What an exciting day! We may get to see blue whales today! We got up, had our regular breakfast - cereal and off we went to get on a boat. We got on the Hornblower to see if we could find some blue whales. It takes 45 minutes to get out of the port - we got to see the naval base - the second largest in the world (or so they say - they seem to think everything they have is either the largest or second largest in the world). There were jet planes, helicopters and even boats that train dolphins to protect their base or something like that. I think he said the dolphins would warn them if it saw a submarine… I’m not too sure. It’s cool whatever it does.
The ride there was pretty rough. I turned green pretty quickly. They say “stay outside and look at the horizon”. That’s fine and dandy but it’s fricken freezing out there! There is no way I can stay outside. I had a few close calls with a paper bag - but managed not to vomit. Once we got where the whales were, It was a bit calmer and warmer so I managed to stay outside and view these magnificent animals. OMG they are big!! Their blowholes are humongous! Did you know the heart of a blue whale is the size a VW beetle? How crazy is that?!
We saw we think about 10 different whales. One of which decided to give us a show and raise her fluke (tail). They say it’s a rare enough scene. They just tend to come up for air a few times, then come take a large breath, and slowly go down showing most of their body - including this tiny little dorsal fin! The people on the boat saw it’s fluke 3 times! I got to see it once because I had to “run” to the bathroom.
On the way back, it was much calmer for some reason. I sat in front of an open window for a long while and felt much better by the time we got to port. Phew!
I’m ecstatic!! I got to see the blue whale!! The largest mammal on earth!! It’s an endangered species and if we are not careful, we will make it disappear forever. That would be sad.
After our open sea adventure, we walked down to the Seaport Village. San Diego is filled with art. We saw the "kissing statue" and these humongous sort of people head - that can be found in about 10 countries in the world. We also so an airplane carrier - turned into a museum. That thing is BIG! 
The Seaport Village is a quaint little shopping area. It looks like a little Mexican village. They are all little shops that sell art, t-shirts, souvenirs… that kind of thing. We had lunch in a Mexican place. It was yummy! 
We also took photos with a humongous statue - Pearl Harbour kissing couple. All this fresh air is tiring. We headed back to our hotel to go for a swim. Those of you who know me know I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to cold water. The pool is not heated - so I did not get it. San Diego’s temperature is pretty much 22 degrees everyday all year round. At night it goes down to 18/19 degrees. To me, that just doesn't heat the water enough. Sorry! So instead I laid in the sun. Ahhhh! That felt so nice! Of course I had tons of sunscreen on.
After laying in the sun, we went to Balboa Park. Beautiful place! It’s filled with very old buildings that were turned into all sorts of things like museums, dance studios, art studios, restaurants, theatre… There are beautiful lily ponds, fountains (that are not working right now in an effort to save water), rose garden, cacti garden, the San Diego Zoo is also there. There’s a huge sports area - you name it it’s there. It’s just beautiful. Lots of weird looking trees, birds… |
| Neil Diamond rose for my sister. |
It was then time to go back to the room and pack our bags as tomorrow is our last day. Wish I could stay here much longer!
Other things worth mentioning:
- Did I already tell you that parking sucks in San Diego? No one has parking spaces. What’s up with that? You can look for a parking for 15 minutes and find nothing. Most of the street parking seems to be free though.
- Took 15 000 steps today
- Saw a few more hummingbirds, phoebes, egrets, cormorants, pelicans, seals, sea lions(which I can’t tell apart - one has outside ears one doesn’t -their flippers are also different).
- The weather here is one of the most constant weather in the world - always around 22 degrees.
- There are lots of hills here. Not like San Francisco - nothing is like San Fran - but lots of hills.
- Packing to go home is hard.
- Not everything fits in the suitcase - uh oh!
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