Trip Report 20121129
We have been dealing
with some stressful issues at home, so I decided that a lunch
out somewhere was in order. So, we hopped into the M5 and
headed toward San Diego bay. It is odd that when you live
in an area you have a tendency to ignore its finer points.
This is a situation that I intend to resolve. With that in
mind, I headed toward the Fish Market Restaurant on the bay next
to the Midway Aircraft Carrier museum.
The photos below are
what we saw.
After we finished
lunch we headed toward the western end of San Diego bay for a
better view of things. From Harbor Island, we got a nice
view of the Coronado Bridge that spans San Diego bay and
connects Coronado with metro San Diego.
Bay-side view of the San Diego skyline and Coronado Bridge.
The harbor waterfront has the iconic tall ship "Star of India" which is a popular tourist attraction. They will rent out the Star for nighttime activities. We had a company Christmas party there many years ago. Traversing the narrow passageways and steep stairs after a couple of cocktails was "interesting".
From Harbor Island, we could see the starboard side of the Midway.
The Fish Market restaurant is right on the water. Lunch was good, excellent in fact, if a bit pricey. Note the cranes in the shipyards to the south of the Coronado Bridge.
The eastern end of
Harbor Island gave us another perspective on the downtown
skyline.
I have heard it said
that the skyline looks like a bunch of tools: chisels, star
drills and wedges.
Commercial pilots
hate flying into San Diego airport, AKA Lindbergh Field.
The reason is simple: the approach goes very close to the high
rise buildings of downtown and right over homes. The
Alaskan plane on final approach tells the story. As a
passenger, it is disconcerting to look out the window and see
into the windows of buildings and apartments.
From the eastern end of Harbor Island you can see the many live-aboard sailboats that are moored in the harbor.
The large tan
building is the San Diego County Administration building and
it has perhaps the best location of any building in
town. The upper floors have great views of the bay.
The building at the
left with the sloped roof has a hexagonal shape and looks like
an Allen wrench when seen from a plane. The "star drill"
building is relatively new. The small Spanish
Cathedral-looking building is actually the Santa Fe train
depot for Amtrak.
From Harbor Island we also could see across the bay to Coronado Island. Beyond, in the haze, are the hills of Tijuana, Mexico.
San Diego is a great
place and we have been lucky to be able to have lived here for
as long as we have. We frequently remind ourselves that we
live in a place that others visit to vacation. That pretty
much says it all.
If you visit San Diego,
you really have to hike, bike or drive around San Diego Bay; you
will not be disappointing.
Copyright Bill Caid 2012. All rights reserved.