San Diego

Borealis Wednesday 19^th April 2023

When I woke up at 5am this morning we had already docked in San Diego. I took a night time picture of the Portside Pier and the high rises by the waterfront which were all lighted up. I was also surprised to see the headlights of so many cars at that time of the morning.

I woke up again in the daytime. we were indeed now in port with a clear view of some of the high rises and also of some old sailing ships in the port.  The sixteenth century galleon is almost certainly a replica. I could not imagine an original in such good condistion. On the starboard side I could see the outline of the USS Midway, which was a monument and museum commemorating the Second World War. After all San Diego is above all else a naval port, and the home base for the U.S. Pacific fleet. 

                        

At 9am our coachload was called out first and Albina and I took our place in the coach. The guide, George, had a soft voice and looked like a former hippy, but was undoubtedly knowledgeable. As we passed the Second World War vessel he explained how it had become a national icon, and a star tourist attraction. He added that the crew often played basketball on its vast deck. According to our guide this strategic naval presence makes the city the number one target in case of a nuclear conflict. So San Francisco has its overhanging menace of an earthquake on the San Andrea Fault; San Diego fears more of a man made cataclysm. 

He pointed out one non descript 25 storey grey building near the harbour entrance. Apparently it was a federal prison with grand views of the harbour. I am sure that Alcatraz prisoners also had wondeful views when in their exercise yard, but they may not have appreciated it so much. 

The city, with its 3.3 million inhabitants, is the eighth largest in the country and quite expensive. An average home cost 1 million dollars. The guide also told us two other original facts about San Diego. Firstly, there were only limted amount of high rises, almost exclusively in the harbour area, because of the need not to endangers flights coming in from the U.S. mainland in the east and approaching us over the Laguna Mountains to land at an internation airport that was right in the centre of town. We were aware of these low lying international flights arriving wherever we were in the city, particularly over the harbour and Balboa Park. The second original fact was that this area was once only scrubland with occasional native Torry Pine trees and chaparrel bushes. All the trees that we were to see, either in the city, in Balboa Park, or in the outlying suburbs, had to be imported here, planted and maintained with constant watering.

We passed the enormous convention centre and the adjoining exhibition halls, famous for their annual Comic-Con Conventions. We drove through the town centre, along Fifth Avenue, and through an area called the Gaslamp Quarter because many of the buildings were still built in the 1880s when gas was the main source of street lighting. It included El Cortez Hotel, which was once the tallest building in San Diego, and also a popular concert hall called Girandelli, which was once a selebrated porn theatre. The area had been popular then with US navy personnel and foreign sailors. The popular name for this area at the time was actually Stingeroo, partly because the foreign sailors used to swim ashore, getting stung by jellyfish in the sea, and partly by the high prices they had to pay in all the seedy joints in town. The area was also covered by historic red trolley buses, whose main attraction, according to our scornful guide, was the brightly painted exterior and hard wooden seats.

We moved further out in the direction of La Jolla (pronounced Lahoya), passing the former factory which built the wartime B29 bombers, San Diego International Airport with its single runway, and the army base for U.S. Marines. We drove onto the Interstate Highway ("The 5") which runs from Mexico to Canada along the Pacific coast. Alongside the highway the fields are yellow with mustard seed plants and red with pickle blossom. The two seasons in San Diego are apparently green and brown. Because of recent rain, the guide said, San Diego had an extended green season this year and one of the best springs in years, rich in vegetation, with plenty of flowers and shrubs. Unfortunately, the most common imported tree, the eucalyptus has not flowered so well and is considered a disaster by locals, because it kills other plants in its vicinity. Before its was planted the territory was almost a desert with sparse grass and rattlesnakes.

While on the Interstate 5 we passed Mount Soledad. The guide pointed out to us the daytime home of Dr Seuss of Grinch fame. His house is on stilts with a good surround view of the area from the top of the mountains. As we passed a white Mormon church with two steeples that resembled two rockets, we turned westward, passing the hilly site of the University of California, with its good reputation in advanced marine biology, to the posh sea resort of La Jolla. La Jolla is indeed a rich suburb, with property in the form of attractive low houses and bungalows, valued at around $4 million each. It has a   a wonderful sweeping view around the bay, with plenty of surfing waves. We approached more closely along lanes surrounded by coral trees with pretty red flowers. At one point high up above the cliff edges, we got out of the coach and walked down a path clinging to the cliff side but leading closer to sea level. We saw (and heard) sea lions jumping into the water and swimming through a vast cavern, which actually resembled a natural tunnel. As we got even closer we saw a flock of pelicans on a rock opposite to that of the sea lions. We busily took pictures of the birds below. Meanwhile, perched on a tree just above our heads, sat a little humming bird, seemingly oblivious to our attention and our cameras. We then turned a further corner onto a small viewing area in front of a hotel where we were greeted with an even larger display of sea lions lying lazily in the sun and a large group of cormorants perched on a rock above them One of the sea lions was so large and seemingly soporific, that I was convinced it was a walrus. Just past the sea lions, on a separate piece of cliff just below our viewing platform, were a couple of seals. Not to be confused with the sea lions. You can tell one from the other because the seals are smaller, less noisy and have no ear flaps over their ears. 

At this point the coach came to collect us and we drove past a local Museum of Modern Art with a bunch of canoes entangled on its roof, looking as if they had been hurled there by a recent heavy storm surge. We turned out of the town at a corner marked by a reddish Catholic Church with a square tower which apparently is very popular for weddings, where the young couple and their guests can pose dressed in their fineries against the background of the sea.

The next stop was the San Diego Old Town, This was the site of the old Spanish mission from the XVIth century. The pedestrainized central area looked like the site of one of those Westerns with a Mexican element to it. This was the heart of old San Diego in Spanish times, and in the early years of California's statehood. Nearly all the buildings were wooden, except perhaps the whitewashed Catholic Church in the Spanish style, which had been built in two phases. The first in the XIXth century hit a long 30 year pause when the money ran out. The area is filled with artisan stalls, old style candy stores (where Albina bought some sugary jelly babies), Mexican restaurants and other wooden structures, all grouped around a beautiful tree on a small grass common. Even the local ATM cash point was housed inside what appeared at first glance to be a wooden out house. It was all very charming, but, as George our guide said, "Not that impressive for you if you are sailing on to Mexico next".   

From there to Balboa Park, a 1,200 acre site, which caters for admirers of both culture and nature. Named after the Spanish explorer, Nunez de Balboa, who first viewed the Pacific Ocean from a tree in Panama, it was developed from a national grant awarded for San Diego's contribution to the celebrations accompanying the opening of the Panama canal. The park was erected on a mostly flat terrain, and filled with newly planted imported trees from around the world. The front gate is dominated accompanied by a church like structure with a high tower and a beautifully decorated blue dome. It is also the site for some 20 or so museums some of which, like San Diego Museum of Art or the Casa del Prado, are made to look like heavily decorated Spanish institutional buildings with stone carvings of saints and ship captains. Others like the San Diego Air and Space Museum look more modern. This particular museum is fronted with models of a stealth bomber and a fighter aircraft built to land on water. Some, like the white Natural History Museum, look more formal in a classical style. These museums hug an extensive central plaza, accompanied by a pond, fountains and restaurants. The pond was full of large fish and ducks, some of ehich were white, like Aylesbury Ducks. But other architecural wonders include the outer shell of a covered botanical garden, currently being restored and due to open later this year, and a reproduction of the Globe Theatre, much older than the one in London. However, there is also a world famous zoo, which there was actually no tome for us to enter, forests of imported trees and a cactus plantation and a rose garden, next to which our coach had stopped. Personally, in the 45 minutes of spare time, I revisited the site of the central plaza, but most of our coach passengers, including Albina, wandered around the cactus plants and rose bushes. 

At the appointed time of 10.45, we all returned to the waiting coach. All except one. We realized that the missing passenger was a highly strung and emotional diabetic, from whom I, for one, had always kept my distance. We discovered that she had left her phone and her bag with her insulin on the bus, and quickly became very concerned. A Fred Olsen rep managed to contact the ship but there instruction was simple, namely stay there until she is found. We organized search parties around the park, while the boat staff contacted the park administration. In the course of the search I found I was approaching the site of a nudist colony, all in the park area, but I guessed this is not where she was likely to be found. After an hour of frantic search and worry a car with a park ranger arrived with her in tow. She looked a little shaken as Lisa, who had organized the search party, led her to the bus. She came back in without a word of apology and sat down in her seat, more than an hour late. Knowing how highly strung she was we just left her alone.

Luckily there was still time to make our last visit to Coronado Island (not really an island, said our guide) which we crossed over to on the magnificent Coronado Bay Bridge, which was built in 1969. It was a place for the rich and famous, such as retired admirals, film executives and the comfortably wealthy. It has beautiful sandy beaches and several golf courses, but likes to retain an air of exclusivity looking down on normal San Diego residents invading their land. A majority of the houses seem to be wooden structures, but each is individually planned using paid architects. When the original Bay Bridge was planned jointly with San Diego County officials, there was a proposal for the bridge to have a cycle lane and access for pedestrians. But the Coronado island representatives vetoed this. Car access only. None of your riff raff on bicycles. So there we are. The most magnificent wooden structure was the Hotel del Coronado, once the largest wooden building in the United States, described as being in Queen Anne style, and looking so mysterious with its old style gables, numerous balconies, placed higgledy piggledy over the front of the building, a tall central tower, and a even higher wide round tower annex with gabled windows  at two levels in the tower's roof. From the outside I could also see a regiment of chandeliers hanging in the ground floor dining room. You could imagine this hotel as a film set. Actually it was a film set some seventy years ago, for "Some like it Hot" with Marylin Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.

We drove back to the ship to catch our meal, but on the way our guide also reminded us of the naval traditions of San Diego. 25% of U.S. Navy staff live in San Diego and he is aware currently of the presence of at least 9 naval ships currently in port, as well as a large fleet of helicopters in airfield adjoining the port. He also mentioned to us the Naval History Museum, inclluding the Spanish galleon, which was indeed a replica, and the XIXth century three masted schooner, the Star of India, which distinguished itself by shipping convicts to Australia. These were the two boats I saw from my cabin balcony this morning.

After lunch I went out for a short visit to find a warmer jacket or hoodie for Albina, similar to the one I got myself in San Francisco. Wandering arounda little aimlessly I reached the Little Italy area, where I did indeed find what I believed to be a suitable white medium sized hoodie, decorated with bees. Luckily she did look immensely pleased with it when I brought it back on board.

That evening I discovered that none of the paid crew had been allowed off the ship in San Diego, which had caused some anger and friction. It transpired that two members of crew, a plumber and a waiter, had jumped ship in San Francisco. The ship faces a massive fine as a result, and the captain had to prevent further such incidents by ordering all crew members to remain on board at this last American port.