San Diego

Our journey to San Diego was our first taste of the American Greyhound – or slow dog as it’s called here. The first bus was 2 and a half hour later – but somehow we managed to arrive exactly on time. In San Diego we were staying with my cousin, Sueelen, and her parents and had a lovely time as they were so generous. It was the first time in we had slept in such a comfortable bed! He next day, Sueelen and her dad took up for a tour around the city. It’s so vast that it took us ages to get anywhere. We started at a beach where there had once been a children area that was now totally over run by big sea lions. We went by the docks, and on to an island connected to the main land with a single bridge.

That night Sueelen took us to her country dancing saloon. It was so much fun, we did some line dancing- Elliott was hilarious! Then we even tried to do the waltz and 2 step. It’s not something I would have ever thought of trying, but it was so funny – and it came with a buffet and ribs.

The next day was Easter so we started off the day going to church. We then all went to the shopping centre to do some shopping. Across the road from it was a casino which we went to with our dollar notes. It was a bit of a taste of what we see in Las Vegas. We weren’t there long when Elliott and I were stopped by 2 big security guards for ID to check we were over 18. We of course didn’t have any on up out, and so were escorted out – ha! We walked around the shopping mall for a bit then when back, did some well needed washing and chilled out.

As San Diego is right on the border, we decided to go to Mexico for the day. It’s so close that I was shocked to hear people go for lunch in Mexico. Sueelens dad dropped us off at the border and we just walked across with no one checking anything. We had been warned that it was quite a dirty dodgy place, but we didn’t think so at all, we’d seen far far worse places. As we were there early-well 9, the tourist strip of shops weren’t open, so we walked down the non-tourist roads for a bit of shopping. It was interesting to see the extreme differences between how the Mexicans live and the Americans, so close together. We walked the tourist road, when I thought I could see a zebra, which some local had to get tourists to get pictures on it. How could they get a zebra down here?! It was then that Elliott said – no Simone, it’s a donkey painted black and white. Well we were quite far off... For lunch we chose a restaurant that was full of locals instead of full of tourists. The food was really nice and so much of it, with some nice Mexican beer. After lunch we worked our way up the strip and then back over the border – where this time there was someone checking your passport and a massive queue. That night we had a lovely home cooked meal and chilled out ready for our 5 o’clock bus the next morning and some late nights in Las Vegas.x