Old Town Trolley Tours - Part 1

Thursday March 17, 2016

Old Town Trolley Tours was the excursion for today.  We did this tour with my sister and her husband.  We were a bit shocked at the cost to begin with, but by the end of the day's tour, we had changed our mind and thought it was a good value.
We once again drove to Balboa Park, because the parking is free and the Old Town trolley makes a stop there.

Beautiful flowering bush as we walk up the road to where we can jump on the trolley.

Sitting on a bench by El Cid at Balboa Park, waiting for the trolley to arrive.

 Hooray!  We are loaded up and off on our adventure.

 You can see that at the rear of the trolley, the side curtains are up, so there is little obstruction for viewing.  The front of the trolley has windows.  Tic's cap is on backwards so the wind does not blow it off!  His camera is in his lap, Ha!
By the way, see the orange stickers on our shirts?  This allows us to get off, and catch the next trolley.  Good for all day.

 Our tour driver/guide was great, pointing out landmarks as we drove to the next stop/pickup point.  Here he was telling us about the turn of the century home you see down the street.
By the way, Tic wants you to know it is difficult to frame and shoot good photos from the back of a bouncing bus.

 San Diego City and County Administration Building, erected in 1936.  Looks good for an older structure.  Wonder if it ever had a facelift?

We looked at the route map and decided we could get off at Little Italy, and walk to the water.  Mistake, sort of.  Everything worked out OK, but not being well informed, we discovered there was a better way to do this.  That said, we did make it to the harbor area.

 There were a number of vessels we could have toured, at extra cost, but we didn't feel we had time to dilly dally, so a fast walk back and we caught the next trolley.  Another tidbit, if you ever decide to take the tour, the older drivers are the best tour guides.

 We have arrived at Old Town.  We ate a picnic lunch here, then wandered around a bit.  Lots to see here, you could spend the better part of a day in this one stop. The pictures below are of the area of Old Town we did walk through.

 These are decorated gourds, only one of many souvenir items available.

 This is the old bar in the hotel.

 And does this not look like a wonderful place to dine?  Too bad, we had brought our own picnic.

 It took us about three hours to drive from Yuma, AZ to Pacific Beach in San Diego.  I dread thinking what it must have been like to travel in one of these.
The next post will finish our tour.