Last Day (and hotel reviews)

Dear Reader,

This is the last blog of the 2016 California trip (though not the end of our trip, but the motto, I hear, is what happens in Texas stays in Texas), but it covers beautiful sights, food porn galore, and even wild animals (and not Michael).

But first, for your information, the hotel review.

We stayed in 7 different hotels (the cabin in Yosemite we’ll ignore).  I will remind you all that I have a criteria for a quality hotel (3+ stars) that includes glass glasses (redundant?), thick towels, firm beds, a choice of pillows, and quality WiFi.

Here’s a damning comment: I slept on a rolled up towel for 3 nights at the hotel in Anaheim. 

The best hotel was the first, the Hyatt at the airport in San Francisco, though the last, the Sheraton at the marina in San Diego, was very close.  Both had all the above amenities, though the Sheraton had the Wifi that asks you to reconnect if you don’t use it for like 30 seconds.  A PITA. 

I liked the Radisson in Fresno, which was a sudden, late night change the night before.  It had all the amenities, and a good price.  But it WAS in Fresno.  We were not impressed with what we saw of the Central Valley cities.

Probably next was the Country Inn & Suites, which I don’t think I’d ever stayed in before, in Ventura.  It was a late addition, too, done a few days before leaving in a swap for the Radisson in Santa Maria – 2 hours closer to the ballpark and LA for the next day.  It was good, and a decent price at $129, but both the other three were better, for about the same money.

The Clarion in Ridgecrest and the Stanford in Anaheim were close.  We stayed at both for a combination of convenience and price (there weren’t a lot of 3 star options in Ridgecrest, on the edge of the desert).  Neither had glass glasses though both had a breakfast that wasn’t bad.  (can’t say that about the Country Inn).

Dead last was the San Simeon Lodge.  It was close to Hearst Castle and across the street from the ocean.  But the bed was horrible, the light fixtures were missing light bulbs, the heat didn’t work (it was 50 the morning we left), and it wasn’t the least expensive place we stayed (the Clarion was, not surprisingly). 

Now, to the last day plus in San Diego.

Yesterday we spent the day in Balboa Park.  Here’s a picture of the iconic tower, which has no bell (we found out) – the symbol of the city.

The park was built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition.  San Diego beat out San Fran to host, back when San Fran was ten times larger.  The buildings are. a mix of mission and stucco style (as you can see), in a conscious attempt to get away from the more classical architecture of other American expositions. 

We saw the Old Globe, which Michael says is big in theatre history, but got no tour.

Then visited the Museum of Man, which had exhibits on Beer through history and human evolution and mummies.  I saw enough skulls to keep me for the rest of my life.

We then agreed that the Air and Space Museum had appeal (there are 14 museums in the park).  Michael, Karen and I spent much time in the DaVinci special exhibit (Karen and I dozed through some of the film showing there), and Michael found Barb dozing in front of Tora, Tora, Tora.  Yes, it seems we were all tired.

Then to hotel to swim and clean up for dinner.

For dinner, we went to Coronado, which is an island off San Diego.  Here’s the view as we started dinner.

The menu was good.  Both Barb and Karen had surf and turf; Michael and I had the halibut.  We got comped dessert (pineapple upside down cake and bananas foster bread pudding) because they overcooked Karen’s steak.  Barb told the waiter so. :)

Then back to the Slavins’s suite for cards, where, once again, Michael and Karen swept us, with Michael yet again (who can believe it?!?!?!) complaining about not getting cards.  Right.

This morning, Karen and I took the car downtown and had brunch at the Broken Yolk – motto “we have huevos” – where it turns out we had brunch in 2010 during our “junket” there. 

Then we shot up I-5 to La Jolla, to see the seals. (not to be confused with sea lions, or elephant seals…I’m not sure how or why).  Here’s a shot of them on the rocks just below us.  You can see from the pictures in the LINK that the place was gorgeous.  But the biggest memory may be how gamey the seals smelt…the odor was strong even as you got out of the car!

We stopped at Torrey Pines golf course, where they’ve held one US Open and where they’ll return in 2021 (there were both signs and t-shirts) so here’s a pic of there.

And then to Texas, Dallas, to visit the much famed John from the Scotland blog and his wife Lanissa.  There’s been talk of a trip to Waco (has something to do with HGTV), pub crawls through Fort Worth, and some golf viewing (ironically, the US Open is in PA this weekend).

And there it is.  Thanks for going along for the ride, and thanks to Michael and Barb for being the best travel companions.  Farewell.