In San Diego to go on a cruise

We've spent the last two days in San Diego doing the same as we have done almost every day for the past 3 weeks ... walking. But the reason for us coming to the USA has now arrived ... we board Celebrity Infinity later this morning to embark on our 14-day cruise to the other side of America, via the Panama Canal. In around 11 hours, we will be sailing out of San Diego Bay towards the setting sun ... then veering left and heading for Mexico and much warmer weather.

It's Easter Sunday here in the USA, the only day on which they actually celebrate Easter ... Good Friday was just another working day. It all seems a bit weird to us Aussies who enjoy a 4-day weekend over Easter.

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We have enjoyed our time in San Diego. It's a somewhat unusual city as the downtown area seems to be more a place for living than for business. There are residential buildings, both high rise and low rise, everywhere, with lots of new ones also being built. Indeed, it seems that there are more high-rise apartment and hotel buildings than there are office blocks. The downtown area also doesn't seem to have the same amount of traffic and congestion as other cities, and this probably enhances its residential appeal. The city appears to be going through a major urban renewal phase ... very few of the buildings along the waterfront area, for example, are more than about 10 years old, and I was surprised at how much vacant land there is around the city that is just being used as parking lots ... it seems that at some point, all the older buildings were knocked down in readiness for future residential/commercial development that is only part of the way to fruition.

The downside of San Diego, which is probably strikes us moreso having just come from a place like San Francisco, is that much like many "new" towns, the city seems to have not yet developed a sense of its own character or identity. I thought I might have seen something of what makes San Diego unique in the much vaunted Gaslamp Quarter, but all I saw was a lot of restaurants and bars ... there was nothing special about the place that gave me a sense of being in San Diego. Hopefully, this will come in time. That said, I like downtown San Diego and it appeals as a great place to live if ever I was to move to Southern California ... but it would compete with Coronado Island, which probably wins the prize as the place in San Diego that I would most like to come back to see more of. I loved its seaside village atmosphere.

I'm not sure how regular I will be able to post or upload photos to my Picasa album from here on ... I've been spoilt with unlimited high speed broadband internet access thus far in all our hotels/resorts. Things will change on the ship ... I've been told I can get wi-fi but that it is slow and expensive, so uploading pictures may be a no-no ... time will tell.

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Cheers until next time, somewhere on the high seas ...