Saturday 13 June

This day was the day of a really quite long drive to get myself back towards San Diego and ultimately LA. In total I drove 458.6 miles from one motel to the other, did about 8 hours of driving and the whole trip took a little over 12 hours. I stopped off in a couple of places to alleviate the boredom and near the end I also went shopping at an outlet village.

London Bridge

The first place I stopped off, about lunchtime, was at Lake Havasu City to see the famous London Bridge that had been relocated there. It was all a little bizzare seeing such an old bridge across a river in the middle of the desert. It was made even more by the speed boats and other displays of wealth going beneath it. The tourist attractions associated with the bridge were sadly dilapidated and run down just to add even more contrast. Definitely one of the weirdest places I've been.

Cottonwood Springs

Towards the end of the afternoon I stopped off in the southern portion of Joshua Tree at Cottonwood Springs - somewhere I had not visited on my main visit to the park. I went for a short walk but all in all I found it a little disappointing, especially as I'd already seen an oasis.

The Rest of the Day

I then contined my drive, stopping off to buy some Levi Jeans before arriving in Hemet. This was an hour or two outside of San Diego and was where I was staying the night so that I didn't have to do even more driving!

Sunday 14 June

After a bit of a lazy start I finally got to San Diego about lunchtime. I walked along the dockfront a bit to try and get some cash and once this was sorted went to the Maritime Museum.

San Diego Maritume Museum

The Maratime Museum consited of several ships the most interesting of which was an old Soviet Union Diesel Attack Submarine. Hvaing been on Vanguard class submarine I was amazed by how small this was - it seemed no bigger than many World war Two era submarines. It was certainly not somewhere I'd have wanted to spend an extended period of time. Also at the museum were an old San Francisco Bay ferry, an old sailing ship and a couple of other ships. Although not as interesting as the submarine I still enjoyed looking round them and the whole visit made a nice change from what I'd been doing previously.

Old Town

I next got on the tram to visit old town. By the time I got there the visitors centre had already closed but I still spent an hour or so looking around old town. It was all very touristy although the main area of original and reconstructed buildings was quite tactfully down. The most amazing thing here was definitely the old metal jail cell (not the original but a very similar one taken from somewhere else) - it must have been hell in there in hot summers.

The Rest of the Day

Afterwards I went and visited the gaslamp district. In my opinion this was trying too hard to be a tourist attraction and was filled mainly with expensive bars and the like. Disappointed I had a quick look round and headed to the youth hostel I was staying at.

Monday 15 June

The main plan for today was to drive leisurely up the coast to Los Angeles stopping at some of the beaches on the way. First however I wanted to visit Cabrillo National Monument - somewhere I'd tried to visit the previous day but couldn't as it shut at five due to the access road being closed at that time by the US Navy base it passed through.

Cabrillo National Monument

This was where, apparently, some explorer landed a long, long time but left no trace what so ever. The main reason I visited was due to the fact that it was meant to have good views across San Diego Bay and it certainly did - although due to haziness the photos aren't great. Also saw a couple of submarines entering and leaving the port. I'm glad I briefly stopped off although I don't think I could've spent much longer there.

Crystal Cove State Park

I then started my slow drive up the coast. The first part conisted of quite a lot of tourist areas and took quite a while as I was keeping as close to the coast as I could and there was quite a lot of traffic. After I reach Camp Pendleton - a marine base - I was forced to join the Interstate and once I oculd leave again I made my way towards Crystal Cove State Park. Despite the weather I sat on the beach for a while reading a book. Plans to go for a swim were dshed by the weather and the rough sea.

Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve

Towards the end of the day I stopped of at a nature reserve. There were many birds around but I think the most amazing thing was the oil wells in the background which looked quite out of place.