We Love San Diego!!
Arrived at about 4pm and just chillaxed for the rest of the day. We deserve a rest after successfully driving through LA, the part we had been dreading most. They had hammocks, table tennis and plenty of staff made brochures on what best to do in San Diego. We wanted to go to Mexico for the day but were advised against it by numerous people, as we risk not getting back into America. So that put that idea out the window. The evening we spent at Ocean beach, a 10 minute drive down the road, to watch the beautiful sunset. I love the place already.

The next morning started very pleasantly; awakened by red and green parrots sitting chirping outside our window, how bizarre. Having got some vouchers from the hostel, (o I love my vouchers Suzanne) we headed to San Diego zoo. This I was very excited about and it didn't disappoint. It was huge!! We spent 5 or 6 hours there, and probably could have spent longer but it was absolutely roasting!! Like 100 degrees, 37 for us, and not one bit of wind. We were literally dripping sweat. We loved the elephants, they put on a good show, splashing about in the pond and soaking each other. We saw one of them getting his feet cleaned in cider or apple vinegar maybe, an we were right up close to it; they truly are huge animals. The rest of the zoo was great too, saw a clouded leopard being walked like a dog right past us to its next den. There are soo many you got talk about at the zoo, but I'll not bore you all with that. Let's just say, our last stop was the reptiles; and all the poisonous snakes seem to live in Australia; if we weren't already freaked out by this prospect, we re now! Having got briefly lost on our way to the zoo, we got completely and utterly lost on the way back. It was only like 5 miles from the hostel, how hard could that be?! Well as it happened, I think we took three wrong turns in total, the last of which nearly resulted in us crashing! (Kirstie in the wrong lane, and the driver beside her, deciding to go into the same lane at the same time= pull in, very deep breaths, and saying, I'M NOT DRIVING ANYMORE!! Needless to say I didn't tell my parents about this while I still had another 1,500 miles to drive.) By the time we got home, I needed a very large drink. Unfortunately, the hostel, HI Point Loma don't allow you to drink so Kenny had to pour the wine into his water bottle for us to drink, yummy.

So I'd heard that Mission beach was a good one to go to, for what reason I'm not exactly sure, so after Kenny made us pancake breakfast, we got into the car and went. Unfortunately, the again was a Saturday and weekends don't fair well with any of re good stuff to do. We drive round for about 45minutes trying to find a parking space. So we get to the beach around lunchtime and get stuck into our 89cent cantaloupe melon; was good! Relaxing day, playing bat and ball, given to us kindly but Sarah we'd met in the hostel. Some more sunbathing then decided to surf some waves, with our bodies. It was soo much fun! With sorrow, I had to saw goodbye to my favourite faithful sunglasses, that were lost to the ocean. They couldn't have gone in a better way or a better place, tho I didn't accept they were gone and walked the beach for half an hour hoping they'd wash up, but no such luck. So after another hour sunbathing, I decide to go for a little walk along the shops on the boardwalk. Funnily enough, all the clothing and towels they sell say 'Pacific beach' so I ask the silly question, 'which beach are we on?' Turns out we weren't on Mission beach at all lol silly me. O well, a great wee day out.

The next day, on recommendation of other hostel guests and having been given the equipment, we head to La Jolla for some snorkelling. Well yet another driving around for half an hour trying to find parking, but this time we checked to make sure we were in the right place. So we get to the beach and the first thing we notice, these waves are HUGE! And they are crashing straight into shore, where are we supposed to snorkel? In the meantime, we see a crowd of people looking out to sea... It's a pod of dolphins!! Just jumping through the water, amazing! California has the best wildlife! So we reach the cove for snorkelling, but there's some swimming competition on and it's packed with people. So we got off some body surfing, and the waves were just crazy. I have never been in ones soo rough; lifted up and slapped back down. Three times I was taken off my feet on the beach; smack! Once ending up with a bloody nose, great fun tho. Needless to say, we didn't dray there too long an we didn't get to do any snorkelling. So we went to Ocean beach and spent the rest of the afternoon there. And stayed to watch another beautiful orange sun sink on the horizon.

The original plans were to stay here for four nights, but we loved it so much we stayed for an extra night. We turned into sun loving beach bums who just wanted a break from sightseeing. So when asked what we did in SanDiego, all we can say is the zoo and the beach. But that's all we wanted to do. It was great. Spent the evening getting caught up on washing, and chatting with mum and dad on Skype