San Diego (part II)

Ok the Work is over, time for the fun to begin. San Diego as i have said before is beautifully but it is also a weird city. All along the streets in standard news paper boxes where you would expect to see a copy of the new york times you instead get treated to porn. Yes that is correct you and purchase quasi-porn mags on the street. The city seems like a cross between Vancouver and Mexico, although never having been to Mexico i must go by what i have seen on TV. Some people are really nice and others are crazy (won't comment on which trait comes from which city). People honk there horn for any reason especially if an ambulance is blocking there way.

Two other strange things. First off there was a diagonal cross walk by the hostel. Very nice feature. First North/south traffic, then east/west, and finally all pedestrians and you can walk anywhere when you get the lite. I definatly think it's a better way of doing things, this way pedestrians and traffic never bother each other. Second there was a hooters resteraunt that said hooters-clams on the sign. We though this was amusing.

The day the conference ended a bunch of us went to Coronado, it's a peninusla shelters the bay/harbour from the ocean. It was a nice place but pretty commercial. At the ferrie dock there where several small businesses including one that sells items from Scotland. You know all the major family crest and tartans, spotted dick in a can as well as the ever elusive coffee crisp bar ( bet you didn't know that was sottish). We waked to the ocean side where the beach was and that was a real treat. Sand stretched for many kilometers in both directions. It was the consistency of flower, so fine you barely know you where walking on it and if it got wet it became hard like concrete.

On Monday a bunch of us went to the world famous San Diego Zoo. Now generally when you are in the states and it says world famous it actually means US famous and we didn't bother to look at the rest of the world to see if there is any better which there indefinatly allways is. That is except for the Zoo, it relay is world class. We spent all day there and i saw a bunch of cool looking animals. The place is huge, we spent 5 hours to see everything, defiantly worth the trip. Animals of note where:

• Pandas: It's like there trained to look cute. The put on a show just sitting there eating their bamboo.
  
• Bearcat: if you have ever played WC 4 you would know why i had to get a picture of a bearcat.
• monkey eating Eagle: Long story behind this one, needless to say it's a bird big enough to pick monkies from the trees.
• Komodo Dragon: never though I would get to see one of these in person.
• Gorilla: apparently the previous day a person was making fun of a gorilla in the pen and it charged the glass breaking the first layer trying to get to him. DON'T PISS OFF GORILLAS!!

After the zoo we wandered around balboa park. Not sure why it's called that but it had a lot of museums in it and all the buildings where impressive, check out my photos to see some of them.

The next day I went to visit the Cabrillo National Monument, he is the guy that explored most of the southern west coast of north America. I is on a peninsula that overlooks the harbor and the rest of the city. It was a spectacular view as it is well above sea level. I went on a hike along the cliffs. You can really see the desert environment there. Lizards where constantly crossing my path and i got several good pictures of them. It was nice to get out of the city and hit some nature trails to see another side to California.

That night we went to see a baseball game. The game ran 2-0, nothing happened. At one point something was going to happen then it didn't. It was all over in less than 2 h. Im never going to watch baseball again in my life, to quote Homer.

It was more boreing than church.

The next day i awoke nice and early to catch my plane home. My only regret was that I could not find the Duty Free shop on my way home. I was planning on picking up some cheep Scotch but I seemed to be thwarted at every turn.

Im tired and don't want to write any more so bring on the question.