San Diego,California

San Diego

The rental car had a GPS navigation system and it was a good thing. Travel around San Diego can be tricky especially when you are not used to the heavy traffic of west coast highways. This business trip last August was a zigzag drive from Orange County to El Centro with my home base in San Diego.

For a state that always boast "Green Initiatives" Californians still hang on to their love of the automobile. I did my best not to get caught in commuter traffic but on more than one afternoon I sat for hours trapped between Humvees with soccer moms transporting their kids and stylish convertible roadsters captained by captains of industry. At least the scenery is worth taking in at slow speed. The Mediterranean climate certainly lent itself to rolling down the windows and letting the salt air in.

The Beaches from San Diego Bay to La Jolla have a personality all of their own. I am used to flat sugar white sand beaches. But here the darker course sand acts as a threshold for rugged cliffs and rock formations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego,_California. Even the weekday seemed busy along this stretch of natural wonder.

Hotel
Ramada Plaza Hotel Circle is located off Hotel Circle South. It has the usual amenities with swimming pool, high speed Internet and a continental breakfast is included. If you like a real breakfast with cholesterol and caffeine then you can have breakfast at the hotel's Tickle Trout Restaurant or go next store to Rick's Cafe. Rick's has great pancakes for a considerably cheaper price.

Old Town San Diego is only a one mile drive and is home to the Old Town State Historic Park. There are original and reconstructed buildings of San Diego past. Just out side the gates are a multitude of restaurants and shops with authentic Mexican foods and goods. I ate at Casa de Reyes Mexican Cuisine restaurant and was pleasantly surprised since I am not usually a big fan of Mexican food. If you want to end a hard day with a little fun you can always go to the Tequila Museum. On the way back to the hotel look for a small state park on the right hand side of the street. It is not well marked but you will see a small parking lot. There are some very interesting hiking trails into the hills. It is worth a stop, but only if you did not stop at the Tequila Museum first.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

The largest state park in California is the Anza- Borrego Desert State Park. It is a two hour drive east from San Diego. This is the closest I guess I will ever get to an alien moon scape since my application for astronaut training was turned down by NASA in 1976. The letter did say my application would be held on file, so I may still get the call before I'm eighty.

With 500 miles of dirt roads and many miles of hiking trails this desert takes more than a few days to explore. I only had one free day to enjoy the wide open vistas, palm groves, cacti and wildflowers http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=638. I was not well prepared for the sun and heat I would experience. Next time I will bring a hat, sun block, better sun glasses and a better way to carry bottled water. It was a mild day, a west wind kept the temperature to a tolerable 115 degrees. The scenery is absolutely fantastic. Rocks were doted by an occasional iguana. Fortunately I did not stumble upon any rattlesnakes. I did hope I would see big horn sheep ( borrego in Spanish) but they proved to be elusive. Walking the rugged , at times uphill trails in this type of heat was exhausting and I did not last more than a couple of hours before I took refuge at the visitor center. The center is worth a look if for no other reason it's unique architecture. Don't miss walking to Font's Point in the Borrego Badlands area of the park. It is a sight to behold.

Driving from the park I stopped in the town of Borrego Springs where I had a quick lunch at a cafe that looked like a movie set from Easy Rider. A good meal in this rugged, often unforgiving, always beautiful territory called Anza-Borrego Desert.