Last meal in San Diego!

We had breakfast this morning in Little Italy in San Diego. It was excellent. Carrie made me walk 2 miles to a book store and back afterwards lest I lose my girlish figure!

Our ship sales at 4:30 this afternoon, and we are very excited!

San Diego Zoo

The Zoo was incredible. We walked till our legs felt like bloody stumps but it was worth it. They had more aviaries than either of us have ever seen. Our friends were ready to die if they saw another bird. It was super animal friendly as well as people friendly. We have decided that if we ever get into a "winter home" lifestyle like my mom and dad did, that San Diego is at the top of our list!

The Bridge from Hades

When we were in San Diego a month ago I managed to avoid going over the bridge to Coronado Isthmus. Thats where the Del Coronado Hotel is located and the Pacific fleet. The bridge was built soon after Pearl Harbor and it was designed to give the entire Pacific fleet the chance to all run out of the harbor at the same time if attacked. As a result, the bridge is 30 stories high, has a curve right in the middle and is over 2 miles across. Today our friend Lloyd said, we should take the City Tour, which had the zoo as a stop where we could get off, then come back on the trolley from the zoo. Sounded like a great plan, killing two birds with one stone. It never even crossed my mind to ask whether we would be crossing the bridge. The driver asked about 45 minutes into the tour, wheher anyone had a problem with heights. I raised my hand and he responded that I was in deep poopoo, as we turned the corner and started up the ramp to the bridge. We were sitting in the back of the trolley where there weren't even any sides to the vehicle. The winds are really strong here today and he warned everyone to take off their hats or they would be blown off the bridge. That sort of talk did not make me feel any better. I just stared at the floor of the trolly and I was able to survive the crossing AND the return, but I am going to make it up to myself with Mojito's at dinner!

Hampton Inn San Diego

We are in the Hampton Inn in San Diego, just a couple of blocks from the cruise ship terminal. We had a great meal last night at the Cowboy Star, which is a great western steak house here in downtown. The food was delicious and the restaurant was beautiful. The best part was the music! We walked in to a series of Mary Robbins songs that were followed up by the Sons of the Pioneers and Gene Autry! I love that music and even Carrie had to agree that it matched the restaurant perfectly! Our friends got in last night and we are going to meet them this morning for a City Tour by trolly this morning and we plan to spend the afternoon at the San Diego Zoo! Tonight is Lloyds birthday, and we are going to a nice Italian Restaurant to celebrate!

San Diego

Wow, the trip down from Los Angeles was really beautiful. The trip takes 3 hours and pretty much hugs the coast. In some places the waves seemed like they were actually lapping at the base of the train track supports. San Diego is really special. It is just about the prettiest town around. Our friends who are flying in from Mobile missed their connection in Houston, so we will be on our own tonight. We plan to tour the maritime museums in the harbor. That consists of a 3 masted schooner, a katch, 2 submarines, a sternwheeler and a steam yacht. The ships are all in great shape and operated as a series of floating museums, with the support of the San Diego Yacht Club, which is the sponsor of the America's Cup race.

California!

We got into California at 8:00 in the morning. The train comes into Los Angeles. We left our luggage in a locker and went outside where we were picked up by David Johnson who is currently living just north and east of LA. He took us to his favorite breakfast place, and I will have to admit that the food was delicious. We still had a couple of hours before our San Diego connection left the station, so he took us to the Hollywood stars walk of fame in front of Grummans Chinese Theater. We also went to the Kodak Theater, where the Academy Awards Show takes place. Everything was so much smaller than I imagined, but very clean and nice. Then he took us for a real surprise. The La Brea Tarpits and Museum. It was incredible. The tar pits are still bubbling! We saw hundreds of fossils of all types of animals, wolves, bears, sloth, camel, mastedon, and of course my favorite, the Saber-toothed Cat. They are actively excavating in a couple of sites on the property and we got to watch the techs in the labs cleaning fossilized bones, reassembling skeletons and doing all sorts of cool things. It was something that I had thought about doing since the third grade and it was just as cool now as I thought it would be then.

The Train! The Train

We have a great sleeping compartment on the train! Its got bunk beds. The lower bunk is bigger than the upper. Carrie is being kind and giving me the lower bunk. We also have a small bathroom with a shower and a potty.  Its pretty tight but very similar to the one in the RV. The meals on the train are fabulous. Everything is served on white linen, very formal, but you don't have to dress up. Each table seats four and you always end up sitting with other passengers. We have been amazed at how many people on the train are going on the same cruise that we are. It turns out there are a whole lot of folks who don't like to fly! We left New Orleans at lunch time on Monday and arrive in Los Angeles at 8:00 am on Wednesday. Carrie is sleeping better on the train than she does at home. She says that the rocking puts her to sleep. Talk about a gift!

Sin City South!

So New Orleans is nasty. At least Bouborn St is nasty! Good thing we leave tomorrow! We love our hotel though. We stayed at the Iberville Suites. Its in the back of the Ritz Carlton and I think, actually owned by them. We had access to their facilities, although we didn't use them. It was helpful though, because, when we went to dinner at a place where we didn't have reservations they said they only had seats in the bar. I commented that the desk clerk at the Ritz had told us that we wouldn't need reservations and all of a sudden they found a table! Imagine that. We were actually embarrassed for foreign tourists after walking down Bourbon Street. Tawdry is too kind a word! Ah well. Tomorrow the Sunset Limited and off to California!

The Panama Canal Trip

Carrie and I are leaving today for New Orleans on the first day of our Panama Canal cruise. We will be spending one night in New Orleans, during jazzfest I might add, before boarding a train to Los Angeles on Monday. I am notorious for avoiding air travel, and Carrie is a sweetheart about putting up with the resulting truncations. Besides, she loves the train too!

More later from the Road!