well, hello again..sorry for the long silence on my part. I had been a bit busy..back from San Diego n L.A..

Time to bore you all. Well,this week long trip had been my birthday treat. For those who forgot, scold yourself for now,and mark it in your calendars for next year.So let's get back to business.

We left Phoenix on Friday, 31st August, by 2:00 p.m...It was a long drive of approx. 300 miles ( convert it into kms. ppl), with one stop in between. A scenic drive, seeing parts of Arizona we had never seen earlier, combined with lovely songs playing on the cd player..hmmm. Of course, its always hard on the person driving, if a chatter box like me is sitting next to him. :)

SAN DIEGO: We reached San Diego, by 10:30 p.m.Our Holiday Inn hotel rooms beckoned us, and we all checked in, drowsy, but excited to be there,and looking forward to 2 full days of fun, excitement. and of course, weary feet!!:). Dinner consisted of venn pongal, and potato sabzi, courtesy Nithya..idlis and chili powder, courtesy Bala, and curd rice, courtesy Anusha. After a filling meal, we chucked our shoes off,and tucked ourselves in.

For those who did not know, San Diego, is Spanish for Saint James. Lots of American states and cities have either Spanish names, or adapted from them. In fact, Arizona, is adapted from Spanish "arid zonia"... Well well, now that's an interesting bit of info rt there.

Saturday dawned, nice , sunny and bright. I, as usual, the early bird, was up at 5: 45 a.m. itself( force of habit you see:)) and had taken my bath, and had put on the coffee maker, by the time madhu woke up.

We decided to do something different..So we told the other two families that we wanted to see more of San Diego,and , we went to a place in Old town, that offered city bus tours all day.Orange Trolley Rides, it was called. We parked our car and got on.

The buses were equipped with city maps,and other pamphlets of interest to tourists,and little paper fans. like we get in Chennai. . The bus operator was also the guide,and told us interesting facts about San Diego. San Diego, was first discovered in 1542, by a sailor, who named it San Miguel. ( since they used to name new places after saints back then). Since he was sponsored by the Spanish governement. he claimed it for Spain, by placing the Spanish flag there.Then the city was forgotten, when 60 years later,another sailor, "re-discovered" San Diego, when he touched Pt. Loma, and named it San Diego. This time around, the name stuck. .

Land was very cheap in those days. An acre went for 35 cents, and an enterprising man, decided to buy some land in San Diego. He invested 100 dollars,and constructed the first hotel, and then went on to expand into other areas of commerce. Now, this very person, I forgot his name now, is known as one of the three founding fathers of San diego. The people who made San Diego a place worth visiting, by attracting government officials to set up a naval harbor there.

HARBOR: Since we are talking of the harbor area of San Diego, let me transgree from history a little bit and tell you what we saw. We got off the bus at the Harbor, and on making some enquiries, we found out that they had 5 ship museums along the harbor area. These ships used to actually sail until a short time ago, when it was decided that instead of destroying them for scrap / junk, they were to be renovated, maintained,and converted into a museum.Out of the 5 ships I mentioned, one was a black Soviet submarine, named Foxtrot.
Going into the submarine via a narrow ladder,and then travelling the whole length of the submarine, made for some very funny pictures( courtesy Madhu), and "oohs and aaahs". Climbing through the various portholes, going into various sections of the ship, seeing through the periscope...was great fun. I mean, how many people would have a chance to wriggle though the narrow spaces of a submarine???Imagine people living in these subs for months together. !!!!! /