First up on the agenda was a visit with another blogger! We had made arrangements to meet with Tioga George. First, at his apartment to see his garden, and then for breakfast.
We arrived at George's apartment at about 8:20, and sure enough there was George sitting outside the lobby waiting for us. Hugs all around, and then it was up to the apartment. He's got a nice little bachelor studio apartment in a seniors building and with a balcony that he's turned into a flower garden.
George, with his flower garden.
For those of you who don't know, George operated a blog that became very popular as it detailed his travels throughout North America with his motorhome which he called Ms. Tioga. They were always out "searching for adventure", and they spent a lot of time in Mexico. We eventually met George in 2013 at Hacienda Contreras and we hit it off. George has since retired from the RV lifestyle (he's going to be 79 this year) but continues to update his blog once a week or so. One of the reasons we wanted to visit San Diego was to see George again.
George had suggested that we go to D.Z. Akins, a popular Jewish deli restaurant near his apartment. We arrived there at 9:00am, and good thing we did because it got really busy by the time we left almost two hours later. Waiting for us was Stan, Colleen, and John and Janice!
My breakfast!
Tony's breakfast!
We were stuffed. Some of us couldn't finish our plates of food. I did notice that the people who had been there before ordered smaller stuff. They knew the servings were large! But on the bright side, we wouldn't need anything more than a snack for lunch.
Janice, Ruth, George, Kevin, Helen, Tony.
We all had a wonderful visit with George and hope that we get to do it again some day. Thanks for taking the time to visit with us George!
We parted ways, and Ruth, Tony, Helen, and I decided to head down to the waterfront to see the USS Midway, the big aircraft carrier that is now a museum ship.
Close to downtown San Diego.
Lots of interesting ships at San Diego waterfront.
And there it is, the USS Midway.
Funny, it doesn't look that big from behind!
Amazing that it was built in 1945. Still looks quite modern.
You'll notice in the pictures above that the sky had cleared up and it turned into a beautiful day. Based on that, we decided not to spend the $20 USD ($26 CAD) each to tour the ship. There's enough to see in the area outdoors around here.
A nice day for sailing!
Sailor arriving home.
Tony and Kevin. Too funny.
The USS Midway.
We decided to drive over to Coronado Island, which is not really an island, it's a kind of a peninsula. Anyhow, it offers nice views looking back across the bay to San Diego, plus they have bicycle rentals.
San Diego, taken from Coronado Island.
We rented one of those "surrey" bicycle things with four wheels and two benches. All four people have to pedal! We rented it for an hour, but it's quite a lot of work on the legs and we returned it after about 45 minutes. There was a ten minute grace period and when we brought it back the guy only charged us for the half hour rate. Nice! So that was $20 USD ($26 CAD), but split between the four of us it was a pretty cheap 45 minutes of fun.
I had videotaped the whole ride and it was pretty funny. But I'm learning that the GoPro videos are large files (although the quality is excellent!) and I haven't learned how to reduce them in size, if that's even possible. So because we're still on cellular internet, we can't upload even a couple of minutes of video in a file that size without using all our internet up!
The pineapple freighter!
The beautiful Coronado Hotel, built in 1888.
Nice sand castle!
Back to Stan and Colleen's where Ruth made a bunch of homemade beef enchilladas for everyone for dinner. Great meal (again!) and we sure are eating well.
But, today it's time to move on. Thanks for having us Stan and Colleen! We're heading out for breakfast (again!) and then up the coast to O'Neill Regional Park where we'll be for the next four nights until Helen and Tony head back to England later this week.
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Aah, we were right across the bay from you two yesterday, in the Little Italy area of San Diego. It did turn out to be a spectacular day, and I'm so glad you all were able to enjoy a full day of San Diego sun and waterfront sun. San Diego is a California jewel for sure. :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, it ended up being a beautiful day and we so enjoyed the sights of San Diego. We will have to return though because there is just too much to see and we never got any hikes in at all. Hope you had a great day with your Grandbaby and sorry that we weren't able to meet up yesterday at the Shake Shack. We had another delicious meal there. :-)
DeleteI have followed George for years, so nice that you met up with him again. We looked the aircraft carrier too, but did not want to spend the money. We had already toured one in Corpus Christi Texas.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how the time flies with you company there.
We had a wonderful morning with George and catching up on his latest adventures and seeing his pretty flower garden.
DeleteWe have never been on an aircraft carrier and it is something that we have always wanted to do but it was too nice of a day to waste it on being indoors, so I guess that is something that we will have to do another time.
Kevin, Thanks for the memories, We honeymooned at the Coronado Hotel in 1987.
ReplyDeleteSo glad that we could rekindle some wonderful memories for you! It must have been an amazing treat to have been able to have stayed there, it is such a beautiful old building. :-)
DeleteI too have followed George for years. Very cool that you were able to meet up. I was saddened when he had his mishap with Ms. Tioga, but time does march on. He posts from time to time, but it was good to see a picture of him. He and his garden both look great.
ReplyDeleteIt was fun meeting up with George again and we had a lovely BIG breakfast with him and all our friends. As you say time does march on and George knew his limits and had the intelligence to know when it was time to give up RVing. We do miss his travel in Miss Tioga though!
DeleteSan Diego is stunning!
ReplyDeleteYes, it certainly is!
DeleteWasn't it the movie Some Like It Hot that was filmed at the Coronado Hotel? Too bad you didn't have more time in San Diego, there is so much to see and do there!
ReplyDeleteI guess we will now have to watch that movie! We really enjoyed San Diego and can definitely see us going back there again and seeing more of it's sights and get some good hiking in.
DeleteI had a feeling you were going to visit George....good that you did. They don't make hotels like they use to...I love old historic hotels.
ReplyDeleteWe couldn't go to San Diego and not visit with George! :-)
DeleteYou are correct, they definitely don't make hotels like they used to. The Coronado Hotel is certainly a beautiful hotel with lots of character.
Always a pleasure to see my town thru a visitor's lens and words. You did a Chamber of Commerce review of some of the highlights. DZ Akins is for sure a landmark, but my blood pressure rises just thinking of it :) Glad George was able to introduce you to it, gotta try Filippi's next visit ... if your cholesterol can handle it ...
ReplyDeleteI hope we did San Diego proud with our quick visit. We can see ourselves coming back here again one day for a longer visit.
DeleteWe will try to remember Filippi's for our next visit, thanks!
Wow, this looks familiar! Jimmy and I were just in San Diego last month, saw the same sights. Only we took an enjoyable harbor cruise on the Adventure Hornblower, and a week or so later, it crashed into the dock as it was coming in! (not good) Like San Diego!
ReplyDeleteThis afternoon, we downloaded all our GoPro videos from our March trip, and that's all we've done so far. Jimmy took a whole lot of video! Altho we have plenty of internet, it takes a lot of time to edit, etc., so ... no hurries!
Lucky you weren't on the cruise, then! I wonder if the captain is still employed?!
DeleteI am sure that Kevin will be busy with editing our videos as well once we get back home with a little more time and a bit more internet freedom.
Great that you got to meet up with George yet again. Love the Coronado Hotel and area. Helen and Tony are running out of time...enjoy your last days.
ReplyDeleteWe had a lovely visit with him and is was nice to see his new home and garden that he has been working on.
DeleteYes, their time has flown by, we can't believe that it is soon time for them to head back home. Hoping to see them again next year though.
You can make the videos 'smaller' by using a video conversion program such as the very good and free Handbrake program. It will allow you to convert the resolution (and if necessary the file type) of the videos to lower resolutions and thus smaller files. But depending on the amount of time of the video and the resolution you choose (720p, 640x480) the files can still end up being quite large for uploading via a cell connection... Videos will use a lot of you allowed data plan.
ReplyDeleteIt's great you got to visit with George. He has been a hero of sorts of mine for quite a while now.
Thanks for the heads up on the free Handbrake program. Kevin will have a look at that when we have have more time and more internet but it just may be want we need.
DeleteHe has also been a sort of hero to us as well! George was the pioneer of blogging and boondocking in our eyes.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane with your visit with Tioga George. His blog got many of us started about thinking of doing the RV life.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it and we agree that his blog got many of us on the road and doing in it an inexpensive way.
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