San Diego.

June 20-23

Faith and I left Las Vegas on an early Greyhound bus bound for San Diego. The journey took eight hours and along the way, we stopped to ta pao lunch from Popeye’s. The bus ride was not as arduous as I thought it would be - talking to Faith, dozing off and reading. We arrived at the SD Greyhound terminal before evening and found our way to the USA hostel a few streets away.

It was pretty hilarious as we lugged our bags up the flight of stairs to the hostel reception. We checked into our respective rooms and decided that we’ll visit the renown SD zoo the next morning, and find our way to a beach the day after.

Our walk to the zoo took us through the city and over the freeway. The architecture of SD is heavily influenced by a Spanish-Mexican flavor, like buildings that you’ll see in The Mask of Zorro. SD was under Spanish colonial rule in the past, and is now a city with strong military presence with naval bases by the coast. There were many museums and also a Shakespeare theater along the way to the zoo.

Koala bear hidden in the eucalyptus leaves

Hard to see, but the lion is there looking at you

Black panther

Giraffe trio, taken for Deb.

Poor polar bear in warm San Diego climate.

Hot mama Josie.

San Diego Zoo was nice, I can’t remember the last time I visited a zoo prior to this, but I would think this famous zoo was comparable to Singapore’s. We were a little disappointed by the fact that many of the animals were sleeping/hiding in the daytime though. Back at our hostel, Faith’s roommates were from Singapore, two girls, but I didn’t see them; I think one of them was from my JC actually.

The bathroom at the hostel.

The next day, we decided to make our way to a beach, regardless of how far it was. It was either a beach, or a day trip to Tijuana, Mexico but we decided against that. So to the beach, it was. We took a bus and half an hour later, we were at La Jolla beach. Our map showed us where to get off the bus and we were surrounded by nice houses and tall palm trees, with sounds of the ocean crashing upon the shore.

Me with a lifeguard, Baywatch style. (photo courtesy of Faith) 

This is Faith dozing off under the blue skies.

This is life.

Gorgeous house by the beach front.

Beach patrol

Tufts of seaweed washed up randomly on the shore. (courtesy of Faith) 

Pacific Ocean sunset 

After a wonderful day at La Jolla beach, we had dinner at a nearby Mexican joint before taking the bus back to downtown San Diego. Our third and last night in San Diego was fun, it was a Friday night I think, and we got to see how Californian folks welcome the weekend at a little bar.

We were going to take an early bus to Los Angeles the next morning, and so we packed and I made myself stay up that night, afraid that I would oversleep and miss the bus departure. San Diego and San Francisco were perfect.