A San Diego Travelogue

Some say - its only a beach....... But if you keep a guy who has grown up by the sea away from it for a long enough time.... I would say - HEY that's a beautiful beach!!!!!!!
Well guess I should backtrack a lil bit to get everyone onto the same page. Last Friday I found myself longing for 3:00 pm at Long Beach - growing weary of a conference which had been quite demanding on time and sleep. So when the time came was all ready to run to the Greyhound terminal to catch my bus towards San Diego, CA. But first - as always a small detour. For a simple reason of course - my gracious hostess in SD would be celebrating her birthday on the 25 of September - so had to pick up something which would at least befit such a lovely person. Anil - in all his infinite wisdom had given me the essential tips.... I seem to procrastinate a long time if I go shopping for someone else - so all these tips most definitely come in handy...

1. never get a girl - who is not your current girlfriend a perfume - it would imply that she does not smell too good
2. clothes - beware, although girls love clothes, one needs to be acute aware of their size - else it will be confined to the dark recesses of a closet
3. it should be 'chic' - I really hope I had a better elaborate expression for the same!

Well luckily I had fashion crazy Allyson to help me out - and with some effort we managed to pick up a handbag - which I thought at least met criteria 1-3 although had the least clue about whether it was a suitable gift or not... logic was simple - it wasn't going to be a bad gift - the goodness factor would be pure luck!

ah - back to the bus talk. well the concierge had told me that it would be only 1.35 miles down the road - but someone must have goofed up..... cause there I was on 3rd street - while the bus stop was on 15th street. Adding to the headaches was the disappearance of cabs which would have greatly aided my departure. So there I was lugging my case on the road in 92F weather - covering 15 blocks which seemed an eternity.

The bus was half an hour late - don't blame anyone given the traffic situation in these areas - most likely the worst in the country. So after meandering through Anaheim, Riverside, Oceanside it finally trundled into San Diego. First impression - certainly a better city than LA or Long Beach of course - had a nice port - a modest sized airport - and a decent looking downtown. The greyhound terminal actually had a customs official - which is not suprising given the proximity to Mexico (just around 10miles off SD).

Now a small introduction on the people I was going to meet in SD.

First there is Samir 'Sam' Ginde - my roommate for two years at VA Tech and one of the coolest guys around. Next is Divya Gupta - 'Divvi' to me, a person introduced to me by Sam - a very charming, unassuming girl who would be my hostess for the weekend. Finally rounding up the pack in Vivek Bharadwaj - another of my VA Tech buddies - and Samir's current roommate. Not to say that I do not know others in SD - however I would consider these to be the essential lot :-)

From L-R Samir, Divya, Me and Vivek

Now back to the story....

The all dependable Sam was a few blocks away from the terminal - and we met up within a few minutes. The other two were trying to find parking in the downtown area - also known as the Gaslamp - simple reason - cause the streetlights - were the quaint gas variety.

After a few tries - and assistance from the other folk we found parking in the same area as Divvi and Vivek. We then headed towards dinner at an Island themed resteraunt named 'My Tiki'. They had quite an assortment of cocktails - and an equally exquisite - and thankfully within budget cuisine which made for a good evening. We then meandered around a bit - with help from dessert from Ghirardelli chocolate factory.

Divvi's place is very tastefully decorated - no wonder Sam calls her IKEA girl - I prefer San Diego chick.. but that's another story.... everything prim and proper - with extra bed (very compact rollaway) and all the bells and whistles one would dream to start of life with..... kudos to you girl - for such a fantastic place. Guess i was a lil tired by then so in a little while - after wishing Divvi on the advent of her bday i headed to bed.

Next day was certainly packed the punch... After a nice breakfast of waffles and hot chocolate - Ghirardelli (nothing tastes like it!) we (Divvi and me) headed out to Sam's place - with water, beach chairs and swimming trunks (oh yeah - i was definitely going to sample the water - seemed like ages the last time i had done that!). without much ado we headed past mission bay (very nice bay with lots of water activities - kayaks, sailboats, jet skis and the like) and the airport - over a loooong bridge on to Coronado Island - which is just off San Diego - and to the beach there.

Beautiful golden sand awaited us.... although the water was a wee bit chilly for my liking. Nonetheless the three boys (Sam, Vivek and me) jumped into it without much ado. Divvi preferred to hang around the beach, wondering what had gotten into us that we behaving as pre-pubescent kids... and taking in birthday greetings by the dozen (given that she works for Nokia - she walks around with two cell phones.... so the calls kept coming)

After some time of cool water, warm sand and sunny weather with our feet nicely ensconced in sand - we decided to troop over for some lunch. given the awesome weather we chose a nice outdoor bakery deli where we could sit and chill. food was good and we were entertained by a small kid plopping around with his mother inside the deli..

twas getting around 4pm when we decided to move towards Point Loma - one of the oversights where you can see Coronado Island, the naval base situated there and the bay. quite a pretty sight with lots of sailboats... an Ohio class submarine leaving the base - and naval aircraft making their approach landing to the base. it also hosts a large cemetery - i believe for the marines - although i am not super sure.

From one overlook to another - this time Mt. Soledad which gives you another scenic view of the entire area. an added attraction was a marriage being conducted right at the top of the mountain - quite a picturesque location indeed. from here one could see the zillion dollar pretty houses (must mention this - unlike the Victorian style VA homes in CA the houses are more of the Spanish style ranch houses - expansive and quite colorful - with hues of pink, yellow and light blue to complement the surroundings), and del mar beach. by now it was getting a wee bit dark - and also a bit windy - so we rapidly descended and drove around some scenic locations - including the harbor, univ. of calif. at San Diego before moving towards old town San Diego. this is the Mexican part of San Diego - everything is quite period in nature and the food is definitely very Mexican.... a very good place to relax after a super busy day. after are appetite was more than satisfied we contemplated either clubbing or taking it easy to end the day... Divvi made the latter call, wasn't a vote since it was still her 'DAY' and now on hindsight given our condition was quite a good call.

We then headed home - picking up a movie along the way... again a chic flik ' Love Actually' to keep everyone happy with the decision. Accidently bumped into Nishant Kumar and his wife at the movie rental (including this just to keep the travelogue complete). Oddly in the end Divya retired early so it was three guys watching a chick flik!!!!... well so much to wrap up the day.

Finally on Sunday it was about 12am before we reached Sam's place... obv i had a great breakfast of eggs etc prepared by my lovely hostess... but time was short so we went over to a South Indian place for lunch - Madrasi style - pretty decent food. I had been advised that although Amtrak was comfortable - they had in the past cancelled trains - hence took the earlier rather than the later train - to ensure i had some breathing space..... if i ended missing the flight out of LAX then all hell would break loose.

Journey by amtrak was pleasant - filled with students returning after a weekend to the universities dotting the coast. had no problems transferring from Amtrak to MetroRail then shuttle to LAX - therein ends my travelogue.

Hope you'll liked it - i haven't been doing to much editing - and put it forth as thoughts came to my mind - believe that's what a blog should be.

Again thank my wonderful hosts (Divya, Samir and Vivek) for such a lovely time - i enjoyed your company and the sights of SD - and hope to do it sometime again.

The pics are up on Shutterfly - you can access them here

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAOXLVk4at2bLDg

Adios

Joseph