San Diego, California - January 21

Partly cloudy, 15 degrees


San Diego welcomed us with fog and rain. Well, not on land, but when we woke up about 40k away. Soon, the ship’s horn was blasting which is required in fog. Approaching San Diego, we saw more and more

Balboa Park

military ships. The pier is very near to Dan Diego’s military base. In addition to an abundance of military boats sailing with us, we were told to expect less than stellar internet – if was fine.

amphibious assault ship, welcomed us to the US

American immigration was a face-to-face inspection for EVERYONE on the

San Diego skyline with Coronado bridge

boat…passengers and crew – that’d be about 1500 people! This is atypical. Since we left Miami, we’ve visited 5 countries, and none have asked for this level of inspection. This level isn’t unheard of to us, just atypical. Usually, what happens is that the ship holds everyone’s passports and immigration comes onto the boat and assesses them without matching each one to the person. This is super convenient for

sea lions

us. I can remember doing face-to-face inspections when we were in India, China and maybe a couple other places in Asia. Today the inspection is ON the boat as was the time we did this in India…the Chinese immigration was in their cruise terminal, and all I remember is that it took…a very long time. I didn’t expect that today and that is exactly how it turned out.


Once off the ship we took a mostly panoramic tour of San Diego featuring the city's landmarks and points of interest followed by a

cool sky!

harbour cruise. Highlights were San Diego’s Embarcadero (where our ship is) the Gaslamp Quarter (where we walked to after the tour for lunch), Balboa Park and San Diego’s old town. We got off the bus at Balboa Park for a very short walk, in the park are museums and a large outdoor area for organ concerts. This is the second time we encountered the name Balboa on this cruise…the first time was a beer from Panama and now this park – both named for a Spanish explorer.

giant ship with bridge in background

The harbor tour was about an hour long where we saw a lot of military vessels and helicopters and other waterfront points of interest. We also saw a bunch of sea lions sunning themselves! Unfortunately, it was a bit too chilly to spend much of this harbour cruise outdoor. We saw one enormous ship, the USS Makin Island…an ‘amphibious assault ship’. I know nothing about military vessels, but this was huge. We also saw an aircraft carrier, which was even bigger, but farther away. As far as size of the aircraft carrier…we

our ship...not exactly the largest today!!

were told that 2 of San Diego’s largest buildings could fit on the aircraft carrier end to end with room to spare.

After the tour we walked to the Gaslamp district to find some lunch. The Gaslamp area is an area filled with bars, restaurants, art galleries and shops. We found a pub for a but of food and a couple of pints – not cheap…each pint was 8.00USD.


San Diego to me seemed a bit like

peanut butter kit-kat...meh

Calgary, in that it wasn’t huge, old or filled with historical sites. 
Tonight, I selected a ‘peanut butter kit-kat’ for dessert…I had very high hopes…nope, looked better than it was. This is good…I’m happy not to finish!


Regarding the cake in the last post…nope I didn’t have a piece…not sure if it was for display purposes only!