Tag: #solofemaletraveler

San Diego Gaslamp quarter

7 March 2018

After picking up my car, I made arrangements to meet up with Chris and Alex whom I had met on a plane from Honolulu to Sydney a couple of years ago.

Before I met the boys for dinner at the Rustic Root (get your head out the gutter my Aussie friends!!) I parked my car at their place out of downtown and took an Uber to the San Diego Central Library.

I was told to check out the 8th floor which is known as the “poor man’s penthouse”.

It became apparent what this meant. There were many homeless people throughout this beautiful library. As one of the security guards stated “it is a public place and so long as they abide by the libary rules, all are welcome”. Does anyone know of any other library who accepts homeless in this way? If we don’t allow it in Sydney, it should be.

I then went for a walk around the Embarcadero and Harbour and watched the sun set behind a naval ship with helicopters and F18s buzzing around.

The gaslamp quarter has so many restaurants, bars and nightclubs with all types of themes I had trouble understanding how San Diego could sustain so many with a population of 1,400,000. The answer, San Diego has more than 34,000,000 visitors a year.

Chis Alex and I at The Rustic Root rooftop.

This was a very long day for me as I only had 3 hours sleep the night before. I left Alex and Chris at 9:00pm and had my first night time drive alone. The 85 miles (130km) drive took me 1.5 hours and I was very proud of myself 🙂

San Diego by train

7 March 2018.

Today I picked up my hire car from San Diego. Jack and Norma dropped me off at San Juan Capistrano station so I could get the train to San Diego.

What a wonderul trip on the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train. If my plan wasn’t the road trip, I would seriously think about a trip around USA just on the train. Amtrak is so easy to book online.
https://m.amtrak.com/h5/r/www.amtrak.com/home.html

I had to change my reservation because the traffic getting to the station was heavier than expected and it was easy to modify the ticket without penalty and quickly online. I booked an unreserved seat as I was travelling a week day and not during peak hour and there were plenty of comfortable seats. Cost $USD23 is only a little more expensive than a train trip from Sydney Central Station to the Blue Mountains but the Amtrak train is much more comfortable.

The 1.5 hour trip from San Juan Capistrano to San Diego was so scenic and interesting I would like to do the whole Pacific Surfliner trip from T Luis Obispo.

There is so much to see on the train trip – surfers, beach fishermen, naval ships, helicopters which appeared to be loading supplies onto the ships, landscape which changes from beach, grassy hills, piers, parks, RV sites and houses which get more and more Adobe style as you get closer to the Mexican border. I needed to have a nap and thought the train would be perfect but the scenery is worth foregoing sleep.

I took the train to San Diego Old Town and then an Uber to San Diego Airport Alamo car rental office. A friend recommended I use a broker site https://m.billiger-mietwagen.de as they have the best deals for car rentals worldwide. The earlier you book the better the savings.

I booked and paid for a Mitsubishi Mirage (the smallest vehicle available) on 31 December 2017 and saved $AUD2000. I would have saved another $AUD1000 if I booked 2 weeks earlier. You can cancel the reservation and get a full refund up to 24 hours before the trip.

One problem I had when picking up the vehicle was the sales agent was trying to sell me additional insurance I didn’t need. The car hire includes all insurances as well as the excess. I don’t even need the additional travel insurance to cover this, although this is automatically covered in my Cover 1 travel insurance. You can’t have it removed from the policy.

If I didn’t know this information I could have very easily paid all these extras again. He tried to tell me that he would give me a triple upgrade as the Mitsubishi Mirage didn’t have bluetooth and it was too small a car to hold luggage. He was upsetting me and made me doubt myself but I insisted that I did not need any of the extras he was trying to sell me and I was sure that all new cars have bluetooth now.

When I went to pick up the vehicle upstairs, I advised the manager what I was told and she reassured me I didn’t have to pay anything extra and that I had a choice of cars and I chose a Toyota Camry. There are scammers everywhere.

I have the vehicle for 160 days and need to go to any Alamo office to swap the vehicle each 4000 miles.

I have to admit that I had worked myself up into a panic about driving on my own, on the wrong side of the road, without my navigator, Dion (the last trip I did to the USA included a road trip with Dion where we drove the Interstate 10 from Los Angeles to New Orleans in 28 November 2014 to 20 December 2014 around 3000km or 1900 miles ).

Today I drove out of the airport and just drove for an hour turning right and left geting used to whatever signs possible.

I ended up in a pretty suburb called Mission Hills and decided to have lunch there. It is so difficult to find parking in San Diego that even in this small suburb I parked about 5 blocks from the restaurants. But the walk was worth it. I had Clam Chowder for lunch.

Balboa/Newport/ Rancho Santa Margarita

5 March 2018. Manny dropped me off in Irvine on the way to his work. I had breakfast at iHop (pancakes with lots of butter) and then got a lift to Balboa Pier and Newport Beach.

A drink at the local bar Class of 47

In the afternoon I met up with Rebecca Alarcon and her beautiful family. Carlos Dion and I have always been treated as family by the Alarcons who looked after Carlos when he broke both feet after competing in the Cheerleading world Championships in 2012 in Orlando. This time I get to spend time with Rebecca and Michael at their home in Rancho Santa Margarita with their daughters Jordan and Reece, son Tyler, daughter in law Caitlin, grandson Thatcher and Rebecca’s parents Jack and Norma (aka Morna). Four generations under one roof.

I am once again very spoilt. The spa photo says it all

West Hollywood

Today the Californian sun was out. I strolled around Rainbow Harbour to Long Beach Harbour which is the resting place of the retired RMS Queen Mary. This ship is permanently moored in the harbour and used as an hotel.

Next to this majestic ship passengers were boarding the Carnival Imagination.

Long Beach is getting ready for the Grand Prix in April

Next stop was The Abbey in West Hollywood. Manny and Leo wanted me to experience this famous gay bar and their gogo boys. We had an unexpected surprise that the bar had an Oscars viewing party happening.

My drink for the afternoon was a hot chocolate with Baileys and Frangelico. Yummy.

Of course I couldn’t leave without getting a photo of the gogo boys.

Stopped out the front of Pump for Karen.

Entrance to Elton John’s Oscar party. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a way in.

I can now say I have been on Route 66.

Thank you so much Manny and Leo for showing me so many fun and interesting places. I look forward to when we meet again.

Naples Island

I think I have found where I want to live outside of Australia. I wonder how many times I will say this on my trip?

Today (3 March 2018) I walked down the main shopping strip of Long Beach to Naples Island.

I walked across the bridge over the Rivo Alto Canal into an area of beautiful homes which are built on canals similar to the canals of Venice and Venice Beach.

I went into 2 open homes. A 3 bedroom home off the canal area for $USD1.5M and a 3 bedroom apartment for $USD800,000 with no canal views.

Cute gardens and a house with a USA/Italian flag.

T

I enjoyed an afternoon at Manny and Leo’s friends’ housewarming at Westmont.

Then authentic Mexican food from Tacos El Gallazo diner. Did you know what we have as tacos in Australia are American? Tacos are actuaĺly more like our tortillas but thicker and much more delicious.

Long Beach has a high population of Mexicans. Many of the people I have met are teachers or work in the education system. The majority of the children they work with are from very low socio economic areas (projects in USA – housing commission in Australia). The children in these areas are lucky to have the support of these committed teachers who work in very difficult situations. Not to mention the real threat they all have with gun violence in schools. The schools all have drills they carry out in case of these situations. This includes preschool aged children. The solution the government has to arm teachers does not appear to have much support amongst the people I have met.

Long Beach

It is only Day 2 (2 March 2018) and Manny and Leo have set the bar so high that its scary.

The day commenced a bit dreary and cold. I thought “it never rains in California” but today was not so. I went for a walk in the rain and got saturated while looking for somewhere to have my fringe trimmed. I found a barber shop which was open at 9:00am (this is quite early for the area). I was so desperate to have the trim that I allowed the Guatemalan wife of the barber to do the job. She hardly spoke English but with my “pocito”Spanglish she did the $5USD job. Manny and Leo laughed so much when they saw how bad it was that Manny needed to tidy it up for me. I really should have done it myself.

Then I went to the school Leo works at “Broad Avenue Elementary” at Wilmington. I met children at their Book Fair and had a chat with the Principal who is keen to communicate with my School Principal friends in Australia.

Some children are fed 3 meals a day at this school

Book fair and they have this koala story.

Manny then took me to the Sunken City of San Pedro, where several exclusive cliffside houses were lost in 1929 in a natural landslide. We then went to the Korean Friendship Bell at Angel ‘s Gate Park on top of a beautiul lookout.

Next stop was the Point Fermin Lighthouse and Park, after which we enjoyed a beer (I had “The Dog Ate My Homework”) at Brouwerij West where I met the Assistant Principal of Broad Avenue Elementary.

We finished off the day being entertained at Hamburger Marys with a fun night of drag shows and dancing.

Sydney to Nadi

Getting to Sydney airport at 3:30am is not much fun, although no traffic. The flight to Nadi was good except I hope I don’t experience another flight surrounded by 8 children under 5. If they were my family that would be totally different. Luckily it was only a 4 hour flight.

I have a 10 hour stopover in Nadi. Note, if you have more than a 6 hour stopover, you cannot check your baggage through to your final destination. I could not use the Business lounge until I checked in my baggage and could not do this until 5 hours before my flight. So you drag your luggage around until check-in time or pay for the luggage to be stored

Better Solution – 5 minutes from the airport, the transit centre offers a range of facilities. They pick you up and take you back to the airport in time for your next flight. You can have a shower, use free wifi, watch a movie in a comfortable room with lounge and beanbags and have a 20 minute foot massage, they store your luggage and they have an area for you to have a sleep as well for $38FJD.

I also had a 60 minute body massage for $100FJD. All of this equals $88aud.

The full body massage was wonderful except when I fell off the massage table. That is a problem when you are vertically challenged and try to jump onto a massage table which is waist height and fall in an embarrassing naked heap on the tiled floor. After being assisted onto the table my dignity was restored.

Pre travel excitement and packing

I have three sleeps until my flight from Sydney Airport to Los Angeles with a 10 hour stop over in Nadi Fiji. Travelling with a stopover can reduce the price of a flight substantially. A flight from Sydney to Los Angeles is approximately 15 hours and I find breaking up the trip assists reduce jet lag.

Packing is always tiresome. The rules seem to be “halve the amount you have packed” and wear layers, especially when the weather fluctuates from a low of 4°C (26°F) to a high of 28°C (83°F). But how many layers can you pack with a luggage weight limit of 23kg (50lb). How do people travel with less than 10 pairs of shoes? A pair of walking shoes, thongs (flip flops), reef shoes, and normally a pair of shoes for each outfit but I will control myself and take one pair of stiletto sandals and one pair of closed in stilettos. I can always buy more on my travels but that will mean an additional $150US in excess baggage.

Luckily I had my son’s girlfriend assist with culling my wardrobe. Now I can buy lots on my travels.