7.4.2012 – 7.4.2012  25 °C

After a very ordinary night’s sleep (lots of noise and uncomfy bed) I got us going early as we wanted to see some of San Diego before heading back to LA.

First stop this morning was a drive out to the Old Town. For some reason, I misunderstood the advert for the hostel we stayed at last night as I thought we were staying in the Old Town! Not to be! The Old Town is this small part of San Diego that has been preserved since it was first founded and is a full of kitschy, touristy shops and museums that highlight the Mexican influence in this part of California.

The Old Town is an absolute riot of colour. Reds, blues and the greyey green colour that is the main colour of the hundreds of succulents that are planted throughout the town! A photographers paradise!! We spent a couple of hours wandering in and around the little shops and stopped into the local musuem to get some more background info on the founding of the town. The Old Town was largely founded as the stage coach stop for people visiting the mission of San Diego and it retains much of its original heritage including five old stage coaches!

From the Old Town, we drove back downtown to have a look at the marina and have some morning tea. Morning tea consisted of filtered coffee (not my favourite) and some bickies we had picked up at the local store (not quite up to Arnott’s std). Although morning tea wasn’t anything to write home about, the walk around the marina was lovely until we realised it was passed twelve and we needed to get a move on if we wanted to see Coronado Island before heading back to LA. Coronado is home to part of the large naval contingent in San Diego as well as the hotel that was used in the filming of ”Some Like it Hot” with Marilyn Monroe. After driving thru the all American suburbs of Coronado and seeing the picturesque hotel (that we couldn’t afford to stay in!) we jumped back in the car for the two and half hour drive back to LA.

The drive was slow due to really heavy traffic for the first hour after leaving SD but after this it started to flow more freely until we again reached the outer suburbs of LA and the traffic slowed! Dinner was a tasty affair with us checking out some local Mexican before spending a few hours getting our stuff in order for tomorrow’s early flight to Seattle.

Song of the Day= Eagles, Hotel California (we were able to leave the hostel but gee it was tough going!)