Mile 7344: California Dreamin’
Balboa Park
The only part of this 10,000 mile road trip that I was even slightly nervous about was the last 300 or so miles through the desert before arriving in San Diego. You see, the only time in
its life that the Civvy has ever failed me was coming back across the border from Tijuana a few years ago…when she overheated and I ended up blowing a head gasket. That was an expensive lesson learned: always watch the temperature gauge in your car…especially when in the desert. The good news…the Civvy made it through the desert like a champ and, as you know, we arrived safely and a day early into the San Diego Metro area. Since the Civvy was returning to her homeland (she was purchased in SD on New Year’s Eve 2001) it seemed appropriate to have her checked out and her oil changed at my favorite service station…Cush Honda in Mission Valley. It is worth mentioning here for the doubting Thomases in the crowd…Cush says the Civvy is in top form. Top form. I bet all you doubters are feeling badly now.
Like the DC post from Mile 3847, I’m a little worried about the potential for boring-ness in this post. Since I’ve previously lived in SD I was not approaching it from a tourist perspective so I fear I’m not going to have too
many interesting pictures (though I will likely be able to dig up some useless facts for the crowd). The scenery shots here are all from Balboa Park. I ended up arriving a day early into San Diego in part due to the two hour time gain but also because the Civvy is a fast car. My first stop was Old Town to meet my friend Erin and her mom and aunt Lynn (all of whom I failed to take pictures of. We’ll blame it on the 11 hours of driving). Fortunately my friend Julie was able to put me up for a couple of nights since Hotel Erin was full with her family visiting town. Julie has an awesome one bedroom loft condo in the Little Italy section of San Diego. She also has two cats…Bubba and Roscoe whom we attempted to photograph but Roscoe wasn’t having it. So its Julie and Bubba in the picture below. Julie and I had a great time getting caught up on all things
San Diego and ate at a fabulous new (well, new to me) sushi restaurant called Ra in the Gaslamp District of San Diego. I was also fortunate enough to be able to have breakfast on Wednesday at the famous Hillcrest eatery Hash House A Go-go with my old boss Gayle from i3Statprobe who is now retired(ish) and a little picture shy. And, I got to hang out with my old friend Azalea whom I hadn’t seen in a couple of years either…that’s her below with my beloved Civvy. The next couple of days I spent running errands and getting my life organized in anticipation of the arrival of the kids. Ah…the kids. Who are they and how did I acquire them? The kids are:
- Tori (age 13), cousin of Stacey, daughter of my mom’s sister Cheryl
- Steven (age 14), cousin of Stacey, son of my mom’s brother John
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m always packing various kids around the country. They’re fun to borrow for a spell and send back later and since California has lots of fun stuff to do I thought it might be amusing to bring these two along
as I drove back to Montana (where they both reside). So far, we’ve had only one confused person wondering if I was their mother. Or rather, the only one brave enough to ask.
So the kids were supposed to arrive on Wednesday but they had a bit of bad luck leaving Great Falls, MT when a bird flew into the engine of the plane that was to take them to Seattle where they would ultimately connect to San Diego. After a fair amount of rigmarole, it was finally determined that the best thing to do would put them on the same flight the next day. The end result, of course, is that they ended up losing a whole day in SD which proved to be OK as they decided they didn’t want to do any of the zoo/wild animal park/Seaworld attractions and mostly wanted to go to the beach. Off we headed to the best beach in San Diego County…Moonlight Beach in Encinitas with brief diversions to Balboa Park and Old Town.
Aren’t they cute?
After a late start yesterday morning from San Diego, the kids and I battled the horrendousness that is Los Angeles traffic (5 hours to go just over 100 miles) and arrived at the only available hotel room within a 30 mile radius of San Luis Obispo (my goal location)…in Santa Maria, California. Unfortunately that hotel is a place we’d like to strike from our memories for the rest of our lives…I cannot recommend Santa Maria or the America’s Best Value Inn on E. Main. Both are vile locations, though yesterday’s trials and tribulations were more than made up for today by a beautiful drive up the Pacific Coast Highway, trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and our really nice hotel Casa Munras. Tomorrow we head to San Francisco so hopefully we’ll get some great shots from there.
And, as promised, my useless facts about San Diego (in honor of the kids starting back to school soon…a school/education theme):
- The San Diego Unified School District, also known as San Diego City Schools, is the school district that serves the majority of the city, it includes 113 elementary schools, 23 middle schools, 4 atypical schools, 10 alternative schools, 27 high schools and 25 charter schools. In the northern part of the city, Poway Unified School District and San Dieguito Union High School District are districts outside city limits, but serve several schools within city limits. In the southern part of the city, Sweetwater Union High School District serves multiple schools within city limits, although it is headquartered outside city limits.
- According to education rankings released by the U.S. Census Bureau, 40.4 percent of San Diegans ages 25 and older hold bachelor’s degrees. The census ranks the city as the ninth most educated city in the United States based on these figures.
- Public colleges and universities in the city include University of California, San Diego (UCSD), San Diego State University (SDSU), and the San Diego Community College District, which includes San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, and San Diego Miramar College.
Tags: 6 - West Coast, Encinitas, San Diego
Stacey
August 19th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Hey Stacey and the KIDS, Just got to catch up on your journey as I have been on a journey myself. Thanks for all the pics. Tell the KIDS hi from their Auntie. Have fun and beeeeee safe. See you when you get to Montana. Not the big sky country at the moment. How about big smokey for now. Later gator.
August 19th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Glad you included a picture of the Civvy, she does look good. So does Azalia!
August 20th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Hi Stacey,
Reading your blog on San Diego made me even more excited for my trip to SD. I leave on Thursday. I agree with the kids. I am looking forward to hanging out on the beach too!! I also enjoyed the school facts as my mind is starting to think more about school these days (only two weeks of vacation left). I am looking forward to seeing your pictures of the Pacific Coast Highway.
Have fun,
Colette