The blog post comes 6 weeks after the trip but its been one great trip that I must write about.
San Diego(SD) is around 8 hrs away from Mountain View, CA. I didn't find enough interest amount friends to drive all the way, but for me SD was one places waiting to be visiting since long. My previous attempt last year failed as friends decided to spend both days of weekend at Los Angeles instead of driving further to SD. In terms of drivers I was the only one luckily we figured out that Vatsa was in Santa Monica and was willing to drive to and fro SD from there and so we started.
After getting some expert advice about saving driving time and trouble with traffic we decided to leave just after dinner on Friday, which with some delay ended up being 10:30 PM. Luckily we got a GPS for the trip. Santa Monica our first destination was 5 hrs and 30 minutes away. With some irresistible stops at rest areas because of drowiness we finally reached SM by 4:30 AM. SM to SD is just a 2hrs and 30 minutes distance and we left from SM by 9:00 to reach the Sea World by around 11:30 AM.
Sea world at San Diego is amoung the most famour theme parks. Mostly because of the Dolphin shows there. Shamu is the name of the most famous Dolphon there and probably in the world too. There were around 7 shows on the schedule most of them repeat every one hour. The rides are pretty much continuous but close by 7:00 PM. We were able to catch almost all the shows. The dolphin show was the major attraction and was amoung the best performances I have seen and of course the Dolphin performed the most of it but their trainers were also a major part of the wonderful show. Other great things to see include Sea World aquarium, the 4 D show. We also had a couple of rides. There is a kinda conclusive show at 7:00 PM which is called "Shamu takes you around the world or something" which is a beautiful light and sound show along with the Dolphin stunts :)
The plan to walk around the downtown in the evening didn't work as it was raining quite heavily and findind parking in SD turned out to be as hard as it is in San Francisco. We went to a restaurant Maxican near North SD. The complimentory nachos were mouth watering tasty and so was the Quesidilla, but the most interesting thing was the "Grande Margarita" drink which they say was originated here and became famous all over the world.
The next day we head a couple of things to do. The SD zoo, the beaches (surfing) and the La Jolla. It turned out the rain has turned off the option for surfing. We decided to go the zoo and I it was pretty mch worth spending the 4-5 hrs there. Among the rare animals to see there are Kangaroes, Kwalas, Hippos, Penguins and Bears. The place also hosts variety of birds and other typicall animals like buffaloes, zebras, jiraffes, tigers and so on. What I found different in this zoo was that most animal weren't kept in completely closed cabins, instead they were kept in mostly open ones. I remember reading somewhere in the zoo that they keep the animal in completely close cabins only for sometime in the begining till they get used to the new environment, interesting!
After this we went to see La Jolla, which is a very scenic place famous for the sunset view. The beach at La Jolla indeed gives a very beautiful view at sunset. The waves at SD were also pretty big compared to those I have seen around Santa Cruz, It was clear that SD happens to be a big surfing spot.
The return jouney was also done in the same split manner and it turned out pretty well in the end but for the last 60 miles where it became almost impossible to drive and we had to pull over almost 3 times. It all turned was all good. A big long 1100 miles on a 2 day fun filled weekend.
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