Arrived in San Diego early afternoon after driving up over the ridge on Highway 74. It is such a clear lesson in rain shadows when you climb up the Palm Desert side with its dry desert landscape even high up in the hills and then come upon the surprising presence of furry pinion pines and green grass as you descend on the other side. Tiny yellow flowers cover the hillsides and cattle munch in healthy green meadows seemingly worlds away from the desert landscape left behind minutes before.
We decided to take the same bus tour we had taken a year ago to give Jody an overview of San Diego. It didn't take long for Bill and I to realize that we can always find someplace new to go since we didn't remember one bit of the information we heard in the exact same presentation a year ago!! While I remember this time: 40 million bananas a week come into the port on the "Banana Boat" from Equador, buildings can not exceed 500 feet in height because of the presence of the international airport in downtown San Diego. The planes were coming in overhead as we travelled and often seemed to come close to brushing the tops of buildings.
We got off the trolley for a stop at the historic Del Coronado Hotel on Coronado Island. It is a huge wooden structure built as a Victorian beach resort in the 1880's. Still beautiful and exclusive, all we could afford was some ice cream and that was the most expensive we've ever had! We wandered the property trying to blend in. I wonder if the bright orange trolley stickers on our lapels might have given us away?
As we strolled the beautiful beach out front we looked off in the distance to the city of Tijuana, Mexico - no doubt worlds away from the lives of the inhabitants of the hotel.
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