We woke up wondering what weather the day would bring, San Diego were battening down the hatches for bad weather.....still we had to do something. So we headed to our favourite breakfast spot and then hopped on the trolley to Old Town. We ended up spending all day there, its by far our favourite place! There was a free guided walk at 11am which we can recommend. We decided to go on the walk along with a small group of people including a couple from Yorkshire. They had come to San Diego for a week end whilst staying in Mexico. A WEEK END?????? No understanding some people! The walk lasted an hour and took around parts of old town we hadn't seen on our previous visit. We learned more about the history of San Diego, it was fascinating.
When the walk ended we had a walk around the Mexican market, I love these places they are so vibrant and colourful. We also discovered a coaching museum, and the Wells Fargo Museum, which Paul was very keen to visit. He's always wanted to open a Wells Fargo account, but at least now he has gotten to stand next to one of their stage coaches.
Next stop was the Tequila Factory for lunch, its nestled at the top of the Best Western Hacienda hotel with stunning views out across San Diego. It had become very warm and sunny by then. We enjoyed BLT's and margarita's out on the terrace whilst enjoying the views. The tortilla chips they brought us out were so good, as was the salsa.
When we left the Tequila Factory, we noticed across the road a sign for the Mormon Battalion Historic site, so we wondered over to have a look. We were greeted at the door by a young lady in costume asking if we would like to come in for the tour - it was free. Turned out to be one of the best bits of the day. First we were shown into a little theatre where they were screening a film about Mormons who have gone on to do great things, it was interesting and filled in the time till someone came to get us and a small group of others to go on the tour. Using staff in costumes, pictures that came to life and staged rooms, they told the story of The Mormon Battalion, the only religiously based unit in United States Military history who served from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican-American of 1846-1848. The battalion was a volunteer unit of between 534 and 559 Latter-day Saints
men led by Mormon company officers, and commanded by regular US army
officers. During its service, the battalion made a grueling march of
nearly 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego. After the tour they took our photo for a souvenir and there was also the chance to pan for gold out in the courtyard. We even got to take the (fools) gold away with us. It was all free, and the staff working there were all friendly, and possibly looking for converts - though they were not at all pushy. If we got the chance we'd go again, it really is worth it. 
Next stop was the Church of the Immaculate conception. Its a beautiful church, peaceful and calm inside. I enjoyed sitting there soaking up the atmosphere. Next door there was a lovely gift shop, they had some beautiful things, and the lady working there was so friendly and spent quite a while chatting with us. After that we visited Fiesta de Reyes, another Mexican market. Before we knew it, it was 5pm and we hadn't actually done the two things we had gone to the Old Town to do....oh well, such is life!
We stopped at the Fashion Valley mall on the way back, only spent an hour there. It had started raining, and was windy. I didn't particularly like the mall, and maybe we were just too tired to appreciate it. But we didn't stay long but decided to head back to Mission Valley.We ended up having dinner at the Bakery cafe, which was good! Cannot believe what a popular place it is. By the time we got back to the hotel we were dead on our feet. Oh, and the rain made the local news. It apparently only rains about twice a year in San Diego....and we were there to experience it! Water is a scarce commodity to these people so they were very excited about the drizzle....now if they want to see proper rain, they should come to Blighty!!
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