I got to San Diego in the end of a holiday weekend, so most of the other tourists and vacationers were checking out. The first night I wasn't sure what to do. I was a block away from the gas lamp quarter, but I was really tired from driving all day, so I decided to stay at the hotel bar. When I got there, it was early and there were already a few couples sitting for a drink. Unfortunately, everyone who was sitting at the bar was waiting for a table at the nearby and were gone in a few minutes and I was sitting at the bar alone (as an aside, I may have set a record for most time spent alone at a bar on this trip). The bartender seemed to be happy about it though. I think he said something along the lines of 'If you're here alone, we can have this bar packed in an hour, no problem.' He was right, because before long there was a random dude drinking beer and this group of 5 vacationers from LA. I don't remember any of their names at this point - which sounds bad, but they only told me once and I forgot in 5 minutes, really it's not bad at all. Plus, they were drinking tequila and probably don't remember my name either. After they had several tequila shots and tequila and sprite mixes they decided that they were going to the gas lamp quarter and that I was required to attend. We went to 3 or 4 bars, but pretty much everything was closing early. We had plenty to drink and the LA kids were going home in the morning, so we called it a night.
I was up surprisingly early the next day (plus a 3 hour time difference), so I headed over to Pacific Beach. (...And now for my favorite part of California...) My room mate told me that I was going to love San Diego and probably want to move there. At first, I thought she was wrong (I loved it there, but maybe not enough to move) but that was before I got to the beach and saw the fire department running PT drills on the beach. Still, I probably won't move there, but yeah, I wouldn't mind watching that every day.
I spent a few hours on the beach before my skin started to burn and I decided to go for a walk (keep in mind that I, like everyone else, was walking around in my bikini and a pair of shorts). I was checking out the local stores and trying to decide what to have for dinner (which ended up being the firehouse restaurant, shocking yes, I know). I guess I wandered too far from the beach, because I ended up in an area where it was apparently not appropriate to walk around in your bikini anymore - of course, I didn't know it until some little girl said 'Daddy, why is her naked?' I (not realizing that I was the her that she was referring to) looked around for some naked girl running around, only to learn (by the irritated look on the girl's father's face) that I was still in my bikini and everyone else was fully clothed. oops. So I grabbed my shirt and headed back to the beach for dinner.
The next day, I was back in my car on the way to Tucson. I was supposed to meet up with my cousin that night, but he was late coming back from a funeral in CA so I had dinner at the hotel bar (alone, again). For some reason, the bartender had tennis or something on at the bar, and MLB on in the restaurant, so I kept turning around to watch baseball... I guess the guy sitting near the TV that I was watching thought I was watching him. He approached me (covered in dirt) and explained that he was an electrician working on a very dangerous job inside of a nearby mine, but that he was very skilled in laying pipe and asked if I wanted to meet him at a nearby La Quinta Inn. I think I turned about 10 different shades of red before politely refusing his offer and returning to my hotel room.
I spent some time with my cousin in the morning and had a kick ass burrito, then got in the car to start the drive home. I was headed to Pecos, TX for the night, then I got lost in El Paso, then I got pulled over just out side of El Paso. I was written a warning, and later found out that they can't give tickets to out of state drivers. I guess it was my lucky day.
After that, the remaining drive was incident free. I spend two more nights on the road (Dallas, TX and Nashville, TN) and I made it home in the evening on 6/5.
My journey is complete and the photos have been uploaded - They took forever to upload, so everyone better check them out.
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