San Diego

12th January 2010.

San Diego is a beautiful city and we have spent much of today walking around parts of it. This morning the area round the Indigo Hotel (which is new and lovely built in a retro 1930's style...?Art Decco). The people are wonderfully friendly and helpful, the weather I hardly dare tell you is sunny and warm but cool in the shade and we need sweaters at night...perfect!

We picked up two of our 4 permitted bottles of wine in the local supermarket, couldn't find the electric coil but will try again in Hawaii (doesn't that sound casual?!) and bought two pairs of underpants for George. "I put a pile of them out ready three months ago" he told me "and then forgot to pack them!".... what can I say?

We had a good lunch at a Boston Eatery but I have to say alot of food still tastes like sawdust to me. Who knew the effects of food poisoning would last so long. Then we decided to visit the world famous San Diego zoo. It is in a beautiful setting on top of a hill and the designs of the animal areas are quite brilliant...each appropriate for the animal, the climate and the area of the world it originates from. To be honest i have never approved of zoos but these days I'm aware that they are rescuing animals, birds and, in this one, fish under threat of extinction. I won't bore you with a list of all we saw but I did see my very first Giant Panda sitting on the ground, leaning against a low wall, oblivious of all the 'gazers' and stripping a stick of what I think was bamboo. He looked "cuddly" and I wanted to touch and hug him....very inappropriate behaviour on my part but there you are. One was tempted to do the same to the huge cats and you know how sensible that would have been.... The animals had glossy coats and some looked positively chubby and the birds exotic and brilliantly coloured. The Koala bears were all asleep...they were a first for me too....and I discovered that the fact that they sleep so much because they are all drugged on Eucalyptus leaves, (which I had proudly told George who as you know knows everything and didn't know that), was a myth...I might have known! The truth is apparently that they are exhausted from eating all the fibre in those leaves....well...I don't know... sounds far fetched to me.

Tonight we met up with our old friend Lynn Banker who was in the group I took to Scotland some years ago. We arranged to meet her on the 9th floor of the Indigo which is an outdoor bar overlooking the city which we enjoyed last night. She arrived first and we found her talking to a woman with a dog...."Tonight is dog's night" she told us....dog's night in a bar? OK....one dog really doesn't make a dog's night. Oops here are a few more...and more. We sat down, ordered our drinks and were soon surrounded by dogs of all sizes and breeds plus their very cheerful owners. The dogs rushed around excitedly but were amazingly well behaved and I couldn't help thinking how much our little Bichon/terrier Bess would have enjoyed the occasion.....with her cousins Meg and Chai from Sudbury! We were heated by gas flames penetrating teel coloured glass chips in rectangular 'beds' and high gas lamps....very picturesque and warming.

We had dinner in a Thai restaurant just up the road and talked and talked. Already the fact that we have friends living far too far from Dundas, whom we would like to see much more often, has registered forcibly. Theresa and John in Calgary and Lynn in California....thank you so much for making the effort to see us, what a gift.

Tomorrow at 2 pm we board the Explorer. There is a 50% chance of rain apparently....oh well, hate to say it but it's better than freezing in a snow storm.....just kidding! So next time I blog I shall be doing so from our cabin....at sea again.