San Diego

During our way-too-long stay in Rosamond we finally sat with the map and planned the next few weeks. In general this is what we’ve decided: first San Diego, then San Francisco, next Yosemite, and from there up north towards Seattle through Redwood National Park and Avenue of the Giants. After that we’ll go back south to see Yellowstone and all the Utah parks we skipped before. What next we don’t know yet, we’ll decide when we get there. For now we’ve decided to skip two tree parks, Sequoya and Joshua Tree. We’ll see them some other time.

Tired by a long stop in our journey we were happy to finally move on. We invited ourselves to our friends who live in San Diego, Aga and Jim (by the way we’d like to recommend a game Jim worked on - Slam Bolt Scrappers), and they didn’t oppose too strongly, for which we are very grateful. We left a trailer with Lois and Randy and we headed south. The road goes through the mountains, only the amount of green changes. 

In the beginning it’s still desert, then more and more trees and bushes show up and finally it gets as green as in Tuscany in the middle of summer. Driving through California is a feast for eyes. We forgot how green can it get. Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada - desert, mountains, desert. Every once in a while we got to see some shrubs or some pine woods like on Great Continental Divide in New Mexico. But now we entered the land of green and for a while we felt discomfort, like we’re lost or something. Luckily we got over it quickly and we started enjoying the views.

It’s windy in California. Plus we were there on some extra windy days. All the time the wind would blow our hats off our heads. It was windy in Antelope valley on Mojave Desert, where Rosamond is, it was windy in San Diego and Big Sur (although not that much), maybe it’ll be better in San Francisco… We don’t want to complain, we liked California a lot, but sometimes it’s nice to go out the trailer so the wind doesn’t shut the door in your face.

Trailer stayed in Antelope Valley and we went 200 miles to San Diego, which was overwhelming with green. It’s even more overwhelming as we entered downtown by the highway which just before getting there crosses the parks, zoo and other cool places. There are so many attractions there that we had a really huge problem selecting what to see now and what to leave for the next time. Cause there is no doubt we want to come back.

Point Loma

First place we went to see was Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument. Point Loma is a birthplace of California. In 1542 Portuguese sailor Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo landed here. Hopefully Portugueses won’t mind the Spanish writing of his name. Besides Spanish-Portuguese competition for a proper version of the story and Cabrillo heritage is visible here and there. The story of Spanish expedition was mentioned first (true), so half a century ago Portugueses added their bronze plate to commemorate Portuguese sailor with the Portuguese writing. We know what the feel learning in different places that Warsaw born and educated Maria Skłodowska-Curie was actually French. Don't you have enough Nobel prize winners you French?

Lighthouse at Point Loma

There is just one road to Cabrillo National Monument and on weekend you can get stuck in traffic, just like we did. It wasn’t that bad (maybe 15 minutes) but it was a preview of parking problems. We passed the gate flashing our Annual Pass and then we started looking for a spot. Unfortunately there was nothing by the water so we went up the hill to park by the visitors center and famous lighthouse.

Point Loma

Old Lighthouse at Point Loma is a symbol of San Diego, it’s on stamps, postcards etc. It was built in the mid-1800s and it’s really pretty and majestic at the same time. Inside there is a little museum showing life of one of the lighthouse keepers, who lived here with the family. They were all alone, as San Diego was 18 miles away. They wouldn’t go there too often, what for? It’s nice, maybe bit windy, every year late winter/early spring thousands of whales migrate by (there’s a view point but April is a bit too late), they were looking for shells, crabs and other entertaining things to do. Must’ve been fun.

Tide pools

On the hill there’s also Cabrillo monument with Portuguese pronuncacion (just to make sure everyone knows) and great view point to entire San Diego. It’s also a good airport observation point. It’s just by downtown near San Diego Bay. When you stand at the very top of Point Loma it seems that the planes are almost on the same level, just 1-2 km/0,5-1 miles away. Not fun at all for people leaving in the downtown as they fly just above buildings.

San Diego

On Point Loma there’s also a military base. Next to Cabrillo monument there is only a small cabin to see how the coast was supposed to be defended from enemy ships by artillery guns. They probably didn't have to use it even once. Japanese ships weren't ever so close.

Cabrillo and Mackillo

After a few hours on top (how is it possible that places like this always take us so much time) we went down. Park closes at 4.30 pm and we got to the ocean just before 4, so the parking wasn’t such a problem anymore. The biggest attraction of this part of Cabrillo National Monument is a walk along the cliffs and tide pools where you can see crabs and other sea creatures. Maciek really liked it and so did we, though we didn't see any sea life.

If you look really closely you can see a bridge to Coronado:)

Later that day we went to Coronado Island. We entered it by the bridge, which like most of American bridges we really liked. It’s very steep (over 4 percent) and at the highest point it’s more than 60 meters/180 feet over the water. It’s like a roallercoaster ride.

Coronado doesn’t look like there is a navy base there. Navy is supposed to be the biggest employer there still the island looks quite wealthy and elegant. They are also the reason why the bridge is so tall- even the biggest warships must fit under.

Hotel del Coronado

There is a nice main street (but nothing special, we've seen many of those) and it's most famous attraction - Hotel del Coronado. It was built in 1888 it had its ups and downs. One of ups ws for sure being a movie set for many scenes of "Some like it hot". Later, in the 70s downs came by, now it seems to be back on top. It looks like from fairyland (so do the parking prices - we left a car in one of the back streets where parking is for free), it also has a beautiful beach with a guy who builds sand castles. That's what we've heard. We didn't get there. It was too crowded and we had a strolller…

Hotel del Coronado

We left Coronado after dark, but to get as much as possible out of that day on our way back we stopped at the old town. We spent there only half an hour because it was cold and windy. There are some shops with souvenirs from San Diego area (meaning Mexico and Peru) and lots of cafes and restaurants. A nice place to stop by for a drink or something to eat.

On the next day we went to see USS Midway. This is the longest-serving Navy aircraft carrier of the 20th century - it was in service for 50 years then, after it was decommissioned it ended up in San Diego. We have already seen a battleship - USS Alabama and a submarine - USS Drum in Mobile, now it was a turn for aircraft carrier. It is really worth to see it and spend there as much time as possible (we stayed there for 5 hours only because Maciek started to be cranky). You can see pretty much everything starting from the top: captain deck, runaway with many aircrafts from last half century, hangar (with even more aircrafts), living quarters for sailors, pilots, officers and of course engine room and other service rooms.

There are also few dozens of planes and helicopters. You can get in to many of them to feel like a passanger or pilot. USS Midway served for such a long time that as far as aircrafts go it's lived through a few revolutions, which can be seen on both decks. On the upper one you can see how little space they have for a take-off. The most spectacular is a steam catapult, which was able to accelrate a plane on only 300-feet runway to such speed that it could take off. These almost two seconds were described by pilots as experience unparrarel to anything they knew. Maciek loved getting on every single plane. Each time we had to either carry him out by force or bribe him with a vision of another one just around the corner.

From USS Midway we went to Torrey Pines to meet with Aga and Jim and their daughter Nina. Maciek loved the fact that finally he could play with someone almost his age (just a year and a half older) instead of half a century older, besides Polish speaking! Torrey Pines is a bit of wilderness within San Diego. That's what the whole area looked like when Cabrillo arrived. Now it's a place for a nice walk (if you find a parking spot) through the woods, to the beach and along the cliffs. Just a small warning: it's good to wear crocks if you don't want to go back home in wet shoes, sometimes the waves got to the bottom of cliffs…

Maciek and Nina

Last but not least we went to the zoo. For a long time we couldn't decide whether to go there or to skip it and on our way back to Rosamond and go to Joshua Tree. But we've decided Maciek will enjoy zoo more and the trees grow also in Antelope valley. Randy said, by the way, that even if you have a few hundred years old tree on your plot of land, it's not a problem. You can either build around it or hire a specialist who will dig it out and plant somewhere else. Must be a good job, as Rosamond/Lancaster/Edwards used to be - according to Randy - the fastest developing area in the US…

So we went to the zoo. Good thing about the zoo is that it has a free parking. It also has hills, bridges and trees, and is wild and fun. The paths cross on different levels. It's not always easy to get where you want to go, but wherever you end up, it's surely worth seeing anyway. We expected it to be more interactive, with lots of talks, feeding, petting etc. We heard just one talk, quite an interesting one, about fascinating animal we didn't catch the name. There were also nice play areas which Maciek liked a lot.

Mysterious animal

The best thing about the zoo is that it's huge and you can walk for hours. Besides it's really nice and green. And, what's most important, it has pandas and a polar bear! The line for pandas was long and the viewing area was not very visitor friendly but it was worth a wait. Pandas were posing for pics, unlike the bear, which hid behind a rock and went to sleep.

Ladies and Gentleman: The Bear

San Diego had lots of attractions. If we had unlimited budget and more time we would probably spend here weeks. Or years, like Aga and Jim. But all we had was a couple of days. We didn't go to La Jolla, were the seals live on the beach, we had to skip all the museums of Balboa Park, we didn't get to Gaslamp nor to Seaport Village, and so on, and so on… That's the tough part of traveling - making choices on what to see and what to leave for the next time. 

Straight from the zoo we headed to Rosamond, to pack, hook up the trailer and head west. The real test for the jeep was coming. Let Eddie see Pacific Ocean too!