San Diego Take Two

“Tomorrow” started far too quickly for us, with jet lag waking us up at the lovely time of 4am. Determined to put the events of the night before behind us, we tried to occupy our time as best we could whilst waiting for a socially acceptable time to head out for breakfast which we had at The Waffle Spot. The portions in America are enormous and our first American breakfast was no exception much to Richard’s delight.

We decided we had to brave the car again and in daylight it didn’t seem quite so daunting. We’d read about a town called ‘La Jolla’, pronounced ‘Lah-hoy-ya’ (Rich didn’t get the hang of this the entire time we were in America at one point even calling it Ja Lolla), where they have wild but tame seals and sea lions. I cannot speak highly enough about this place, it is wonderful to see the animals in their natural surroundings and being completely at ease with the human presence. They are also naturally very comical and entertaining and with lots of seals and lots of viewing points it doesn’t feel too heavily populated with tourists barging each other out of the way. We completed the drive unscathed and after a stroll along the coastline watching the seals we were feeling so much better.

After a brief visit to Walmart and our second successful drive of the day (minus a few hairy moments with a stop sign and my poor navigation skills driving us round the same block twice) disaster struck. To preface this part of the story I have to give a brief background into our clashing personalities and how we both manage to love an imperfect person perfectly –

– I am sort of a happy go lucky, go with the flow kind of person. The exception to this is when I’m at work and with my parents, where I put unnecessary pressure on myself to be the best I can possibly be at all times so as not to disappoint anyone. This means that on the whole I’m quite content if things don’t go according to the plan – if I even have a plan to begin with. Rich on the other hand is a perfectionist. He will take an idea in his head and if things don’t go exactly the way he was picturing them, it stresses him out a little bit. It is the one thing I really love and really dislike about him in equal measure. It has meant that I’ve been treated to some of the most romantic and best surprises of my life whilst we’ve been together. It’s also meant that we’ve had times where we haven’t wanted to speak to each other because something hasn’t quite gone to plan so Rich has got stressed and then I’ve thrown a strop because he’s stressed and not enjoying our time together.

– How our relationship works: Rich puts up with me being stroppy and pulls faces at me to mimic what I look like and I call him a number of kind-of-cute nicknames when his perfectionism is annoying me, my favourites being ‘Sir Grumpalot’ and ‘Grumplestiltskin’.

So back to the “disaster” and a typical ‘Grumplestiltskin’ moment. On our way back from Walmart, Rich noticed that the window on the back passenger door wasn’t closing properly, it could be closed manually so we figured it would reset itself the next time we dropped the roof. We headed to the pool and I thought that was the end of it. Unfortunately Sir Grumpalot had it in his head that the car was ruined and that in turn was ruining the holiday. After extensive Google searching and both of us trying and failing to reset the window, we spent 23 minutes on the phone to the rental company to try and get a solution. The solution was that we could get a new car as there was one left at the airport, but that we would have to drive back to swap them over, rudely interrupting my own personal game of ‘hotdogs or legs’. We headed out which then led to the 300th argument in the car as the car rental site had moved and so Google Maps guided us to the wrong place. Once we finally got back, the only car left was a red one which wasn’t perfect for Grumplestiltskin, but we had no choice but to accept it. I named him Lightning (yes as in McQueen and yes I was thrilled to finally have a red sports car of my own) and we headed back to the hotel to get over the fiasco of the afternoon.

After an Italian takeaway that could have fed a small country and a quick nap we were on our way back to the airport. Don’t worry, Rich hadn’t completely lost his mind, we were actually on our way to pick up an old friend of mine and her husband. Best tip I can give anyone, when in America, hang out with Americans! With Kelsey and Scott in the car, it was particularly snug, BUT we finally had people to explain the crazy rules of the road to us – yes you can turn right on a red light if nothing else is coming – and with Scott’s navigation skills we actually made it through the next few days without killing each other.

After the initial chaos, our time in San Diego was actually wonderful. On our second day we headed to the World Famous San Diego Zoo and it was absolutely outstanding, I can completely understand why it has the reputation it has. I didn’t know this prior to attending, but if you get to the zoo before opening they actually have a mini opening ceremony where a lucky member of the audience (read spoilt child) gets to officially open the zoo for the day and they release some of their exotic birds and advise you of anything special you should know about the zoo that day. They also told us that the pandas would shortly be heading to bed for the day. We wouldn’t have been there that early without Kelsey’s enthusiasm, so that was an added bonus to start the day and we managed to see the pandas, something we might have missed if it wasn’t for the tip. Kelsey also managed to pick up some flyers at breakfast that gave us discounted entry, so if you’re ever in the states look out for the flyer stands that are in doorways of some restaurants and attractions, you never know what hidden deals you might find. Other highlights at the zoo included the polar bears and the orangutans, one of whom was called Karen and liked licking windows.

On our final full day in San Diego we took Kelsey and Scott back to La Jolla, which Kelsey informed us was where Dr Seuss moved to in his later years and wrote ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ and ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas’ amongst other things. We went on a long scenic walk and then headed over the water to a stretch of land called Coronado (Kelsey and Scott pronounced it corr-nah-doh, so I’ll take their word for it). It was a bit like going back in time to an old seaside resort and it was absolutely beautiful. It also appeared to be a popular venue for weddings apparently, we saw three brides just in the few hours that we were there. We finished off an awesome few days with drinks by the pool watching the sun set and got ready to head to Disneyland!

#Love #RTW #SanDiego #FordMustang #Seals #Friends #RoundTheWorld #Adventure #Zoo