Out and About

Tomorrow is a public holiday here - Labour Day (or Labor day in American-speak). Actually, it's Labour day already seeing as it's after midnight. I've had a rather hectic weekend so far. Technically today wasn't that hectic (seeing as I only got up at noon and then went shopping for the afternoon) but I think I was still suffering the after effects of Saturday night...morning - whatever!

Well to start at the beginning for a change, yesterday Sam Strong and his wife picked me up and took me out for lunch. Sam is the Rotarian who did a whole lot of work in helping me to get over to the States. I hadn't met him yet as he and his wife have a house up at Lake Tahoe (right by Heavenly where Andrew went skiing while he was at Keystone) and they've only just got back. We went down to the Bay where we caught the ferry across to Coronado Island which isn't really an island. To explain, it looks like an island in the middle of the bay but is actually a peninsula which joins to the mainland just above the border with Mexico. It was a revoltingly hot day - San Diego is in the midst of a serious heatwave. It's horribly hot and sticky and altogether rather unpleasant being outside. Once we got going the ferry trip was very nice though - we were in the shade and there was a gentle breeze blowing. The whole bay is just so beautiful that it's very easy to get distracted from the heat. I got to act like a total tourist and went from side to side of the ferry taking pictures!

Here you can see the dock we left from with the 'Downtown' area of the city in the background. Apparently the city has just sprung up in the last decade - if you came to San Diego before then the skyline would have looked vastly different.

A 'Californian Sea Lion' sunning itself on a buoy in the bay - this prompted a special announcement by the captain of the ferry!

One of the Aircraft Carriers moored in the bay by Coronado. They are ginormous! Notice the row of sausage-looking things in the water right by it - those are there since 9/11 and prevent anyone from getting right up to the carrier.

Aren't I a good photographer? I'm definitely a modest one :-) Here we have the yachts on the bay and the city. Now you can see why I said it's so beautiful!

There's also a very impressive bridge that stretched from the mainland to Coronado. A random fact about Coronado - there's a famous old hotel on the island - the Hotel del Coronado. Sometime I'll go there for high tea. Anyway, that's where Prince Edward met Wallis Simpson for the first time.

The ferry trip wasn't very long - about 15mins maybe and then we were on the island. We had lunch at a restaurant called Peohe's which was right on the waterfront close to the ferry landing. I think the food was suppose to be Hawaiian? Or Pacific island ish. It was very nice - I had a fish wrap with salsa and mango but the service was rather shocking! I think our waiter was a couple sandwiches sort of a picnic to put it mildly! But we had lots to talk about. Sam and his wife are coming out to South Africa in about 3 weeks time so I was asked all sorts of questions.

When the time came to catch the ferry back we had a minor drama in that Sam's wife couldn't find the tickets! Luckily she had the receipt though so they just let us on. Obviously we looked rather trustworthy. On the way back we sat on the deck in the sun and I got burnt again! Although I'm not entirely sure when exactly it happened (it could also have been waiting in line for the ferry, at lunch or even when I was playing tourist).

Sam, his wife and I on the ferry going back.

After they dropped me off at home I went to visit the guys in our building to see if any of them had after sun. I think they thought I was nuts - they had no idea what I was talking about! You can't get after sun here in fact - all you get is some aloe vera stuff. I now have that though.

On Saturday night it was on of Sarah's friend's birthday parties so we went to that. They had hired a party bus - essentially like a really cool, big, limo to take us to a club then bring us back. It was so much fun! Everyone was dancing and laughing and having a really good time - it's definitely one of the best ways to go to a club.

The party bus - complete with lights and speakers!

Sarah and I on the bus - note the nice pinkish tinge to my skin!

We ended up going to a club called Stingaree - apparently one of the coolest clubs in San Diego. I have no idea :-) it seemed really nice and one of the guys in the group had some connection so I got in for free which is always great. The evening was so much fun! I ended up getting home at about 4am and then proceeded to sleep until noon on Sunday.