From Italy to the high seas......

Saturday was yet another very warm sunny day, after breakfast we headed down to Little Italy to visit the Saturday market. We certainly weren't disappointed when we got there. The market starts almost immediately as you exit the station, and carries for a few blocks. Each side of the street is lined with stalls each one selling some wonderfully interesting item. As you start your wander through the market you encounter stalls selling take away food, flowers (they were so vibrantly colourful) cheese, bread etc. Everything looked fabulous, so we bought a couple of things to have as a picnic lunch later in the day. We carried on walking enjoying the sites, sounds and smells of this wonderful market. Its clearly very popular judging by the crowds. As to get to the other end of the market I was delighted to find stalls selling jewellery and craft items, yippee! It would have been so impolite not to buy a little something. That's my excuse and I am sticking with it. I as very reluctant to leave the market as it was such a delight, but we had plans to visit the Maritime museum which is just a short walk way. 

 

The Maritime museum in San Diego is well worth a visit, its not expensive and you can spend all day there. There are several beautiful ships to explore as well as an American Submarine. The Russian submarine which looks in a pitiful state is closed to the public at the moment. The first thing we did was take the boat cruise around the bay, only $5 when you visit the museum!! It lasts about 45 minutes and is great fun, they take you around the bay, out as far as Coronado, and then back via the Midway, which they sail right under (and this time they got really close). Its a lovely way to spend the best part of the hour and you get some great photo's of San Diego's Toolbox sky line - the story behind that alone is fascinating. After the boat ride, we spent quite a while exploring the ships - the California, the Star of India, The Berkley etc. All beautiful, and with so much history.

 

When we finally left we headed down to Seaport Village and had a wander around the shops, its such a pretty area. Ofcourse we had to stop for coffee at the Upstart Crow, I love that place. And lastly we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, something I had really been looking forward too. It was very busy and we had about a 35 minute wait for a table. The food was lovely, though portions were HUGE, and I had to take half my dinner away in a box, thank goodness for the fridge in our room. We did share a piece of key lime cheesecake though, how could you possibly go there and not try it! I have to wander why they choose to turn the lights down so low, I could barely see my dinner let alone Paul across the table. I had to keep asking if he was still there!!  Now the main reason for wanting to eat at the Cheesecake Factory was because of the Big Bang Theory, which I have recently become a huge fan of. Sadly this venue looked nothing like the one in BBT and Penny wasn't working - oh the disappointment, ha ha. We even tried....knock knock Penny....knock knock Penny...LOL!!!!