San Diego – Day One: Trolley Tour Then USS Midway

City Trolley Tour

I booked a walking tour for tomorrow last night – I could only book in the current month – but have yet to receive an email confirmation as stated. So after breakfast I call and leave a message explaining the problem. I eventually get an email around noon.

I leave the hotel and walk around the corner to the San Diego Trolley Tours bus stop F. It’s a hop-on, hop-off tour similar to those I’ve used on previous trips. I’ve booked to use it tomorrow as well but at $93 for two days it is very expensive. I’m sure these buses used to be about half that price a few years ago.

I take the tour almost all the way around its San Diego route. Driving past the Convention Center, I then cross the Coronado Bridge to Coronado Island, back across to journey through Balboa Park, past Little Italy and down to North San Diego Bay.

The first part of my trolley tour ends when I alight at Seaport Village. I get a hot dog for lunch there around 12.30 pm. It is then a short walk back up N Harbor Drive to the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier that is now a museum.

USS Midway

What an “exhibit” it is. I enter the ship on the Hangar Deck but quickly walk up to the Flight Deck. Which is absolutely huge! I firstly enter the ‘Island’ that contains Flight Control and the Navigation Control, otherwise known as the Bridge. There are docents who guide a group of visitors around, giving a talk as we walk. After leaving the Island I walk up and down the Flight Deck, inspecting the numerous aircraft and helicopters on display. Each has an info card that explains about each one. Then it’s down onto the Hangar Deck again for a more thorough inspection, but truth be told there’s not much to see on there. I then go further down below to see cabins, mess halls, the engine room and more – the areas that made the ship function.

The USS Midway is absolutely fascinating. I spent three hours on board, fully engrossed, seeing, reading info boards and listening to docents at various stops.

It is definitely worth a visit. Just make sure you leave enough time to do it justice.

It’s certainly not a quick ‘one hour’ attraction but it is definitely an excellent one and a great ‘museum’. Tickets can be bought online in advance and I think give immediate entry in the event there might be a line to get onboard.

Horton Grand Hotel

After leaving the ship, there is another trolley stop a couple of hundred yards up the road that I walk to. A bus turns up quickly and I’m back at the hotel by 4.30 pm. On check-in I was given two drinks vouchers to redeem at the hotel bar. I go back down at 5.15 pm. It’s the usual deal, just domestic and ‘well’ drinks. I have a gin and tonic whilst doing some diary. Most pleasant!

I’d stopped in a town yesterday to eat lunch and took advantage of a grocery store’s rest rooms. Passing back out there was a rack full of leaflets so I picked up a few about San Diego. On re-checking my selected bar for tonight, I decided now that I wasn’t all that impressed by the food on offer.

One of the leaflets was for the Gaslamp BBQ, a bar just down the street. The menu looked much better there and I fancied BBQ for my last dinner meal of the trip. So it’s a change of plan.

Gaslamp BBQ for Dinner

Horton Grand Hotel

I leave at 7.45 pm. On arrival it’s reasonably busy inside. There are just two seats free at the bar, next to each other. I choose the left hand one, next to Albert. Travis is our barman. For my last supper I choose the ribs and when they arrive they are excellent. I can’t remember the beer I drank but I wouldn’t have done so if it was crap. Travis was very helpful though in helping me make said selection.

I can’t remember exactly how Albert and I got talking but he knew Travis and we all just started chatting. It was mostly me and Albert about loads of stuff as Travis tended to his bar duties. We even veered on to dangerous topics like politics and even abortion at one point.

Albert’s heritage entered the conversation. He raised it, so I asked what it is. “I am a person of colour” he stated. His words, not mine. He then listed his ethnic background starting with Filipino, Black and Asian Indian but at White he lost me because he went on to state about four or five other ethnicities in his family background. Physically he looks of the  South Asia sub-continent such as India or Pakistan. But I’m not arguing with this “person of colour,” he just seems a really nice guy who’s good to talk to.

“Hide my head, I want to drown my sorrow” *

In fact he’s too nice. At one point he got all morose about his life. I’d estimate him as being around his late ‘20s or early ‘30s. He’s always wanted to be in the movie industry but on the production side, writing and producing. His degree is in that field. But as he sees it, he’s never got or had a break to progress anywhere.

The ‘system’ as he calls it had, over time, ground him down to the extent that he gave up his dream a few years ago. He’s been doing odd jobs since, including working behind a bar. So another conversation he started was about, you’ll never guess, malt and blended whiskies!

Anyway he’s so down about ‘his life’ now that he’s leaving San Diego in a few weeks to go and live in the middle of Texas. I ask him what’s there to prompt such a move to which he replies, “Nothing.”

On hearing this Travis, who’d found some quiet down time and was listening in, throws a fit. Well, not really, but within the bounds of their obvious friendship Travis tells Albert he’s “being an arse-hole” and “need(s) to get your shit together” and do something positive. I also chip in, raising my voice a little and tell Albert he’s “crazy to do that” and he “needs to focus and drive himself on” to his dream job.

Earlier Albert had been quizzing me about why I was in San Diego, what it was that “drove me”, why I did what I did. When I explained my philosophy, he then commented that “from the way you speak, the general way you talk about what you do now, I can see it’s real. And when I ask you explicitly, that ties in with what you say in a general sense.” Albert then says to me, “I get it man, I admire you.”

“Do what you gotta do” **

So when Albert came over all down and out, Travis and I were saying to him in a nice way to ‘pull your finger out.’ I then realised I was probably getting a bit agitated with Albert so I calmed down, as did Travis. We both then say to him that we like him and don’t want an argument, but he really just needs to drive himself on to succeed.

Travis then reveals to us that he’s bartending now purely as a means to pay his bills. He tells Albert he’s had numerous businesses start and fail. He’s only here tonight because he needs the money but that he’s working to get a new start-up going in the background. “You just gotta do it, man” he tells Albert.

I thought Travis had a bit more to him than the average barman. I hope he learns from his mistakes and succeeds with his future plans. Just after Travis’ explanation to Albert, the latter’s phone rings. A phone call ensues in which it is obvious Albert is getting a right old bollocking from whoever called him. The call ends and he tells us that he’d arranged to have dinner with a friend and that he wasn’t there because he was having a great time in the Gaslamp BBQ with me and Travis. His friend is extremely angry that Albert has not turned up. As you would be.

I go to the rest room to wash my hands after my rib dinner. As I get back to my bar seat I see the back of Albert walking out of the bar. He didn’t even say goodbye. He must be in some deep shit with his friend. I hope it turned out OK.

It’s the Spanish Inquisition

Time passes and another beer is poured by Travis. Then the bar bursts into life. Suddenly from being almost empty after the first wave of diners left, the place is buzzing. Three young ladies in their mid-20s sit down to my right, one right next to me. She’s Latino looking, the middle one is black and the furthest one is a spitting image of Paris Hilton, straight pure blonde hair and extremely good looking. They are all very smartly dressed. To my left a group of very loud white men are high-fiving and cracking jokes.

I ask Travis for my check. Within seconds, the Latino lady next to me says “What’s your name?” So I reply. She follows up with “Are you British?” I say yes but then think this is an unusual thing to say: most Americans use the phrase “UK”. My suspicions are raised a little.

“What are you doing here?” she asks. On vacation I reply and I ask what she’s doing here. She then introduces her friends – whose names I forget – but she doesn’t answer my question. Then it’s “How long are you in town for?” I say I’m leaving tomorrow. Her line of questioning is becoming somewhat uncomfortable for my taste. Straight away she asks, “What hotel are you staying in?” “One down the street,” I reply. Uh-oh. She then asks me, “How many beers have you had?” Now why are you interested in that I wonder? To try and find out if I’m drunk or not, I suspect. “Oh just one” I say, lying through my teeth.

She doesn’t stop. For the second time, “How long are you in town for?” Now who’s the drunk one or didn’t listen a minute ago? She did appear slightly drunk because she had a glass on the bar with some cocktail in it but also a shot glass with liquor. When drinking the shot, she fumbled and dribbled some, which she wiped off her chin. She then abruptly gets up and walks off somewhere.

“If you’re looking for trouble” ***

I go to the rest room but when I return Latino is still nowhere to be seen. I sit back down and review the check Travis has left for me. ‘Paris Hilton’ then gets up and comes to stand right beside me. She bends down towards me and whispers in my ear: “You should buy her a drink, she likes you.” Time to leave…

Paris goes back to her bar stool. I stand up, get my wallet out and count out the dollar bills I need to pay. Travis is now out in the general bar area clearing up empty glasses. There was certainly no way I was leaving the $61 I needed to pay sitting on the bar with the Three Amigos around.

I go and find Travis. “Hey” he says. I tell him: “You need to keep an eye on those three,” gesturing towards the ladies. “Here’s your cash”, also handing him his copy of the check. “Great to meet you, safe travels,” he says. “Thanks a lot” I reply. “But you really do need to keep a watch on them.” “Will do,” Travis replies.

I still don’t know if the Three Amigos were scam artists out to rip-off some drunk man in a bar, or whether they were just plain old hookers. Frankly I don’t care. I’ve never been ‘interrogated’ like that in nearly 40 years of visiting bars in the USA. It’s also very unusual to see three young ladies sitting at a bar in the first place (at tables maybe, not the bar itself). But I’d defy anyone not to realise that something was amiss given Latino’s questions, unless of course you really were blotto. All the more so when an attractive lady in her mid-20s hits on a bloke around twice her age and her friend says “she really likes you” after 5 minutes of meeting me. Of course she likes me… 😉

“Things can only get better” ****

I made some mistakes. I left my phone on the bar when I went to the rest room the second time just before leaving. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I also left my beer uncovered on the bar where it could have been spiked. Although I was ‘beered out’ by then and I actually left some beer in the glass when I left as I didn’t want anymore. But I left myself vulnerable and open to attack. Need to (re-) learn some lessons.

The fact that I wasn’t drunk helped me avoid whatever the Three Amigos were up to. Don’t even attempt to suggest that Latino’s questions were innocent. It is a sad fact that I still see too many very drunk men sitting at bars in the USA in 2024 and continuing to be served alcohol by incompetent bar staff when they should be thrown out onto the street. I’d seen this on at least three occasions this trip. So the prey is there for devious people to try and take advantage.

I walk back to the hotel keeping a close watch on the sidewalk behind me to make sure the ladies aren’t planning another line of attack and following me. They don’t. Back in my room I do a bit more diary then go to bed.

It’s been a bit of a day really. Trolley around San Diego to see the sights; the USS Midway in all its glory; good chat (for the most part) with Albert and Travis and closing off with being hit on by three young ladies. Not many folks can say that’s what happened to them in one day. Goodnight.

* Mad World by Tears For Fears

** Do What You Gotta Do by Nina Simone

*** Trouble by Elvis Presley

**** Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream