CONTENTS

I never expected much from San Diego.  As far as California goes, its LA, SF and then the rest.  San Diego always seemed to have too nice a weather and never any complaints to make it a real, viable, interesting city.  It was always in my mind California's throwaway city, I was wrong. 

My first taste of the city was zooming through the skyline in a surreal landing that flies you through downtown to land in the centrally located airport.  It would be a a couple weeks later before I would return, but the city was pretty awesome.  After spending the morning and early parts of the afternoon at the Zoo, Mom and I took a guided trolley tour of the city, zipping through the neighborhoods, sights and tremendous views at a breakneck speed set to some horribly bad puns and jokes thrown at us by the super happy, super annoying tour guides driving the trolleys.

Among the highlights were Balboa Park, an exquisite part of town featuring hand carved stone buildings, museums, outdoor amphitheaters and the like.  There was also a quick drive past the KC BBQ restaurant where they filmed part of Top Gun.  Kansas City BBQ in San Diego?  Say it ain't so!

After the big, long, winding tour of San Diego, my Mom and I headed downtown and drove through the gaslight district before settling down for one last meal in California - fish and chips on a restaurant on pier jutting out into the harbor. 

When all was said and done, the short-lived visit to San Diego changed the way I thought about the little city - an architecturally diverse and interesting town, with small, walkable blocks and a slew of high class living spaces and a lively bar and restaurant scene.  Attempts at public art - some good, some the typical modern atrocities public art committees seem to love - dotted the city liberally, and it seemed, just like the rest of California, the culture of the arts was never far off the beaten path, unlike Texas and most of the interior of the country.  The only drawback was the absolutely over the top military presence around - between the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard, it seemed there was no place free from military personnel, which always seems a bit unnecessary. 

San Diego  reminded me of the constant challenge of California - balancing natural beauty, the arts, with outrageous living costs the belie the natural laid back sensibilities of one of the prettiest states in the nation.

Looking back at San Diego