After a day of travel fraught with various and sundry trials (which I won't bore you with although I did keep a record of them because they continued from the very beginning of the trip, pretty much through to the end) I arrived at the San Diego Airport actually about 30 minutes early! The tide was obviously already turning although there was the struggle to find my way to the "transportation plaza". But I did, caught a shuttle and got dropped off at the hotel, went in and got my room key and got myself upstairs where Heather and January were all comfy in bed watching the end of a movie. Of course, my arrival time at the airport in Eastern time was 12:15 p.m. so I was pretty tired as were they. It was hard getting my mind around the fact that it was only going on 10:00 p.m. now.
We visited a little while but it was obvious they were ready to drift off so I got comfy in bed too and read for just a bit to sort of quiet down.
Wednesday morning we all woke up sort of wiped out and since the forecast was for rain today, I decided to stay in for the most part and explore the waterfront a little if the weather permitted. We had the hotel's buffet breakfast which was fine but at the price I sure didn't get my money's worth!
They got themselves off to their conference and I went back up to the room and sat out on the balcony and read for a while (after taking a few pictures of the view)
To the left...
Looking straight down, the hotel's gorgeous swimming pool setting.
And to the right.
Once I had enough of that and it still wasn't raining and in fact was a fairly beautiful day - plenty of clouds scudding around but blue sky, sunshine, etc., I decided to explore around the hotel a little and discovered that it's almost in Embarcadero Park which as far as I know is basically a "boardwalk" (cement) walkway around one of the harbors (ports?). It's all quite lovely and with all the different plants that we sure don't have at home, quite exotic. On the one side is the water with many enormous private yachts and on the right are many shops, restaurants, cafes, etc. The yachts finally peter out and it begins to look more like a harbor with some big ships visible in the distance and a couple of older ships that are still in use from the looks of them closer up.
I've taken pictures of things that caught my eye (probably mostly trees) and will just put them up in a row. Not as many as sometimes but that's partly because it was bright enough outside that I couldn't see on my camera whether or not I was getting good pictures and so I didn't take as many as usual.
Anyway, here they are...
These are a few of the giant yachts (and not the most giant ones actually). There were at least three piers of these and all one can think is "my gosh, the money".
I really enjoyed all the different types of threes. These were so twisty and as you can see below, so were their roots which seem to like getting some air.
I think this is the same kind - just very much bigger.
This is one of the well-used and still in working order ships.
This is a longggg bridge - would love to know the total size of the span. At night there are lights all along the edge - I saw them last night driving to the hotel. And I only discovered on a second walk this afternoon that where it looks like it's ended at the trees, it hasn't - it still goes on for a while.
Many, many palm trees, of course, but this one appealed to me being all by itself and standing so straight and proud surrounded by all the tall buildings.
When I first saw this a plane was taking off and I wondered if that could possibly be the airport. But the center looked like a battleship and the planes - what I could see of them - didn't look all that big. So I finally said to a young man sitting reading that I wondered what that was and explained that at first I thought airport and then thought maybe it was an aircraft carrier and that is what it is and it's the USS Midway and has been turned in to what is reportedly the most popular ship museum in the
world! So how bout that?
I'm not sure if these are the exact same trees as the first two because their bark was quite white and very peel-y.
And look at this one!! How it stays upright (well, not upright exactly) I can't quite imagine.
And this was just sort of a little glade in the grounds where the shops and such are located. Very nice and peaceful.
And that's about it, really - it's been a very restful, pleasant day and I've been Googling around looking for what might be a good restaurant for dinner and think I may have found one. I'll wait and see what "my girls" think. :)
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