Contiki Wild Western Tour - San Diego and lunch at Tijuana

• The cruise around San Diego
• Dinner at "Dick's Last Resort"
• Tijuana was ... interesting
• The San Diego Zoo
• Mission beach in summer
• The bar and view at the top of the Hyatt

  Quick Tips:

  If you want to visit the zoo, you can do it in one morning if you don't mind rushing around and missing things. Otherwise take the day to explore - the zoo is huge!

  And if you don't mind eating at an unusual eating establishment, and if you've got a good sense of humour and don't mind obnoxious staff, and can give as good as you get... then "Dick's Last Resort" is for you! (All others need not go. You won't like it.)

  And to see a beautiful night view of the city, go up to the very top of the Hyatt. It's got the best view of the lights of the city... and, if you feel inclined, head into the bar and enjoy a quiet drink while gazing at the city lights below.

  Best Way To Get Around:

  I got to most places on the tour bus, but taxis seem to be a good way to get around San Diego. If you don't own your own car, or aren't renting one, you could ask at your hotel the best way to get around.

That was a fun place to eat. ^_^

We found it quite amusing, I must say, but we saw at another table one young woman (who should have known better, as "Dick's" is obviously not normal from the moment you step into the place!) who got somewhat stroppy over how the waiters were acting. She then decided to get into a yelling match with one of the staff. When she realised that she wasn't going to get anywhere, and the bouncers were going to make her leave, she picked up a chair and tried to hit one of the bouncers with it! As you can imagine, that didn't go down well, and she was made to leave. I swear, we all thought it was a show they were putting on!! Though it did seem real. ^_^;

Well, here's a little example of how "Dick's" is different:

In recognition of the need for simple foods, in the face of designer food trends that say "less is more", Dick has gone back to basics (basic caveman). In almost reverse psychology, we offer substantial qualities of food served in big stainless steel buckets, served atop strips of white butcher paper...

There was napkins and stuff all over the floor, half the chairs were broken, the waiters and waitresses were impatient and rude, and we all got into a scrunched up napkin throwing fight. It was lots of fun!! The food wasn't bad, either.

Just remember - it's all in good fun, so take your sense of humour along!

Take a look at their web site to see what you'll be up for, when going to "Dick's" to eat! http://www.dickslastresort.com/

First we went on the bus, to get a tour of the zoo. It was quite good, and when we got to the polar bear enclosure, it seemed as if the bear was playing around just for us! It even stood up to play with it's half a ball! How cute! ^_^

After that, we started to walk around. We didn't get a full day there, so we only managed to get about half way around the zoo. We saw the sea lion show, where the sea lions (there were two of them) did tricks on the stage, and a wolf was brought on, and it howled after they got us, the audience, to do so. It also went swimming - it was cute, too!

We also managed to get to see the giant pandas before we left, too!! There was only one out, though, and it was sleeping. (Of course!)

Find out more about the San Diego Zoo at http://www.sandiegozoo.com/

It''s in Mexico, so we had to cross the border to get there (and again on the way back!). Going over the border, you suddenly notice big differences in things. Over in Mexico, the buildings were all really old, and cracked... doesn''t look like they''d seen a repairman, or a painter, in years... and almost everything was written in Spanish.

(Note that, for me being from Australia where I''m lucky to see a word in Spanish, even LA and San Diego is full of Spanish writing. But Mexico, of course, was even more so! It''s odd that just a little bit over the border a language changes... but, then, I''m from Australia where there are no borders to other countries. New Zealand is the closest country, and they speak English there. So it''s odd for me.)

Down at the main street, all the people at the shops were yelling at you to come in and buy stuff, and it was very chaotic. They didn''t care even if you said that you didn''t want what was in the shop - they still kept calling for you to go in.

But I did get real Mexican food for lunch... and I didn''t drink the water!

Tijuana, though, is a place to go if you like shopping and bartering. I picked up a few little, cheap trinkets to hand out back home, but you can buy silver and leather there pretty cheaply.

You just have to make sure that it''s the real product, not a cheap rip off.

I was told that when buying leather there, you should ask if you can light a lighter underneath the leather. If the dealer won''t let you, don''t buy it. If you get the chance, hold the lighter briefly up to the material - leather won''t melt!

Anyway, there''s a post office in Tijuana if you wanted to send any postcards while you''re there.

I stayed only during the daylight hours, but from what I''ve heard, I wouldn''t want to be around that place when it gets dark. A "den of iniquity" is one way of describing what I''ve heard of the place!

Now, don''t get turned off of Mexico, just because of Tijuana. It''s a border city, and therefor not a true representation of the real Mexico. Visit for the shopping, but realise that Tijuana only exists because of the tourists.

I would recommend against spending the night there. Strongly.

Too early in the morning, we were all up and our bags on the bus, and we were off from Anaheim to San Diego. There were about 50 people on our coach - only one seat was free in the entire coach!! Jill said that this was the largest tour she''s ever taken. It certainly had a lot of people on board.

We met (well, saw) the coach driver - Bob. It seems that this was a new coach, and his first time at driving it...

We got to hear our morning song (it got played every morning on the tour... well, every morning we were on the coach, anyway!) - Will Smith''s ''Wild, Wild West'' song... never got around to seeing the movie while I was over there, though. Ah, well!

And we were off to San Diego!

Most of the morning was spent driving through all the LA smog. (It looks like it''s gonig to be an overcast day, like Melbourne in winter, but it''s warm, and all that stuff isn''t cloud - it''s pollution! Icky!!) Part way through the morning we broke out of it ... into sun shine! Yay, a lovely day out side of LA!

When we got to San Diego, the first thing we did was get off the bus down by the water, at the edge of the city, and take a harbour cruise.

San Diego is a pretty city. It looks pretty, and it looks new and clean, compared to LA. Even if the airport was so close that the pilots have to miss buildings to land. The cuise was quite nice, in the sun, with a nice wind blowing.

One weird thing, though, was that the American flag was everywhere. Why? I mean, if they don''t have a flag on buildings in the city, or on houses, would the people forget that they were in America?? I found this to happen everywhere in the US. (Except in tourist places, like Anaheim, etc) ... it''s really, really strange.

The only thing that spoiled the view, besides all the millitary stuff everywhere, was the smog from LA. It looked like a storm coming in!! But that was all the smog! O_O

Anyway, after the pleasant cruise, we all got back on the bus for a tour of San Diego. We drove around the city, and over the curving bridge (''Coronado Bridge'') and a stop for photos... then off to Tijuana for lunch!

Going over the border, you suddenly notice big differences in things. Over in Mexico, the buildings were all really old, and cracked... doesn''t look like they''d seen a repairman, or a painter, in years... and almost everything was written in Spanish.

Down at the main street, all the people at the shops were yelling at you to come in and buy stuff, and it was very chaotic. They didn''t care even if you said that you didn''t want what was in the shop - they still kept calling for you to go in.

But I did get real Mexican food for lunch... and I didn''t drink the water!

Afterwards, we went back to San Diego to our hotel, where we spent the rest of the time till dinner unpacking and then down by the pool. I found that I was sharing rooms with Robyn, a girl from Melbourne, who I''d been e-mailing with beforehand.

This evening, as it was the 4th of July, Jill said that we should all go to a place called "Dick''s Last Resort" for dinner.

That was a fun place to eat. ^_^

There were napkins and stuff all over the floor, half the chairs were broken, the waiters and waitresses were impatient and rude, and we all got into a scrunched up napkin throwing fight. It was lots of fun!! The food wasn''t bad, either.

Afterwards, we were meant to go watch the fireworks somewhere, but as our table was the last to be served, we were the last out and didn''t manage to find the others, or see the fireworks. After a long walk, we returned to "Dick''s Last Resort", and found the others already back. :p

(As a side note, after watching a video of a show I''d seen a while ago, with John English in it - Aussie actor for those who don''t know... singer, too, as well - called ''HMS Pinafore'' by Gilbert and Sullivan... the whole set (almost) and the clothing the actors wore were all read, white and blue. This representing the English flag... I''m wondering how many Americans, displaying red, white and blue at the 4th of July, realise that they could equally as well be displaying colours for England (and the UK), Australia and half a dozen other countries, too!! Oh, well... just a thought.)

I didn''t do much else that night ... I was still tired. So that was the end of my day.

The San Diego Zoo, sister city to the Melbourne Zoo. When we got there, I realised why - they both look almost exactly the same. Except, of course, that the San Diego Zoo was much, much larger.

First we went on the bus, to get a tour of the zoo. It was quite good, and when we got to the polar bear enclosure, it seemed as if the bear was playing around just for us! It even stood up to play with it''s half a ball! How cute! ^_^

After that, we started to walk around. We didn''t get a full day there, so we only managed to get about half way around the zoo. We saw the sea lion show, where the sea lions (there were two of them) did tricks on the stage, and a wolf was brought on, and it howled after they got us, the audience, to do so. It also went swimming - it was cute, too!

We also managed to get to see the giant pandas before we left, too!! There was only one out, though, and it was sleeping. (Of course!)

After the zoo, we all headed back to the coach, and got taken down to Mission Beach.

As I thought we''d be going back to the hotel first, I didn''t bring my bathers. So us who forgot to take out swimers, got to look at the beach. (And eat.) The beach was packed with people! It looked like a set from Bay Watch, with heaps of extras running around.

Anyway, it was a nice afternoon, even if I didn''t get to go swimming.

Dinner that night was Mexican next to our hotel. It wasn''t bad, actually...

That night we went back in to San Diego, and some of us went up the Hyatt, for a view of San Diego at night.

It was very beautiful... but my photos didn''t come out. :(