Day 24 Thursday September 26, 2013

We toured San Diego today.

Based on a recommendation from Celia we caught the hop on/off trolley tour of San Diego. We started our tour at San Diego Old town and saw the airport, which according to our guide is the world's busiest single runway airport. Now being British I had always thought that Gatwick held that honor, so duty bound I looked it up! It turns out that SD is the US's busiest and that Gatwick holds the world honors, but I was surprised to discover that Gatwick in fact has 2 runways, though one of them is never used!

The tour then took us around the site of new San Diego about 5 miles away from Old Town. Old Town had been established by the Spaniards way back when on a hill near what is now Mission Valley. An enterprising man named Horton realized in the late 1860's that San Diego had a wonderful natural harbor and that's where the city should be. He was able to buy 800 acres in what is now downtown San Diego for $0.33 per acre!!!!

From there our tour took us over the Coronado Bridge and we got off there to explore the island and its eponymous hotel. The hotel and its beach are fantastic and we decided that we must come back to San Diego and stay there! Walt and Eileen are planning a trip there next year and we know that they will enjoy a stay there.

We had lunch on the island and then carried on with the tour and stopped again to explore Balbao Park. In the early part of the 20th century, San Diego hosted two World's Fairs: the Panama-California Exposition in 1915 and the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935. Both expositions were held in Balboa Park, and many of the Spanish/Baroque-style buildings that were built for those expositions remain to this day as central features of the park. The buildings were intended to be temporary structures, but most remained in continuous use until they progressively fell into disrepair. Most were eventually rebuilt, using castings of the original facades to retain the architectural style. The menagerie of exotic animals featured at the 1915 exposition provided the basis for the San Diego Zoo. The park and its building are truly impressive and you could spend days visiting the exhibits and museums that are housed in them.

Then it was back to catch the final bus of the day and return to Old Town where we spent quite a bit of time visiting the recreation of the town which has now been designated a California State Park.