San Diego

Last wednesday was my first day in San Diego, and it was my favorite part of California. I got there pretty early in the morning and with the tip from my brother and his wife got on a trolley tour. I started off my trolley tour in old town San Diego, which i thought was a pretty cool place with a lot of little shops around that had my kind of clothes and other cute souvenirs. The tour then took us down by the San Diego harbor which had several navy ships in port, which was pretty cool to see.  As big as those ships seem, they are so much bigger up close, and the tour guide said that the longest one there was about 3 1/2 football fields long.  We also got to see some older ships, one of which was used when they filmed the Pirates of the Caribbean.  Also at the harbor you could tour one of the navy ships and they had a huge statue of that famous picture where the guy and girl are kissing when they found out WWII had ended.  Next up the tour took us by Seaport Village where you could take a tour in the water and then we drove by the Marriott Hotel and Convention Center where they always have the comicon conventions every year.  From there they took us through a couple of shopping areas, the Horton Plaza and the Gaslamp Quarter, which is sixteen blocks of shopping.  I got off there for awhile and wandered around, but there was so many places to look at i figured i better hop back on the trolley and stop by another day.  Once i got back on we went by the Hilton and then to my favorite place of the whole tour.......Coronado Island.  Such a beautiful place with a white sandy beach, a beautiful hotel, and cute little shops lining the streets.  It was such a nice day out that i knew i wanted to finish up my tour and then come back and spend the rest of the day at the beach.  After we left Coronado Island we went through Balboa Park, which is pretty amazing in and of itself.  There are a ton of museums inside the park and a couple of outside music venues, an off leash dog park, and a whole section to play outdoor games like bocce ball.  That place is huge and i wish i would've gotten to spend some real time there, and i definitely will the next time i go back.  The last stop on the tour we went through Little Italy, which they said is bigger than the little italy parts they have in several other cities combined.  Once we got back to the start of the tour i hopped off the trolley and changed into my swimsuit and got back on so i could get back to Coronado Island.  When i got there i headed straight for the beach so i could work on my tan and laid out way to long, considering how white i am.  After that i went and got some gelato, which is amazing if you've never tried it, so much better than ice cream.  Then i headed back to my car and went to my campsite for the night.  I knew i had gotten sunburnt, but i didn't realize how bad it was until the next day.  I got up and got ready to go to the San Diego Zoo and found out just how painful it was to change my clothes and to sit down.  I had heard that you could spend the whole day at the zoo because of how cool it was, but i wasn't feeling very well so i only spent 2 1/2 hours there that day.  I spent the rest of that day trying to avoid the sun and heat as much as possible, which wasn't too hard considering it doesn't get too hot in San Diego.  The next day i was going to go on the trolley again and stop at some of the places i had missed the day before and take some pictures, but i ended up feeling really sick that morning and in a lot of pain from my sunburn so i decided to cut my trip short in San Diego and just head to my aunt's house in Arizona.  I really liked San Diego and i definitely want to go back and explore so much more of that city.   I wish that i had driven a lot faster through california and had spent more time there, but at least now i know for future reference what an amazing place it is.