback. That worked out much better. Only a couple of beers on tap, but one was an IPA, so we were good to go. Lynn found a table under an umbrella and I fetched the hops. This was the African Leopard IPA from Mike Hess Brewing, so a local beer with a zoo theme. A good beer but not great; we rated it a 3.5 on Untappd. But it was cold and we were in a nice spot to enjoy a break so all is well.
While we were enjoying our little break in the Beer Garden (a newly opened feature of the zoo according to the map), we had a sighting that would prove to be a theme during this trip, doppelgangers. You know, folks who look like someone else (or in some cases so saw, act like). A group of folks came in shortly after us to have a beer and take a break in the shade. My guess is a couple brothers with their wives and kids plus granddad and his girlfriend. The brothers and wives were thirty-somethings and were just hanging out after a day for herding the kids. The older of the two brothers looked like Steve McGarrett from Hawaii 5-0. Shoot, from my very brief observations he even had some of the same mannerisms. Lynn was not buying it as much, but I'm sticking to McGarrett for this one.
We took a nice break here in the beer garden. I reckon it was after 2:30 by the time we resumed our tour. We went down Center Street to start the next phase of our visit.
While we were enjoying our little break in the Beer Garden (a newly opened feature of the zoo according to the map), we had a sighting that would prove to be a theme during this trip, doppelgangers. You know, folks who look like someone else (or in some cases so saw, act like). A group of folks came in shortly after us to have a beer and take a break in the shade. My guess is a couple brothers with their wives and kids plus granddad and his girlfriend. The brothers and wives were thirty-somethings and were just hanging out after a day for herding the kids. The older of the two brothers looked like Steve McGarrett from Hawaii 5-0. Shoot, from my very brief observations he even had some of the same mannerisms. Lynn was not buying it as much, but I'm sticking to McGarrett for this one.
We took a nice break here in the beer garden. I reckon it was after 2:30 by the time we resumed our tour. We went down Center Street to start the next phase of our visit.
- The stretch along Center Street, which works downhill toward the Panda exhibit, appears to be an older part of the zoo that has not been updated in a while. It was one of the areas that did feel familiar to us from our previous visit in 2004. The Grizzly Bear was active this after, playing in his little pool.
- We decided to try the Panda exhibit one more time. The line was about the same as earlier in the day, but this might be our last shot so we'll just wait it out. Based on our earlier experience, we just let the photographers take our photo for the cheesy souvenir picture and kept moving. Actually the wait was not too bad. I reckon we were in the line for about 30 minutes, including the time viewing the Pandas. Plus there are other exhibits here that are interesting (we learned about the various types of bamboo, which we are know is a really big species of grass), and enjoyed watching the takin (sort of a spare-parts looking critter, a goat-antelope mash-up). When we came through this way earlier one of the Takins was having fun kicking and head-butting one of its big plastic toys that was floating in the water trough. He had apparently succeeding in getting the toy dislodged as it was now sitting down at the edge of the fence. The Panda was active and doing laps around her enclosure. Her name is Bai Yun which means "White Cloud." She was born on September 7, 1991, and has been at the San Diego Zoo since September 1996. She is certainly a "mama bear" having given birth to six cubs over the years, which is considered to be the most in terms of cubs surviving to adulthood in a breeding facility outside of China.
- After the Panda exhibit, we made our way to Albert's to scout that out as a dinner option. Lynn at noted this on the map earlier in the day, so we figured we would at least check it out. The menu looks good and it is open for a while yet, so we can explore a bit longer then come back for an early dinner (which is good as I am getting hungry!).
- We humans were not the only visitors to the zoo as we spotted a few critters roaming the grounds:
- I had a thought after walking by the Meercat village earlier in the day; I wonder if the zoo ever loses any of its smaller critters to local predators, like eagles, hawks or owls? This became more relevant after seeing a hawk fly over (shoot, even the Great Blue Herons will take mammals). I never thought to ask this of any of the docents at the zoo, but did remember when we were at the Safari Park. The guide I asked indicated that they don't have eagles in the area and the hawks, primarily Red-tails, go after smaller prey like mice, so the Meercats are not in danger. Not sure I'm buying that as Red-tails take big Fox Squirrels back on the ranch.
- We made an abbreviated loop through the reptile area. There was an interesting sign at the Galapagos Tortoise enclosure describing the difference in the shape of the shells depending on the specific island and habitat each subspecies developed. Galapagos Tortoises from lush meadows have a domed shell, keeping then low to the ground to munch grass. Tortoises that live where it is hard to reach food have a shell curved in front so they can stretch their neck up to eat leaves. Mother Nature is pretty smart!
It was now about 4:30, so we meandered our way back to Albert's for dinner. This a great place in a very nice setting. I think this is the first time I have seen a full service, sit-down, kind-of-upscale restaurant in a zoo. Novel but a great idea. The place is named for Albert, one of the gorillas that lived here at the San Diego Zoo from 1949 until his death in 1978. There were a few other folks seated but the place was not crowded by any means. We were immediately seated at a table on the screened veranda with a nice view. It was like we were dining in the jungle. Vin Diesel was sitting at the table across from us. OK, maybe it was someone who resembled Vin Diesel. Yeah, that probably makes more sense. From where we were seated we could see into one of the adjacent buildings. Not sure what it was exactly, but there was a chimp in one of the lower rooms, just sort of hanging out and playing in the straw. And while we liked the setting and the quiet and calm of Albert's we found the food to be excellent. Lynn had a salad and I had the salmon and a cup of the clam chowder. Very tasty! We also added another local beer to our tally, the Mongo Double IPA from Port Brewing in San Marcos. Smooth for a DIPA with a nice aroma and fruity flavor. I gave it a 3.75 on Untappd.
After dinner we worked our way toward the exit. I think we covered everything in the zoo over the course of the day (the exception being that we skipped the children's zoo area). It was going on 6:00 by the time we got to the entrance. The little ghosts and monsters were already starting to arrive for the Zoo's Halloween festivities. We saw Groot, all the superheroes and superheroines, a few of the bad guys, some Storm Troopers and a bevy of princesses. We made a pass through a couple of the gift stores. Lynn found a ginormous coffee mug with a giraffe; just what she needs another mug and this time one that will hold more coffee. I found a tee-shirt that I liked, so we each walked out some loot. We bought some cookies on the way out. Nestle Tollhouse in a variety of flavors. That will make for a good snack later. We were walking out of the zoo right about 6:00 and were back at the rental cottage just before 6:30. A quiet walk back. We covered almost nine miles today over the course of nearly ten hours. Certainly not a fast pace but a quality tour of the zoo for sure.
Lynn and I have visited many zoos over the years; the local zoo is a typical excursion for us anytime we visit a new area. While we have enjoyed each zoo that we have seen, the San Diego Zoo really is something special. Sure, it is big; it covers a lot of ground. But it also packs a punch with the wide variety of animals. The enclosures are generally well done so that they provide the animals with a lot of space and a good habitat in which to live and then give the visitors are very good opportunity to view the animals. The grounds were beautiful. The place was in excellent condition. There were many upgrades, improvements and expansions in the 16 years since we last visited. And they have great food and most importantly good craft beer! Seriously, the San Diego Zoo is the best zoological park we have visited. It is worth spending all day to explore
On the walk home we discussed our plans for the next couple of days. We decided to heed the weather forecast for the Joshua Tree area and postponed that excursion to Tuesday. So tomorrow we make the drive out to the Safari Park, Sunday we walk back to Balboa Park and Monday we’ll take the ferry to Coronado Island. That will work.
Back at the house we knew we would not last too much longer before passing out. But there was time for a Grapefruit Sculpin before bed. That hit the spot. We just chilled for a while longer then finally crashed about 8:00. I was first in the shower and had to figure out the vast assortment of knobs, handles and showerheads. It took a bit but I finally got the water flowing in the through the desired pipes and at a temperature that I liked. After that it was lights out on a very good day.
Photo gallery from our day at the San Diego Zoo.
The journal continues with Part 2 (Day 3/Safari Park, Day 4/Balboa Park and Day 5/Coronado Island).
Lynn and I have visited many zoos over the years; the local zoo is a typical excursion for us anytime we visit a new area. While we have enjoyed each zoo that we have seen, the San Diego Zoo really is something special. Sure, it is big; it covers a lot of ground. But it also packs a punch with the wide variety of animals. The enclosures are generally well done so that they provide the animals with a lot of space and a good habitat in which to live and then give the visitors are very good opportunity to view the animals. The grounds were beautiful. The place was in excellent condition. There were many upgrades, improvements and expansions in the 16 years since we last visited. And they have great food and most importantly good craft beer! Seriously, the San Diego Zoo is the best zoological park we have visited. It is worth spending all day to explore
On the walk home we discussed our plans for the next couple of days. We decided to heed the weather forecast for the Joshua Tree area and postponed that excursion to Tuesday. So tomorrow we make the drive out to the Safari Park, Sunday we walk back to Balboa Park and Monday we’ll take the ferry to Coronado Island. That will work.
Back at the house we knew we would not last too much longer before passing out. But there was time for a Grapefruit Sculpin before bed. That hit the spot. We just chilled for a while longer then finally crashed about 8:00. I was first in the shower and had to figure out the vast assortment of knobs, handles and showerheads. It took a bit but I finally got the water flowing in the through the desired pipes and at a temperature that I liked. After that it was lights out on a very good day.
Photo gallery from our day at the San Diego Zoo.
The journal continues with Part 2 (Day 3/Safari Park, Day 4/Balboa Park and Day 5/Coronado Island).