After a very early arrival off San Diego, we were finally met by the pilot and docked at around 6am. Arrangements had been made for USA Immigration and Customs to come on board to organize clearance for all passengers, which had to be done face to face. What seemed on paper to be an organized process, turned out to be an absolute shambles, with several ines of people snaking all over the 8th deck, eventually combining into one, to then feed through into the clearance area where the officials were seated.
We took about 45 minutes to get “processed”, had a quick breakfast, and then were allowed to disembark just after 8.30am. Our hotel was quite near the cruise terminal, so we caught a cab and were there in about 10 mins. We had booked into the Hilton Bayfront, which is quite close to the convention centre and has nice harbor views.
View from our room overlooking the Coranado Island Bridge
Arriving at the hotel at just after 9 am was far too early for check in, so we left our bags, and the four of us bought tickets for the hop on hop off trolley bus, which has a stop at our hotel, and the next one was due at 9.40am.
We have found the trolley buses a great way to get a good look around a city when you have limited time, and this one was no exception. Once on board we headed off over the Coranado Island Bridge, for a quick tour of the island of Coranado, a very up market residential area and the site of a large Naval Air Station.
A bit of activity in a park near the bridge that looked a lot like soccer
The height of housing is limited by the council
The beach at Coranado
The bus then continued on, back over the bridge and started the city tour. We stayed on board , passing through Little Italy (the largest in any USA city), where a huge Sunday market had closed off a large section street.
It was then on to Balboa Park, ( a huge park containing many art museums), and eventually to the Old Town, where we got off for a walk around.
Some shots of the Museums at Balboa Park
It has a very strong Mexican influence and looks like something out of the wild west movies. The temperature is now into the thirties, so it is getting a bit warm, but we spend about 45 mins in this area before boarding again.
Next stop where we get off is Seaport Village, on the harbor front, a relatively new development full of shops and restaurants and parks. It is also very close to the USS Midway, which is now a naval museum. Adjacent the area is also the Tuna Wharf , which at one stage was the base for the largest Tuna fishery in the World, before the area was fished out.
We had a Mexican lunch at Seaport Village, before returning to the hotel, to check in and have a bit of a rest.
The hotel is within walking distance of the Gaslamp Quarter, which is the major restaurant and bar area of San Diego, so we waked across there for a light Italian meal before heading back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. We are heading off early tomorrow morning to drive to Sedona, Arizona and Kathy and David are flying home tomorrow night, so have to spend tomorrow finding there way to LA to catch the flight.
So after our farewells, it was off to bed.
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