17 - Sunday, April 8, 1990 - North Shore News

TRAVEL

Sunny San Diego makes visitors welcome

SAN DIEGO — some people travel to see Shamu the whale,

and others are more interested in silicon chips.

There is a ‘‘parting of the ways”
at San Jose airport, which Ameri-
can Airlines serves twice a day
from Vancouver and uses as a hub
for connecting flights to all sorts
of places such as Palm Springs,
Los Angeles, Orange County (for
Disneyland), Santa Barbara, Long
Beach (and the Queen Mary),
Monterey and San Diego.

It's not a big airport, rather a
manageable place where you can
find a seat, a phone and a place to
stand at the bar and watch the
planes come and go.

The second leg of the flight was
without the assortment of bearded
and briefcased boffins, presumably
by then deep in Silicon Valley,
leaving not a few children excited
at the anticipation of Sea World
and the San Diego Zoo.

Then there were the Canadian
couples taking advantage of Maple
Leaf Days, a winter promotion in
which ‘San Diego hotels, restau-
rants and merchants give a break
to bearers of Canadian pesos.

Just be sure to have 2 good sup-
ply of American one-dollar bills
for riding the bus. A good-natured
but firm young driver could not
change my U.S. $20 note and
politely refused a Canadian $1 bill
plus 25 cents. A grizzled old war
veteran solved the problem by of-

. fering a money trade.

San Diego is like that. It’s an
easy-going, sunny place ‘where you
can rent a bike (and hitch it on the
back of a city bus) or stroll along
the waterfront, where girls say
“hello saifor!’’ and the whole town
turns around.

Go aboard the Euperte, the
world’s oldest three-masted
square-rigged iron sailing ship.
Built at the Isle of Man in 1863,

“Bastion City :
Cruise’”’

Wed., Thru Sun.
Reservations
1-800-663-7337
1-753-2852

mornings/evenings

THAT’S
HOW MANY

Euperte carried emigrants to New
Zealand before finding a good
home in San Diego, where she
makes time stand still between a

travel
talk

David Wishart

mighty fleet and the bustle of the
airport.

Excursion boats and the bay
ferry give a closer look at the
Navy, the shipyards and the Cor-
onado Bridge, and a_ better
perspective of the city skyline.

This day there was a Canadian
warship, the Bermuda Star
cruiseship about to resume Mexico
cruising with a freshly patched
hull, and a racy-looking vessel of
the "Ensenada Express fleet. This
company — slogan ‘Anchors
Ole!’? — does day-trips to Mexico
with five hours ashore.

Then there’s the San Diego
trolley, a sleek, super-clean street-
car that will take you right to the

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“Ss

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Come browse in one of the most fascinating stores in B.C.

border for $1.50. After that it’s a
short taxi ride to Tijuana.

But there’s nu shortage of things
to do in San Diego, America’s sev-
enth largest city. It would take a
very long weekend just to visit half
of the 23 museums and major
monuments,

Horton Plaza dominates the
downtown. This pastel building of
multi-levels, galleries and rooftop
restaurants, formerly a bleak site,
will bring joy to the heart of any
dedicated shopper, with stores
such as Nordstrom’s, Abercrombie
and Fitch and Eddie Bauer. For
the man who has everything there
is The Price of His Toys, whose
logo is a teddy bear with a
moustache.

Outside, however, the streets of
San Diego have more than their
share of the homeless, who con-
gregate in the square outside
Robinson’s by day and at night

disperse to huddle in doorways. A.

bumper sticker on a car poignantly
urges ‘‘Keep a child safe tonight"’
and gives the phone number of the
Hope for Homeless Children
society.

There is another contrast around
the corner, where McDonald’s is
hard to find because the golden
arches are oh-so-discreetly painted
onto the smoked-glass exterior.

But there’s nothing pretentious
about La Gran Tapa, a Spanish
restaurant run by a_ bullfighter
called Paul Dobson. I was led
here by Bill Hastings, a man who
knows his way around town,
recalling the advice of the late
newspaperman Richard Hughes, in
Hong Kong, who said that one
good contact (not two, which can
confuse the issue) is all you need in
a new place.

The plan for the evening is the
Celadon Thai restaurant, but first
La Gran Tapa for a true taste of

and
Function

299-0666

Europe, where customers stand goes on around.

with a glass of wine and a basket Someone asked what I was do-
of bread and snack of delicious ing in San Diego.

mussels while an indulgent hubbub “This,” I renlied.

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