Friday March 19, 2016
While we were visiting family in San Diego, RV Decor in Yuma, AZ was making some major modifications to our mobile condo. It is supposed to be ready late this afternoon. So after lunch, we said our goodbyes to family and headed East on I-8 towards Yuma. There is a major mountain pass on our way. We start at sea-level and will climb about 4200 feet in elevation before going down the other side.
This is not the mountain that we climb, but should give an impression of what to expect.
We spotted smoke from a fire, and then a short time later, passed a portable sign that said it was a controlled burn and not to report it.
Unlike many of the mountains we have seen which appear to be massive rock and boulders, this area is comprised of much smaller rocks, like the entire mountain was fractured.
We have crossed over the mountain pass and now we are nearly back to sea-level and we see a huge field of solar panels. They track the sun as you can see.
This photo is for perspective, not of speeding cars, but of the massive pile of sand dunes just ahead.
Now that we are closer, you can see the "big boy toys" racing up and down the dunes.
This is part of the Imperial Sand Dunes National Recreation Area, just a short distance West of Yuma, AZ.
And the little mission on a hillside. We missed this on our way out as the sun was only beginning to shed light on it and no photo turned out well. Difficult taking photos from a moving bouncing vehicle.
We arrived at RV Decor and then waited until 7:00PM. Remodel work was not complete, work crew was tired and ready to go home. Bad news, good news. The business owner has a business agreement with a local hotel/motel and he calls and gets us a reservation for a suite. The cost to us was $55.00/night. Believe it or not, we were not that unhappy. We would rather that the work crew feel treated fairly and finish up the following week.
So we stayed at the La Fuente Inn & Suites. We would recommend them. Friendly helpfull staff, full breakfast every day included, free happy hour every evening, wonderful facilities, ..... enough, I'll share some photos.
Happy hour! Tic seated with his back to the camera. See his long hair! He plans on a haircut before the dog catcher locks him up! See the gas grills? Available for guest use. The hotel provides utensils and they cleaned up, after you were finished.
An Oasis in the Desert!
The pool from several different angles. Towels poolside, and gas fired grills just outside the pool if you wanted to grill.
Tic said he was going to get a haircut, even found a barbershop that was open seven days a week. He asked for a regular haircut. That was when it became apparent that a regular haircut at a barbershop located outside of a U.S. Marine Corp base, meant white sidewalls!
Beautiful sunset to end our day.
Thursday March 17 - continued
After having our picnic lunch and wandering around Old Town, we are back on the trolley with our original driver, Scotty. We really wanted to make it to Coronado Island, which isn't an island at all, so we just watched the stops go past us. Coronado Island is the very last stop before we would return to Balboa Park where we parked our car.
These photos were taken on the move near Seaport Village
This is something unique. San Diego has a program where as a member, you climb into one of these "SmartCar-Car to Go" and drive to your destination, get out and evidently the next person needing transportation, can climb in and use it. We saw them most everywhere.
Here we are, climbing up the bridge that will lead to Coronado Island. It is high enough above the water that our Navy ships can pass under it.
View of downtown San Diego, ......
Now coming down from the high point of the crossing, ...
Personal sailboats harbored in San Diego Bay.
Sitting at a traffic light, gave Tic time to shoot downtown San Diego from across the bay.
Coronado Beach is here, playground for the affluent.
Oh yes, the tour driver mentioned the cost of rooms here, and that there were cottages that could be had for a mere $4,000.00/night. Your lottery winnings won't last long with those rates.
We sat back here and munched on the last of our picnic lunch.
Did I mention this was St Patrick's Day? Happy St Paddy's Day to you and yours!
One of the modest homes overlooking the Pacific.
Heading back to the mainland and Balboa Park.
This bridge really is high!
Again, downtown San Diego from the Coronado Bridge.
This is a California freeway, not during rush hour. Looks reasonable.
As I close this post, we feel we should have taken the entire tour first, about 1.5 - 2 hours, then we may have made other choices on where to go, where to stop. It was a good value in that we learned many things from the tour driver, we did not have to struggle to find our way around, find and pay for parking in locations that were packed with visitors. Great day trip!
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.
