The US Travel Wrap Up 1 (San Diego)

Well, I have traveled a lot in the US.

Just for a record purpose, this will be the list of places that I have been to for the past 5 months.

I wanted to put all the the places in one post initially but then I realized that if I want to do so, I will have a never-ending post. LOL

Therefore, I will break them down into parts.
I hope it is not too late for me to do the record, hopefully I still can recall where I been to and what I have done.

1. San Diego @ 17/01/09 - 19/01/09

The first long weekend of spring semester, Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. This is also my first travel trip to a city that is out of Los Angeles County. Well, probably that was not my travel plan, Stacey (one of my exchange peeps) was the one who plans. I just pack my bag and pay her whatever I need to pay.

San Diego is a border city near Mexico, it only takes 20 minutes from San Diego to Tijuana, Mexico. This little city has pretty beaches but unfortunately I didn't go for it. San Diego has really nice beaches, I am quite regret that I missed it.

Instead, we went to their famous SeaWorld amusement park with the clever sea animals performaning several shows. Their ironic show is "Believe" which performed by killer whales with a character named Shamu. Shamu is the name of the character, not the name of the killer whale. The name "Shamu" is used in all SeaWorld in the US, there are in total three SeaWorld's in the US.

Besides SeaWorld, we also visited San Diego Zoo and saw chubby panda. That was my first time seeing panda, they are so cute and have the innocent look on their face. They just adorable. (obviously not when they become violent!). I think the zoo is bigger than Singapore Zoo and we couldn't find our way out when we wanted to exit.

We also visited USS Midway Museum, Midway Museum was a aircraft carrier for the United State Navy during Vietnam War. Visiting this museum was interesting, firstly I have never boarded on aircraft carrier and secondly I get to see and touch the aircrafts that really served in war before.

Near Midway Museum is San Diego Port. San Diego Port has a "Unconditional Surrender", the kiss statue. [Quick Wiki: “Unconditional Surrender,” by artist Seward Johnson, is a famous photograph from World War II’s V-J Day celebration in Times Square. Nazis defeated, Japs down for the count! A nameless serviceman dipped an unknown nurse for a victory kiss.] Guess what, they are still kissng, LOL!

San Diego is a really nice place to visit. It has several attractions even though it is just a small city (as compare to Los Angeles). The city is really laid back and the people there are friendly and always helpful. However, most of the shops close at 5pm (close at 9pm during summer) and the shopping mall close before 9pm during winter. It was really bad as we have nothing to do after 9pm, so we walking up and down at downtown, luckily the restaurants operate until night. As compare to Los Angeles, San Diego is safer and it has less homeless folks.

We received a warning from a police in San Diego because we crossed the rail after we got down from tram at night. The policeman was talking to a young man when we walked pass him. We didn't pay attention to him as we didn't know that our behaviour earlier was seen. As we walked pass him, He stopped us and asked us did we just cross the rail in a really loud voice. We were shocked and quickly apologized to him. But he threaten to issue us a ticket, we explained to him that we are tourist and promised we won't do it again. Then, he started to smile and said he was just kidding. (=.=|||) He is nice anyway.

The Motel we stayed in San Diego was not expensive and free shuttle service is provided to downtown and airport. Even we pay only USD65+ for our room per night, but the room is equipped with fridge and coffee maker. The staff are friendly and they really tried to satisfy all our request. I had a enjoyable stay in San Diego. I love San Diego~~~~