Views of San Diego from Coronado Island

Spring is in the air (not that San Diego actually experienced winter),so it was time to go out and experience a different past of San Diego - much needed given that we live in North County which is very agrestic (like the community in the comedy called Weeds, where all the homes look the same and everything is very cookie cutter.)














The view from Coronado Island of San Diego downtown is rather impressive and definitely gives one the feeling that we do live in a large city. It is a large city, with 3 million people, however the city is very spread out, especially compared to London.
















I guess that over time we will get used to this sprawling town and its many little enclaves that make it unique and attracts a ton of tourists over the summer, which seems to have started about now..

Last night we decided to head downtown and experience the city life for a change. It was good outing, new york style pizza, old cinemas and lots of 20-somethings waiting for hours to get into the trendy Ivy bar where drinks start at $20.

I had a good laugh when I saw some girls out on a hen's night (kitchen tea, bridal shower, bachelorette party) dressed up very similar to the ladettes in Blackpool, out for a night on the town.. jean's sprayed on with muffin tops and all.. I may be very far from the UK but some things seem to be just the same the world over..

Death Valley...

So a fortnight ago, John adamant to get out of SD for the weekend, decided that we should head out to Death Valley, a national park about 5 hours away from San Deigo.



















Death Valley is a rather descriptive name for this place. There is not much to see other than super dry, barren land, large expanses of it.. The highlight is the fact that this place is considered to be the driest place in America. It also has the lowest elevationm 86m below sea level.
It also has salt pans. According to all the reports on this place, a few million years ago there was an inland sea in this place but as the are turned to desert, it evaorated into salt.



















These views above are probably the most dramatic in the park. Other than that there is not much else to see. Even the rumours about wild flowers coming into bloom was not as amazing a sight as we though it would be.

But we came, we saw and left..

Airports!!!!!

Its midnight, and I am stuck in an airport again.. Give me Heathrow (yes Heathrow with those nice BA or Virgin business lounges) any day over the not so great comforts of the airports of America.. where even first class domestic does not guarantee club lounge access. Can you believe that??? My flight is 4 hours delayed..and will only leave at 1.40am this morning to San Diego from San Francisco. I am en route from a red eye (overnight flight to the east coast sans my flat bed) to Jersey where I had a series of investment meetings and then returned back 12 hours later via SFO. never again... but it will happen again.. because San Diego is what Manchestor is to London (thankfully prettier) but one of those cities that is not just large enough to generate demand for direct flights.. Virgin has finally launched VirginAmerica (thank you Richard!!) and as soon as they start their direct flights from San Diego to the east coast, it will become my next best travel friend.. for a service oriented country, its hard to believe that Americans sacrifice the comforts of travel.. its time to take a leaf out of virgin's or british airways book and realise that service does matter and people are willing to pay that little extra to be treated like humans rather than cattle.