Gringo Tour 08/09 - Part 9

We had a bit of a late awakening and had decided to go to the gyme before we head to town. The gyme at the Sheraton was even more impressive than the gyme at the Bonaventure. It had brand spanking new Life Fitness equipment with exercise bikes with touch screen TVs (sweeet). Ant made a comment that it was even better than the ANU gym (sorry Len!). Right next door to the gyme was a Wii room (another first) although there were a couple of 25 year olds hogging the machine playing Wii baseball.

We showered and headed out to the airport to catch the 961 bus to town. We arrived into town around midday and we wandered around the Gaslamp District for a little while trying to find breakfast (latino time ahoy). I tried to point out to Ant that the Gaslamp Quarter mostly contained irish themed pubs and bars, as opposed to somewhere where you could get breakfast. We had a bit of a public hissy-fit and both of us eventually cooled down and I picked out the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf outlet which was kinda near the Horton (Hears a Who) Plaza. It was cheap and pretty good - and their coffee wasn't too bad either (for the states).

We caught a bus to Balaboa Park (a hugeish park near the centre of San Diego) which houses one of the world's best zoos - the San Diego Zoo. We arrived there pretty late (2ish) and the Zoo shutted at 4ish - so we didn't have much time to dawdle. It was a little expensive to get in (about $35USD) but it was well worth it.

The zoo was pretty excellent - with a lot of big-ish exhibits and lush surroundings. Highlights include the gorillas (never had seen them before and we got up to a foot away to them (just a sheet of glass and us), pandas (where there was this annoying line to see them and people taking flash photography at them), the hippos (! It was excellent being able to see them swim from underwater), all of the monkeys (so many lil' monkeys everywhere), some little asian dog things (looked like dingo puppies and were very cute) and the koalas (!). I took some pictures of Ant in the cheesy koala gift shop lined with heaps of cheesy koala toys and bags (not made out of real ones). There was also this weird Dr Sesus memorial thingy next to the pink flamingoes (why isn't there a Divine memorial next to the pink flamingoes!?!). Dr Sesus used to live here in San Diego (hence the Horton Plaza Hears a Who thing) and maybe he had a book with pink flamingoes or something. We had an excellent time and did stick out a bit (lots of families everywhere with loud obnoxious kids and hick-hillbilly families who looked fresh off the set of Jerry Springer. The San Diego zoo is defintely up there in terms of the world's best (maybe the only one I can think of which may be better is the Singapore Night Safari zoo which is excellent in terms of seeing active animals at night).

We headed back into town and were feelin a little hungry (it was about 5ish and we hadn't had any lunch). I wanted to have another kabab at the Horton Hears a Who Plaza but the store was shut down (maybe due to lack of hygine standards or something). So we had to make do with a Philly Sub (sounds like a horse). I had some really greasy Italiano Sub which was hand-grilled on the fat stove. Ant had the "light and lean" mashed potatoes with plastic cheese... Mmmm.. heartburn.

We headed back to the hotel to dump our stuff and then back into town and caught a bus to the general direction of gay-bar-villes. It was getting pretty late (almost 10ish) and we were getting a bit worried about finding a place to eat. We stumbled on an old-USA style diner (which appeared to be managed by an old jewish family). I had a chicken pie and a light bud (light bud is low on carbs not alcohol content) and Ant had a rye sandwich - which were all completely over the top in terms of portion size. They had those little old jukeboxes on the table - I popped in a quarter and played some hokey old Four Tops song (which is on Singstar).

At about 11ish - we headed out onto the street and found a gay "video" bar - but before you can say "Debbie Does San Diego" - no it wasn't a porno video bar - rather a video bar playing really bad music from the late 80s and early 90s. Although I'm a 80s/90s bad music luver - this stuff was pure sh#te (hello - Toni Childs). We had a couple of drinks (more Bud Lights) and at about midnight - all the tables in the room were folded out to reveal poker tables and all the locals partook in some (what looked like illegal) poker. This bar was pretty strange - not in a weird Blue Oyster / Police Academy way but in a weird San Diego-bad videos illegal poker sort of way.



Because we had to get up somewhat earlier the next day (our last in San Diego) - we decided we might take our fourth cab trip for the holidays back to the hotel. We hailed a cab down and Ant was under the impression that this shouldn't cost more than $10 given we were just over a hill away from the hotel. But this taxi ride (which lasted almost 15 mins) felt like it had taken us to the far-flunged reaches of the universe. It was most defintely the scenic route back to the hotel and cost us almost $30USD (which is like 1m AUD) so we weren't very happy pappy. Have I mentioned how wacky US radio is?? Our cab ride from KBF Resort to the Amtrak Station was pretty funny - in the fact that the cab driver was listening to left-wing talk back radio - and I swear - it sounded just like a funny radio station of the Grand Theft Auto video game. The station ID promo went "Are you sick of all those extreme right wing lunatics...?! Then get the facts with (can't remember the shock jocks name) at (insert station name)." The San Diego Cabbie was listening to a religous ABC Classic FM equivalent with non stop 14th Century christmas songs - old skool style beeches. Until next time.