mark his words: San Diego and American tradition

After the customary and enjoyable American later than usual check-out of 11:00am, we set off on the longest drive we had encountered thus far, a 326 mile (525km) leg from Vegas to the supposed sunny south and San Diego. After trekking back over much of the same interstate we had traversed a few days earlier, we picked up lunch in the very Greek and slightly tacky Mad Greek Restaurant that promotes itself as having the best Gyros in all of the USA. Good? Yes. Best? We'll see.

There was a distinct and welcome change in the landscape as we got closer to San Diego, as the dry desert plains were suddenly hilly outcrops, then green mountains further toward the coast. Expecting to arrive in a warm, sunny climate, we were slighty disappointed to find the weather cool and slightly overcast. Locally, it turns out this weather is known as Grey May/June Gloom and is apparently much worse this year than years gone by.

Scientific weather lessons complete, we ended up at our hostel on the beach in the very relaxed and college student filled Mission Beach. And on the beach we were, seperated from the sand by only a pathway. The beach, much like San Diego as a whole, had a much more relaxed, toned down and less crowded feel to it than Venice Beach and Los Angeles, which made for a much more relaxed stay.

With only a couple of days to spend in San Diego, and the next day being taken up by 4th of July Celebrations, we didn't have a lot of time to see as much of the city as we'd have liked. With that in mind, we decided to hit up the world famous San Diego Zoo which, unlike most things in America that claim the title 'world famous', is probably notable enough actually use the term. Five hours and many miles of walking later, we had seen as much of the Zoo as we could manage, and opted to walk through the nearby Balboa Park, which took me back to Barcelona with its heavily spanish influenced architecture and the first glimpses of real sunlight for the day.

We were lucky enough to be in town for the end of the San Diego County Fair, and upon heading up to the Del Mar Fairgrounds we were once more able to experience a favourite American past-time. Not too dissimilar to the Royal Shows back home, except for maybe the pig-racing and rodeos, the fair provided us with a real insight into guilty pleasure food. Chocolate covered bacon, and deep fried everything from butter to vegetables to cheeseburgers, and turkey legs wrapped in bacon were some of the notable meals on offer.

Our Americana extravaganza was, very surprisingly, toned down the following day on what we though would be the most stereotypical American Day. Beer pong, burgers, hot dogs and beach parties provided with us with ample entertainment and a great day, but perhaps being in the vicinity of a considerable amount of other tourists in a more laid back place such as San Diego resulted in a much more sheltered Independence Day.

From here, we're heading north to San Francisco through the Big Sur, including a night in San Luis Obispo. It feels like we've seen so much already, but less than two weeks into our 12 weeks in the US, there's still so much more ahead.