Day 14 - San Diego

San Diego has long been on the short list of places where I would consider moving. Don't get me wrong - I adore Austin and have no intention of moving, but San Diego has always had an appeal to me. I got to explore the city today and it did not disappoint. I may have overdone it a bit though - my legs feel like total jelly.

I got a bit of a late start because I had to deal with laundry - mundane tasks like that don't disappear when you're on the road. So I got out of here around 10 AM and headed over to the start point for the walk. I had a little difficulty finding it because the hotel had changed names and there was also construction all around, but once I found it, it was smooth sailing. It was a bit chilly to start out, but warmed up throughout the day - never got unbearably hot though, so that was nice. I walked along the beautiful waterfront and past the maritime museum. Could be interesting, but I bypassed.

The walk took me right by the airport. I guess residents just get used to airplanes flying low over downtown as they make their final approach. It was bizarre for a while. I walked up Laurel street - I thought those types of hills only existed in San Francisco! And into Balboa Park. What a neat place. So many things to explore: lawn bowling, a japanese reflection garden, tons of museums, fountains, open spaces - it was really great.

From there, it was a bit of a long walk over to Petco park, through some uneventful neighborhoods. Petco Park was so cool! On most days between Sunrise and Sunset, they have a portion of the park open as an actual park. You can see the field from there, and it's actually a part of the ballpark. On game days, they close the area 4 1/2 hours before game time because it's then converted into the ballpark grounds and only ticketed fans can come in. So neat!

From the ballpark, I walked through a couple neat shopping & dining districts and went back over to the waterfront for a long walk along there - just so pleasant! Stopped for lunch and then continued on to the USS Midway Museum. I had seen it before and my brother was a helicopter pilot on an aircraft carrier for a while, so I've heard stories. Oh, and there's this fantastic PBS mini series called "Carrier" that shows what life is like on board an aircraft carrier (they were on the Nimitz) - if you haven't seen that documentary, I highly recommend it. I've watched it a couple times and think about it often. So the USS Midway is an actual formerly working aircraft carrier from the US Navy. It was active from 1945 to 1994. After decommissioning, it got moved here and has been converted into a museum showing what life is like on the carrier. They provide you with a self-guided audio tour and you can pick and choose what stops you want to hear about. I thought it was so well done.

I spent more time there than I had planned, so I finally finished up there around 3:15 and then finished up the remainder of the walk by 3:45. My legs were already exhausted, but I still had more to do. I headed over to the San Diego Zoo, which I had heard was really well done. Well, the zoo was scheduled to close at 6 PM, so I had less than 2 hours to see the entire park, which meant power walking the whole thing. So after walking about 8 miles on the "morning" walk and Midway tour, I then did an additional 3 miles power walking through the zoo. Got to see some really cool stuff though.

Then I met up with Jackie for dinner - we went to a restaurant called Lei Lounge. It was fantastic. And I'm now totally exhausted. I don't think I'm going to get all of my pictures uploaded tonight - I'll have to do that tomorrow night. Tomorrow I'm starting my journey north. Stay tuned for details!