San Diego, Tijuana.

Moving on from the Desert Springs area, we drive through some breathtaking scenery over the mountains towards San Diego.

Coachella Valley

San Diego has always been a favourite of mine, especially the Coronado area.

San Diego Harbour

After booking into our hotel we catch the tram downtown and wander around the Gaslamp Quarter.  Rather upset to find out that our favourite BBQ eatery burnt down a few years back.  The Kentucky BBQ Bar/Restaurant featured in the movie Top Gun – it hosted the scene where Tom Cruise and Kelly McGinnis sing and play at the piano.  Never mind at least the Gaslamp Quarter bars were still open.

Early in San Diegos’ history, the U.S. Navy staked its claim on Coronado, while entrepreneurial land dealers capitalized on the beautiful beaches and fine weather.  Today, Coronado is still true to its roots as a premiere resort destination, prized residential address and a patriotic Navy town.  The wide, tree-lined streets are laid out in neat, even rows.  The homes—many more than 100 years old—are cared for with meticulous pride. Coronado is the kind of neighbourhood where folks sit out on the porch and greet the neighbours by name as they pass, and children leave their bikes on the front lawn without fear of losing them.  Well so they would have us believe.

Old Town San Diego

Of paramount interest to visitors are Coronado's excellent ocean beaches, parks, and the palatial Hotel del Coronado, which has catered to countless celebrities and heads of state.

Hollywood has been making movies at The Del since 1901.  In 1958, The Del was the backdrop for the comedy classic "Some Like It Hot," starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

The Del

The resort has also seen a steady stream of celebrity visitors - from Charlie Chaplin and Humphrey Bogart to Brad Pitt, Madonna and more recently me and my good lady from Scotland.

Another of our other favourite places to visit in this neck of the woods is Tijuana, Mexico.  Tijuana became popular when legal drinking and gambling attracted U.S nationals, during Prohibition in the 1920s.  Over forty million people cross the border each year between Tijuana and San Ysidro, California, making it the busiest land-border crossing in the world.  Although tourism constitutes a large part of this movement, much is also business related.

Tijuana also enjoys notoriety among Americans and other nationals for its red-light district, which boasts a large number of legal street prostitutes as well as a selection of strip clubs - not the reason we visit Tijuana by the way!  The strip clubs are typically full-contact, meaning the dancers will allow patrons to fondle them. The dancers also sell their sexual services, which are pricier than those of the street prostitutes - so I've been told!

Within two months of our visit some 300 people have been murdered or killed in and around Tijuana, a vicious drug turf war has turned the area into a killing zone.  Must remove Tijuana from out places to visit list! She who must be obeyed will have to look elsewhere for handbags!

From San Diego, our plan was to head up the coast, back towards Los Angeles for our final few days prior to flying home.  Unfortunately we forgot that Californians like to take the weekends off!  Try as we could, we could not find any decent accommodation all the way up to Long Beach.  Not to be undone, we thought what about back to Indian Wells for a few days.

Oceanside

This time the drive took us through miles and miles of wind turbines and of course passed one of the largest outlet shopping centres in the US, unfortunately noticed by my passenger.

Our first night back in Indian Wells just happened to coincide with a re-union of something or other, perfect timing yet again for happy hour.

All too quickly though it was time to head back down to Los Angeles and our flight home.  Apart from shopping like Pretty Women in the huge outlet centre, we arrived safely back at LAX in plenty of time.