Driving trip to San Diego ~ part II

Read part I | Photo album
It was a nice sleep at the Super 8 Motel. Although expensive, it's nice to have a place to stay, since everywhere else is full. A simple breakfast is provided in the lobby, the service is named "Super start (TM)", but it is extremely simple. There is a choice of doughnuts and crescents, and drinks of black tea, coffee and juice. There is also apples. I didn't like the oily feel of crescents, so I got my self a glazed doughnut, getting a taste of ultra sweet american breakfast, and to dilute the sweetness, took that with tea.

First thing in the morning, we went to Vons to get discount tickets (which we found the day before when we went for supplies) for San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. For 25$ each ticket, we saved 3.5$ each person. Then we were back on the road to the zoo. Since there is free WIFI in the motel, I already got all the driving directions for today, the the drive over is straightforward. 9am on a Sunday morning, there is not much traffic on I-10. Going along with the flow of traffic, I can easily get a speed of 80mph. Yes, I know that's speeding, but when everyone's doing it, why be a law-obeying road block? There is a limit to speed, though, that is the van's own system. From a previous inspection of what's under the hood, I knew that the van has quite an empty engine space: big space, tiny engine. Also, the van is heavy, and the transmission is laggy. Already apparent during yesterday's drive, the gas paddle has quite a strange correlation to engine power input, the line is not linear. From the first bit of your step on the paddle, you get a little to much power, resulting in a jumpy start from a stand still, so you've got to get used to the high sensitivity if the paddle in this part. Then, as you push more on the paddle, the response lapses, you see no acceleration, and you start to see the rpm drop. Then, if you floor it, you feel a jump of the transmission - after a lag, that is - and then power comes in, but slowly. So it's a combination of insufficient power, laggy transmission, and nonlinear acceleration. I could manage to get by on normal highways, but on I-15 to the zoo, there is many hills, and whenever we go up hill, you see the majority of the near by traffic pass by, throwing us behind... Man, if I were driving a civic, I'd sure be the one cutting people off :D

Anyways, we got it to the zoo wildlife park in a reasonably short time, though, thanks to the good traffic (80mph, no sweet :) ). Parking is 8$. And the tickets from Vons requires no farther exchange, it itself is the ticket, and you just walk in. The Zoo got much better then the last time I got here. Seems like attractions have more then doubled. We originally planed half a day for this, but realized that it could not be finished within 2 days, so we skipped a lot of places and shows. As for the animals, I'm sure picture convey the message much better, so be sure to check out my photos on Zoto (link at the end of the post). Worthy of notice, there's these cute little mammals called merkats, furry little social animals with sentries that stand on high places on the look out, while the others dig holes all around. To me, those sentries look more like they're "musing". Also, there's the interesting gorillas, that just seem like over sized kids in black fur. Some times they're climbing the rocks, sometimes chasing each other, sometimes fighting, sometimes just sitting under a tree. And while sitting under a tree, it really seems like it's thinking, or just plan lonely.



There was this new ride that's a big yellow balloon that takes people up for a panorama of the whole valley. But each ride costs 15$. We really wanted to take it, but it was pretty damn expensive. Next to the balloon, there's lions just behind a glass, so you could see it real close. The mother is usually staying in the lier caring for the young, but we lucked out and saw a cub ran out to play, with it's mom coming out and biting it back into the cave. There's also a camping ground next to the lions and balloon, we really should camp there, if we did enough homework before going... Lunch is expensive burgers and sandwiches. Nice, but too expensive, and a little too much in amount. I got this weird "greek chicken wrap" that is literaly chicken sandwich (minus the bread) in a red soft wrap. It's nice that it's cold (good for a hot sunny day), but really doesn't have much taste, it's quite dull.

The must-go-attraction of the park is a monorail that takes you around the whole park, explaining, teaching and telling stories of the park and the animals, a tour of 45 minutes. When we first got in line, there is some kind of medical emergency on a train halfway on the track, resulting in a prolonged delay. So we got out and went to see a bird show instead. After lunch, the emergency is cleared, but another train broke down on the track. This time, we waited, we did get on the train, but we ran out of time, and couldn't leave the zoo on time for our next stop: aircraft carrier USS Midway museum in downtown San Diego, which stops selling tickets at 4pm. We left the zoo at 3:50pm, I guess. what a shame.

Anyways, we still went to the aircraft carrier in the San Diego bay: at least we could see the outside. Highway 163 to downtown is a small route of only 2 lanes, winding in the mountains. With the curves, the ups and downs, less traffic and high speeds, it's a real pleasure to drive, and best of all, it takes you directly into downtown SD. Downtown San Diego is a clouded city full of one-way streets. there are road names of 1st, 2nd~11th street, and also, crisscrossing with witch, A street, B street..., F street.... Also, each of the streets are one-way, with interchanging directions, this one going to the left, the next one to the right, and the next to the left, and vice versa. Eventually, with the help of Earthcomber, we got to the shore of the bay, where USS Midway is permanently anchored.

Having never seen an aircraft carrier, it sure is magnificent. No matter how large you previously think it was, you'd never imagine it to be this big. You could easily see the hangers under the deck, the huge lifts that lift planes from the hangers to the deck, and there's also a fleet of planes on the deck. As we got there, we were just in time to see the last of the visitors unboard the ship, and the staff locking the door to the ship. Now I really want to be here sometime next year. The bay it self is also beautiful, with the sun going down the horizon, sail boats sailing past, and a big island out there in the distance. There's also a big wooden ship with sails on a far dock, but we can't get there because of a lack of parking space.

Then we went to the Gaslamp Quarter for a walk in San Diego's streets. Bicycle cabs are everywhere. Since it's a crowded city with narrow streets, bikes are apparently the way to go. Many of them are even very nice bikes, like a Specialized MTB with a trailer of 2 seats connected behind on the seat post. But rides are for 10~20$ each person, yet another ride that we can't try. This part of city is crowded with high-end restaurants, crowding my Earthcomber map with spots. There's also some interesting stores, such as a really shinny yet cheep jewelry shop, an Oklay shop, a Quicksilver shop next to a Puma shop, and also a city souvenir shop with "I love SD" shirts. There's also this hip shop full of clothes but also with strange book. We found a book called "Fuck this book", full of photos with every verb substituted with the F word, making it really funny.

Dinner was Tai-food, since we can't afford steaks nor lobsters. The food is like Chinese food with a twist of special sauces. The original price was OK, but there's a tip, a state tax and a city tax. Ouch!

The drive back to LA was via 163 -> I-15 -> 78 -> I-5 -> 405. This is finally my time to sleep, and I tired from worrying about car burglars all night. So contrary to the previous drives, I didn't drive, nor track the route in Earthcomber for everyone. I slept and just answered questions when my friends don't know which way to go. But I was still awake half of the way, I guess I was just too tense and worried too much to sleep well. As far as I know, it was all nice and fast untill we got to I-5, where, as usual, it's jammed badly, and jammed all the way till 405. Then it got exciting on 405, as the gas level closes in on the empty line. We got back to the Co-Op with barely anything left in the gas tank, was that close.

After photos of us all back at the Co-Op, we all gathered to exchange photos, then to bed.
---
The next day, I drove the one who's just here in CA for the weekend and is going
on to another place to the airport, and also to return the car. We returned the car with an empty gas tank, resulting in a gas charge, ouch. Also, I left my own keys in the car all together with the car keys... RATS...

Spear keys of the Co-Op cost 18.5$ each, and I lost 2 of them, CRAP.

---

Photos of the trip on Zoto