Big 10 Football Tour

After a few nights in a rather "rough" hotel in Koreatown, we were ecstatic to stay in the Hall family at their home in Carlsbad for a few nights.

From here, we could see the Pacific Ocean, Legoland, Catalina Island, and miles of blue skies. 

Who knew that those building blocks that you played with as a child has been built into an entire theme park larger than a Six Flags?  Yes, the United States' version of Legoland (the UK, Germany and Denmark all have their own versions) is located in Carlsbad, CA and is open year-round. 

Unfortunately, the park doesn't have many free walk-up attractions and a guest must pay over $60.00 to get in for the day and check out the 50+ rides.  Also located on site is the Sea-Life Aquarium, but that's also an additional fee.

We eventually made it to San Diego with no real intentions in mind.  San Diego was an entirely different atmosphere than LA in that it seemed more spacious, more calm, and a lot less traffic.

Our first destination turned out to be the waterfront.  Here, you could also make donations for palm leaves twisted into flowers.  This artist was a bit more crafty however as he would throw the flowers to many of the girls as they passed by.  The significant other would then receive a guilt trip until he made a donation.

There was quite a few of "bicycle cabs" that would taxi the tourists around.  Many of these carts would be enchance by a boombox beneath the seats or Christmas lights hanging from the top.

The waterfront also had a great deal of interesting things to see.  There was a Russian submarine, the Star of India, and even a bunch of cruise ship preparing for sea.  I was somewhat blown away by how far society has evolved since the days of the Titanic.  The life boats were a round shape, had a roof, and sat 150 passengers in them!

It was also here that I also saw one of the more "clever" sculptures, I've ever seen.  Right there, on the waterfront was a large container of Popcorn Chicken (think KFC)?  Yes, it looked just like your typical popcorn container, filled with both fried pieces of chicken and live chickens!

So after having a few bites of popcorn chicken, we took the ferry to Coronado.  A relativitely short trip becomes increasingly annoying as many people haul their bikes on board and it takes a good 20 minutes to load all of the passengers as a result.

As the weather is fairly predictable (that's great) in San Diego, you could pretty much plan this on any day and have a great trip.  During the ride, you'll see the USS Midway battleship, the Coronado Bridge, and a variety of boats in the bay.

Once over at Coronado, you can stay as long as you please.  A ferry heads back every half hour until the later hours of the evening.

From the beach, you can get some great views of the San Diego skyline.  It was here, that I realized I wasn't too fond of traveling this time of year as we had such a limited amount of daylight.  The sun was set by 5:15 every evening, so we really had to squeeze a lot into the little daylight we had.

Coronado is loaded with all sorts of shop and you can purchase all sorts of momentos of your trip.  There are also some wild art galleries that you must check out.  Walk cautiously in these galleries however as most pieces cost several thousands dollars.  Being that I am more of a "bull in a china shop," I chose to observe from afar.  I'd recommend checking out every shop/eatery in shop capacity...except the Burger King as going to Coronado Bay for a whopper is like going to Idaho for Cajun cooking.

If you want an unbelievable baked potato, check out Lil Piggies BBQ, as their potatoes were over 8 inches long and at least 4 inches wide!

My favorite item that I saw in the shops was the "Shark Tooth in a bottle."  The sign read, "How Did It Get in the Bottle?"  Well, I'm no Einstein, but I'm guessing that they pulled the cork off, place the tooth that is much smaller than the opening on the bottle into the bottle, and replace the cork.  Hysterical!