Love from San Diego, Trolley Tour Day...

Hey everyone, this is our second San Diego trip installment.  In order to see the town and take in the main attractions, we decided to take a guided tour.  It ran all day but you could get off and on at any of the stops to sight see at your own pace.  it was neat because the tour was in these fun old trolley cars...which felt like they were going to fall apart at any minute!  Well, here are some of the highlights.

Here we are at a place called Seaport Village.  It is right on the water next to a huge marina.  Lots of cool shops and beautiful scenery.

This was one of the braver seagulls at the Village, he let us get within a few feet and then only moved about 5 more away when we got too close.

One of the major attractions on the tour is an area called "Old Town," which is about 5 miles north of what is currently downtown San Diego.  It has lots of Spanish architecture and charming shops.  On one side is the mountains while the other is the sea...beautiful but also why the city had to expand away from the small area.  We were advised to try a Mexican Restaurant called Coyote Cantina and it was very fun...we sat outside in the sun on one of two large patios and enjoyed tasty food while soaking in the atmosphere.

One of the cooler spots in Old Town was an original Church and it's cemetery.  The gravestones were accompanied by information about the person's life and death, all with an amazingly beautiful backdrop.

Here is an area by the shore where the USS Midway is docked as a museum.  We didn't feel inspired to take the tour but it was quite impressive from afar.  In a little park next to it there were many statues, the largest being a recreation of the famous picture of the nurse and sailor kissing at the end of WWII.  This picture is one of Mandi's favorites so of course the statue was of great interest to her.  Below is a fun picture of her acknowledging the truly scandalous nature of the depiction and a ridiculous one of me grabbing the guy's butt...the goal was for me to be poking his back to get them to break it up but something got lost in the phototranslation!

There was a grouping of statues around a main statue of Bob Hope, and of course we felt the need to join the crowd and slow down other tourists!

After the tour ended at around 4:30 we headed back to Horton Plaza and decided to pass some time with a friendly game of checkers...in which Mandi rocked me as you can see.  The picture not only shows the cool checkerboard but also all of her white pieces ganging up on me and her gloating (which continued for a few hours longer!).  After that we headed back to the hotel and regrouped for dinner.  That night we were in the mood for Asian so walked a block down the street to a very cool Thai place.  Because of it's diversity, San Diego has a huge variety of amazing food!

Well, that ends Day 2 of our adventure...stay tuned for the next installment.

Jason