2015-May-25 USA, California, San Diego: Downtown Life

We flew out from Honolulu at 8am last Tuesday and arrived in Los Angeles just before 4pm with the time zone difference.   We hired a car to drive to San Diego as it was cheaper than the public transport options with two of us.  Getting out of LA was fun (not) with the 4pm traffic extremely heavy it took over an hour to get to the main freeway we needed.  But just 3 hours later we were at our friend, John’s place in Downtown San Diego.  He lives in a very funky part of town – it is called “Little Italy” and is walking distance to the harbour and the CBD.  It has loads of restaurants, cafes and bars as well as art galleries and homeware stores.  It is wonderful just to walk around and it really does have a kind of village feel to it.



Entrance to John's Condo

John walked us around the area to orient us on Tuesday night and we have not stopped walking ever since.  We have walked around Little Italy, down to the harbour and around the city as well as to the huge Balboa Park.  We spent quite some time looking around the working artists’ area – sculptures, paintings, jewellery etc.    Balboa Park is a 1,200-acre  urban cultural park.  In addition to open space areas, natural vegetation zones, green belts, gardens, and walking paths, it contains museums, several theaters, and the San Diego Zoo. There are also many recreational facilities and several gift shops and restaurants within the boundaries of the park. Placed in reserve in 1835, the park's site is one of the oldest in the United States dedicated to public recreational use. Balboa Park is managed and maintained by the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of San Diego.

Balboa Park - Working Artists Quarter

Balboa Park - California Bell Tower

Unfortunately I dropped our brand new phone and smashed it to smithereens so we also got to walk around “Fashion Valley” which is a huge mall with all the designer and upmarket shops.  We ended up buying a cheaper replacement phone and transferring our USA number to that so all sorted out (grrr).

John has a huge network of friends and we have met several of them now.  He goes out heaps and has taken us along a few nights.  Also he organised a party in his condominium for us on Saturday night which was great fun.  (Note:  Difference between an apartment and condominium is that the latter is owned and usually better quality of building – just one of many Americanisms we are learning).   The second night we were in San Diego we walked downtown and had a couple of drinks at a rooftop bar overlooking a live baseball game (San Diego Padres vs Chicago Cubs) in Petco Park.  It would be nice to attend a game sometime while we are here if we can.

With John in front of the USS Midway, San Diego Harbour

Everyone we have met so far has been so nice and very generous with inviting us to things and spending time with us!

More Info on San Diego:

San Diego is on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, approximately 120 miles south of Los Angeles and immediately adjacent to the border with Mexico.  The locals have talked about going to Tijuana for the evening out or a concert but apparently it is a bit of a wait to get back over the border which is a bit of a deterrent.  Whilst there are 1.3 million people living here it does not feel congested – there are big wide open streets and the traffic doesn’t seem too bad.  It appears to be a very ‘livable’ city.  The weather has been a bit cool (around 14 to 20 degrees).  We are still struggling to do the Celsius to Fahrenheit conversions!

San Diego was the first site visited by Europeans on the West Coast of the United States. Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the entire area for Spain, forming the basis for the settlement of Alta California 200 years later. The Presidio and Mission of San Diego, founded in 1769, formed the first European settlement in what is now California.  In 1821, San Diego became part of newly independent Mexico, and in 1850, became part of the United States following the Mexican-American War and the admission of California to the union.