San Diago - which of course in German means a whale's vagina

It's a fact. It's the greatest city in the history of mankind. Discovered by the Germans in 1904. They named it San Diego which of course in German means a whale's vagina."
I don't know what it means. I'll be honest, I don't thin anyone knows what it means anymore. Scholars maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago."
(Anchorman)

We're here in San Diego. Having left the furnace of Houston and discovering that America has different times zones (that explained the reason why the flight took more than 2hrs and not the 1hr I thought - perhaps we lost time) we've got to sunny California. We're staying in down town San Diego - just up from the Bay. We've also landed ourselves a supped-up Dodge Charger rental car so we're looking the part.

San Diego is a city with a dubious past behind its facade of laid back border town fashionista. The original area was home to one of the strongest Indian tribes and the white European settlers killed them off in order to secure the area for its mineral deposits. Then with Pearl Harbour, etc the US Navy established its largest base. Now, the area is home to the young naval and marine cadets who celebrate San Diego's rich history with regular visits to the libraries, museums and art galleries and (a little known fact) invented the frothy coffee.

But, its a great looking town. Harbour frontage, "old" and "new" town areas, lots of green open parks and a healthy mix of beautiful Californians and the Mexicana's. Referring to the latter as "gringo" is not, I now know, a term of endearment. Sadly, we didn't see any Mariachi bands and nobody looked like they walked out of a Western movie.

San Diego Wild Park - firstly, nowhere near San Diego - in fact almost 1hr drive from the city. In scorching temperatures and a belly suffering from too many Mexican meals we walked around the park and saw some birds, flowers, fat Americans. We then had to board a "bus train" to be taken around the Wilds of Africa. Expecting something similar to Jurassic Park themed styled extravaganza (herds of wildebeests, etc) we were taken passed a sorry looking giraffe and some rhino's looking very much like they were dreaming of their lost families. The American's were impressed (well it beats the Discovery Channel) and we were wondering where the "Wild of Africa" actually was. The real discovery was when the guide told us it was a "Not for Profit" zoo. Not sure if the feedback they were looking for as we exited the zoo should have been divert funds to African poachers in order to restock the zoo was correct.

Having left the South we feel we've come back into civilisation. More of that later. Today we popped over (on a bus) to Tijuana in Mexico. This place is unbelievable. By day it looks like a shanty town with lots of bars and shops selling utter crap (but all in red, gold and green). By night, its a den of excitement for young college kids and tough US Marines from San Diego Naval base. Sleazy as hell. We, of course, went to the cultural part - a museum of Mexican history (the only English speaking people there - that says a lot about the towns main attraction) and then had (more) Mexican food and tequila and then came back and spent an hour trying to get back into the US and took time to watch US Customs harass Mexican drivers.

We're going into the mountains tomorrow and then taking the boy's to a water park for toddlers.

Later...