First stop on the “USA Express” was the beautiful San Diego. Welcome to San Diego! This is what everyone said to us wherever we went be it the bus drivers, tour operators, employees, people on the street and even a tourist from New Zealand. What a friendly place.
After the hassle we’d had with our flight connections it was actually nice to be in a city where everyone was so helpful. Photos are here.
| When? | Feb 2007 |
| Why Go? | The super friendly people, the micro-communities, the water, Sea World, San Diego Zoo, lots and varied things to occupy, the everything! |
| Weather | Fairly cool and sometimes overcast with light showers. Gorgeous weather on Day 3. |
| Hints | Entry into theme parks can get expensive so check on line first for discounted tickets or consider getting the San Diego Pass if you’re there long enough and interested in doing many of the attractions on offer. |
| If dining in the Old Town and you’re keen to eat at any particular restaurant you are definitely advised to book ahead where you can. | |
The Experience
As with all the American cities we are going to be visiting over the next few weeks we were having a sort of whirlwind visit. Theme parks seemed to be the order of the day in San Diego with a visit firstly to San Diego Zoo on day 1 and then Seaworld on day 2. Our final day saw us exploring the Old Town and heading off on a sail boat in an attempt to catch some whales (slightly 
unsuccessful on this point.)
San Diego Zoo is reputed to be one of the best in the world and you can see that a lot of thought has been put into the lay out of the park so even though you might feel you are criss-crossing the park a few times you will hardly ever need to walk the same path twice. Although I’d hoped that the weather in San Diego would be warm and sunny the cooler weather actually ended up being 
a bit of a bonus as it meant that most of the animals were actually up and about including the polar bears and pandas. So cute! To make your visit a little more interesting check out the Animal Enrichment program which the Zoo run every second weekend of each month where the zookeepers and trainers try to do something a little different with the animals. You may be 
surprised by the results.
When we went to Seaworld the weather was absolutely rubbish but again something positive came out of it. The drizzle meant there were less people in the park, you didn’t care, or cared less, if you were sitting in the Splash Zone at the Dolphin show and Shamu, the Killer Whale’s, show and getting wet on Journey to Atlantis (which we managed to ride about 5-6 times in a row!) was a walk in the park. The highlights at Seaworld was definitely Believe – Shamu’s show where killer whales did cool tricks to an amazing and moving soundtrack and feeding the bat rays (who feel like jelly) and dolphins (who feel like a wet hot dog as one little girl described it.) See below to see me feed the bat rays and also some of the other creatures in their habitat at Seaworld:
The manatees were also very sweet. The sea cows are very affectionate and when they weren’t sleeping (which they do a lot!) seemed to be constantly touching each other and even kissing! See below for the Shamu Video:
Old Town is a beautiful and amazing recreation of times gone by (as in the early 1800’s) in San Diego. The 
architecture is a mix of Spanish and early American and it felt quite authentic. During the day it felt a little sleepy but it definitely becomes quite a lively place at night. We found the little Mexican ladies making 
tortillas/tacos/burritos etc. fresh by hand in the restaurant windows quite entertaining.
Our whale watching expedition was a bit of a disaster in the sense that we saw one whale spouting for about 3 hours of sailing. Having said that we were able to enjoy a beautiful, if slightly nippy, day out on a sail boat which is sooo much more peaceful than those giant cruises that take people out for whale watching. The only thing that ruined the atmosphere was the horde of helicopters and jets that kept flying overhead.
On to the next city … Phoenix!