DAY TEN -Sunday 23 April 2011: Santa Monica to San Diego

Where else would you have breakfast?  It has to be Venice Beach... now that's an eye opener!  The Venice Beach area has always been known as a hangout for the creative and the artistic. In the 1950s and 60s, Venice became a centre for the Beat generation and judging by what was going on on Sunday morning, there's lots of 'creativity' still at work. It's pure street theatre - drugs, skateboards, drugs, roller skates, drugs, bikes, music, bums, the fit people jogging and stretching, small dogs, lap dogs, cats on leads - everything you can think of and much more besides... especially drugs! Lots of shouting and arguments mixed with singing and reggae.  We took a seat and drank it all in... in a larg mug of coffee, repeatedly filled, kinda way.

Obviously drugs!



Drugs... spot the cat



 

 I've got some videos but not sure how to include them yet.

After a breakfast of gigantic proportions (as usual), we hit the coast road to San Diego in our trusted, if not a little boring, automatic Chevy Malibu (have I mentioned before how beige it is, although the Californians like to call it 'champagne' of course).

As we came down the coast into the San Diego area, (there's a Cardiff-by-the-Sea) we spotted some huge birds in the distance and, at first, thought they were herons but they were pelicans.  Hundreds of pelicans soaring along the coastline. Fantastic!  Apparently, they've arrived in San Diego early - they would normally be mating on the Mexican coast at this time of the year.  They're everywhere and they glide up and down, following what seems to be a particular route. A great thing to see.



A lone pelican but there were hundreds, honest!

As time was against us, we nipped into the information centre in San Diego, almost opposite the USS Midway http://www.midway.org/ which we'd like to fit into our itinerary if possible).  They rang a local hotel http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sanph-residence-inn-san-diego-downtown/ and we checked in for just one night as ideally we wanted to be in the Mission Beach area by the ocean from Monday onwards for a spot of R&R.  I love the way US (and NZ) hotels have rooms with full kitchens, microwaves, fridges etc).



This one's for Chloe - a shop selling 'pink' things



DeLorean for sale

So, to dinner in San Diego's famous lamplight area http://www.gaslamp.org/. We walked around for ages in our usual fog of indecision until we found and entered Osetra - mainly because the girl on the door touting for business assured us they had veggie dishes at very resonable prices.  Dear reader, she was lying!  They did a pasta dish for Neal which was delicious but they managed to charge around double the going rate for it and for my part, I had mashed potatoes (first time this holiday so, if you know me, you can imagine how excited I was!) and roasted asparagus.  It was okay but, again, totally over priced.  I've already mentioned how expensive the wine is in California so, all in all, a very frustrating and disappointing experience. We would have been better to cook something in our 'in room' kitchen at the hotel and then gone out for a few beers.  Still, if, like us, you don't learn by experience, then you keep getting right royally ripped off!