Sand, sea and ghosts

One of my favourite places to visit is Coronado, I love it there. So on Friday this is where we headed, we took the train to 12th & Imperial and from there hopped on a bus. The journey over the bay bridge is breath taking. By far a much better way to travel than the ferry! We got off the bus in town and had a happy amble down the road looking in the shops as we went. I found a wonderful 'There's no place like home' bag in the museum shop, its like the coolest thing! Love it!! Of course I had to visit the office supply shop for stationery.....woo hoo!!  Right next door was a gelato shop, it would have been so rude not to stop and try their goods! The panna cotta gelato was so goo - yum! We also found lovely coffee shop called clayton's , it really had a 1950's diner feel to it. We sat at the lunch counter and drank coffee....I love the way they just keep topping you up. If only they did that in the UK, where doing out for coffee can bankrupt you.

 

We bought lunch from Walgreens and took it down to the beach to eat. The beach at Coronado is beautiful, the sand is sparkly and soft. Someone told us that there is a teeny amount of gold in the sand, I could believe it! We ate lunch, chilled out and went for a lovely long walk along the beach. I was happily walking by the waters edge happy to dip my toes (who have not seen freedom for a long time) in the not too cold Pacific. The waves had other ideas, one minute I was at the water's edge, the next I was nearly knee deep in ocean....with very wet jeans....oops. It was a lovely day, being at the beach makes me so happy!!

 

We got back to Old Town fairly early and had dinner at the Old Town Café, good Mexican food and margarita's. What more can you ask for? Then it was time for our Ghost Tour, I was so excited. We were collected at 7pm along with 12 other people. Our ghost host was called Dante, he was in costume and very entertaining, despite the bad jokes. We started at the Whaley house, with stories of the family who lived there. Then we hopped on the bus, to head to the next stop which was the Villa Montezuma. More stories, and an interesting occurrence with a key! Next was a hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter, and finally the Williams-Davis museum.  We actually got to go in there, and the place was really spooky. Paul volunteered us to stay behind with Dante to lock up, not sure how thrilled I was about that.  We really enjoyed the evening a lot. We ended the tour at the El Campo cemetery.....BOO!!

 

Once the ghost tour was over and we'd been handed bags of ghost droppings to take away, we decided to go to the Old Town Saloon for a drink, Paul was very keen to frequent the bar. I liked the atmosphere in the air. It was a totally brilliant day, but so far every day has been.

St Patrick's day - the American way

This year we celebrated St Patrick's Day in Carlsbad. We got the Coaster train from Old Town, its a lovely journey along the beautiful coast line. I love Carlsbad, lovely place. It was a very misty morning, never seen it like that. When we got there we found a bakery and bought a few things for a picnic dinner, and decided to have a coffee. While we were sitting outside we got talking to a lovely lady, who turned out to be the Mayors wife. We ended up chatting for quite a while, she seemed genuinely pleased that we loved the city so much. Next stop was the bead shop, I love it in there. So much fun stuff to look at, and pretties to buy. We had planned to stop at 0'Shaunesseys for a drink, but the place was full. You couldn't even get in the door so we gave up on that idea and had lunch at Pizza Port instead. It worked out well, good pizza, and not expensive. And also no St Pat's day decorations!!

After lunch we headed to the beach, it was much busier than it had been when we visited last year. I believe it was spring break, and believe me a couple of weeks made a lot of difference. Last year we were the only ones on the beach. We found somewhere to sit, and just watched the waves for ages. So relaxing! But it was another hot day. Don't remember it being like this last year.

On the way back from the beach we stopped at the Village faire to look around the shops, and have a gelato. Nice place to have a wonder around. We went back on the 5pm train. When we got back to the hotel we headed to the Tequila factory for margarita's and green beer!  We had our picnic dinner, which was lovely and had a very chilled out evening.

Retail Therapy to soothe the soul

March 15th saw another beautiful sunny day dawn, blue skies and not a cloud to be seen. We had breakfast and then off we went to the station, traveling on their trolley is cheap and efficient. First we headed to Seaport Village. Its a beautiful place and its a joy to wonder around the stores there. All full of wonders!! I was delighted to find more Kellie Rae artwork, and fell in love with one piece in particular, so that left the shop with me. Of course we had to visit Mistletoe the Christmas shop and buy another decoration. We had to stop at the Upstart Crow for coffee, I love it there. Its a book store with lots of random tables inside. Always something new to look at!! We then walked along the Embarcadero till we got to Unconditional Surrender . Its an amazing and absolutely huge statue depicting that very famous scene from the end of WW2. We stayed there ages just soaking up the atmosphere, and talking to the locals. One lady in particular was so funny, really made me smile. We also discovered a Bob Hope Memorial we had not scene before. It was a lovely tribute to a great actor. Finally we walked back to the station at Seaport station and took the train to Mission Valley. We stayed here last year and wanted to visit the Corner House bakery. We had lunch there and reminisced about having breakfast there every morning last year. 

After lunch we headed to Target to look around, amazingly left without buying a thing....hmmm!!! So we wondered on to the Mission Valley Mall. First stop was the Bath and Bodyworks store, it smells amazing in there. I bought loads, mostly little presents for the ladies I work with cause I wanted to get them all something nice. Of course i had to get myself a few little things too....so I wouldn't feel left out. We were all shopped out by around 4pm and decided to head back to Old Town. When we got back we stopped at Rust's general store for tea. I love to sit on the porch and  watch the world go by.  We went back to the hotel for a while, and I am so glad we did cause I had a lovely surprise. My darling friend Don called to chat. Totally made my day, what a sweetie. It was so cool to chat to someone who I have only been in contact with via Facebook before. To hear the voice behind the words, and know they had taken time out of their day to call. I was really touched. 

Finally it was time to head out to dinner, oh my word, the queues outside the Mexican restaurants were ridiculous, so we carried on up the road and had dinner at O'Hungry's Irish bar. Good food, fun surroundings. Dessert (peach pie - yum) was HUGE, thank the lord we only ordered one! A lovely day but exhausting day. 

On March 16th we took the train down to San Ysidro to visit the Outlet on the Border, and it really is on the Border. You could have been in Mexico with a few more steps. But having done that last year, there was no chance of us doing that again.We had fun looking around the shops, and we got the new Sketchers that we wanted. I love my bright red GoWalks. We arrived back in Old Town at 5pm, the ghost walk had been cancelled due to lack on numbers, so we were rebooked onto friday's tour. So instead we went out to dinner at Fred's Mexican Canteen. Nice dinner, lovely patio area, fun atmosphere!! After dinner we had a wonder around Old Town, then headed back to the hotel to watch TV for a while. I got quite addicted to Forensic Files, ha ha. Another delightful day in San Diego, oh how I love that city. 

At last...the adventure is afoot!!

After months of waiting it was finally time to head to San Diego, a city both Paul and I love. After a very long journey we finally arrived at our Hotel - The Best Western  Hacienda - in Old Town. Its a beautiful place, several buildings set on a hillside. Our room was in fact a mini suite, and lovely. We were delighted when we saw it. 

On Monday when we got up it was wonderful to think we had the whole day ahead of us. So first stop was breakfast at the Tequila Factory, we sat outside on the patio where you can look out across the city. The view is amazing! Breakfast was good, a buffet that included hot food, cereals, muffins, coffee etc. You could even make your own waffles - now that was fun! 

We spend the entire day in Old Town, somewhere we are totally in love with. We visited the Church of the Immaculate Conception, so peaceful and beautiful.  At 11am we took the 11am walking tour of Old Town state park with a costumed volunteer. We did it last year, but it was interesting and well worth doing again. After the walk, we headed out to Bazaar del Mondo to do some shopping. I got the cutest bag, i had gone there especially to look at them.  From there we went to The Wells Fargo museum, Paul loves it there. By then we were hungry so we headed to Los Locos for lunch, fish taco's and beer for me. Yum!! Paul's burger was huge, he never learns. Ha Ha. 

After lunch I was eager to go check out the Kellie Rae Roberts artwork at one of the shops. I am a huge fan of her work and had a hard time choosing a picture, but in the end I found what I wanted. Another Kellie Rae for my wall of positivity at home.

The weather was absolutely amazing, very warm and sunny with the sort of blue skies you never see at home. I totally underestimated the effects of the sun and UV, by the end of the day my nose and shoulders were ever so slightly frazzled and red...ouch!

In the evening we had dinner at the Tequila Factory, it was the only time we ate dinner there. The food was good, and we enjoyed our free welcome drinks. The highlight of the day was speaking to my friend Suzi, she called in the evening and we had a lovely chat. We finally went to bed, tired but very happy. Some holidays are worth waiting for!!