Honestly, I've only been to California once, but I'd have to say that San Diego is one of the best places to visit. I fell in love with California when I visited in November of 2004. Being from Michigan anywhere warm is great but California is better. I had been to Florida several times with family but never had a reason to go to California other than the fact I wanted to go.
My Mother had just entered a nursing home and I was dwelling on enjoying my life rather than worrying about everything. My brothers seemed liked strangers, my children were with their Father half of the time. I knew with the holidays arriving I didn't want to be alone for Thanksgiving, at least not at home.
I began planning a flight to California for my Thanksgiving vacation. My teenage daughter had a job at the time and loved to travel too. She begged me, "Can I go?" I knew my son had to be with his Father and my other daughter disliked traveling. I told her, "okay, but it's not fair to your sister and brother. If you purchase the airplane ticket for yourself then I'll pay for everything else and that should make your brother and sister understand."
She agreed happily and my two other children were absolutely fine with my decision. We began planning the trip and purchased the airline tickets in advance. We booked a room at Humphrey's Half Moon Inn located on Island Drive in San Diego. We were due to arrive on Thanksgiving day.
The flight went well and I spoke to a lady on the plane about our destination. I told her we were going to visit Tijuana too. She advised against it, in fact everyone told me it was dangerous and not to visit. We arrived on Thanksgiving day as planned but in all of the excitement of planning the trip I neglected to think about restaurants being closed that day.
I told my daughter, "I don't know where we are going to eat, everything will be closed." We arrived hungry and it was time to eat about 1pm. I asked the clerk at the Inn if she knew of any place that we could eat or could we get room service. She informed us that the restaurant at the hotel was serving a special meal right now.
My daughter and I checked in and tossed our luggage in our room. We freshened up briefly and walked down to the restaurant. It was a very high class restaurant and we felt under dressed. After being seated we were offered champagne. The waiter explained the buffet was all they were serving and to help ourselves. With not being told a price I began to imagine the check would be around $200 after looking at the spread.
We walked in to find every possible food imaginable and a chef at every table. There was everything you could want from breakfast to lunch. They had waffles, pancakes, sausage, bacon, salads, salmon, steak, turkey, chocolate fountains and much much more. Every time I would finish what was on my plate the waiter was right there to grab it and my fork, replacing the fork immediately. It was amazing!
My daughter knew what I would be thinking, she said, "Mom, how much do you think all of this is going to cost?" I told her, "It doesn't matter if it's a couple hundred dollars or more, this is our Thanksgiving dinner and it's fabulous. Let's just enjoy it."
When they brought us the check I was relieved to see that our dinners including our drinks were only $35 each. I would love to go back again if for that same feast and take the entire family if I knew they would be serving the same food. I've eaten at a lot of fancy places and had a lot of great meals but this was the most memorable meal I've ever eaten and enjoyed so very much.
When we returned to our room we looked through the local literature and I was surprised to learn all that you can do in this town. If you wanted to surf it was there, skiing just a short drive to the mountains, Disneyland, Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, Mexico just a ride on the trolley away, Hollywood was a two hour train ride away, so much to see and so little time. We fell asleep early since our body clocks were still running on Michigan time. We had made our plans for the next few days and knew exactly what we would be doing.
The next morning we woke up early, it was still dark outside. I decided maybe I belong in California because I have a hard time waking up back in Michigan. After I got dressed the sun had risen and I went for a walk on the beach as my daughter got ready to go to breakfast.
I was wearing shorts and a tank top while others were dressed in jackets. I even saw one lady wearing a parka. She looked at me like I was insane. An Asian woman robed in black was on the beach performing some kind of religious ceremony. I watched her from a distance.
After breakfast we went to catch the bus to the trolley. We had decided to go to Tijuana this day. As we waited at the bus stop a taxi pulled up and I told him that we were trying to save money so we'd just take the bus. He told us he'd only charge what the bus charges and he did. He also offered a bit of advice. He told us we could negotiate with the cabs in this town, he said "never pay full fare."
As we rode the trolley to Tijuana we met several interesting people. They all were nice enough to give us advice like "take your own toilet paper", "don't drink the water", and other very useful pieces of information. At the advice of the ladies we went into the McDonald's bathroom and grabbed some toilet paper to carry along in our purses. We then walked across the border down this dirt path between a bunch of tin walls.
I guess I expected a big welcome sign or something but there was just a man sitting there watching people coming in. He didn't check our ID or ask why we were there. We just walked right in. We then grabbed a cab to the shopping area. Every block looked the same with the same donkey to be photographed with. Each block had a drug store and every block had the same wrestler masks for sale.
There was a nudie bar on each block and a man yelling "free margaritas!" Mind you this was about 9am. One of the men stopped me and my daughter to see if we wanted to come in and "show our stuff". We respectfully declined.
After making several purchases and negotiations we went to a little Mexican restaurant and ate while we were serenaded by the mariachi band. It was a perfect day. As we entered back into the United States customs asked what we had purchased and I explained some purses, masks, and a cowhide. To which the customs official laughed at me and said "okay go on have a good day".
We made our way back to the Inn and watched the movie Anchorman which happened to be on. We thought it was cool that the Hotel del Coronado was in the movie and it was just across the water from us.
The next day we spent exploring the city. We walked for hours, shopped for hours, and just enjoyed all of the sites, sounds and smells. We were given several free taxi rides and even a free bus ride. The transportation god was smiling on us. We ate dinner at the mall and took a taxi ride back to our hotel.
On the way back we got to see some people on motorcycles performing stunts on the highway. They weren't shooting a movie just doing stunts. I'm sure if the police had been around they would have pulled them over. One man stood up on his motorcycle and put his arms out to the sides. It was really impressive and exciting.
Our final day we decided to take the train to Hollywood. The ride was about two hours long and travels mostly along the beach were you can see people surfing and other sites. We hopped in a cab and asked him to take us to the sidewalk with the stars. We didn't realize this is a bad part of town. We walked toward the Chinese theater. There was much to see.
We walked into a shop that sold souveniers from movie sets. They had props from the movie "Cat In A Hat" with Mike Myers and "Resident Evil" at that time. We found a shirt that Drew Barrymore had worn in the movie "Duplex" and purchased it.
Then a man came in and said they were selling tickets for tours of the stars homes, the bus ride, at a discount. We soon found out why. It was foggy and you couldn't see much. Even the homes you could see were mostly fences and shrubs. They drove us down Rodeo Drive and mentioned the points of interest.
We were sad to leave and as we flew back into Michigan the clouds were still there. Our trip to California was very memorable and exciting. I intend to go back again soon but would like to take the entire family.