San Diego

A conference took me down to San Diego, the most south-westerly point of the Republic of California and the US .



Probably the only day that I'll ever be a Chargers fan: they won the Divisional Playoff as underdogs, the whole town went wild!

This is apparently where the film Top Gun was shot. Check out the outsize sailor on the left.


Saw plenty of sea lions out near the naval base.


This is, believe it or not, a Gray whale in Mexican water, just off the coast of Tijuana. This one was bout 40" long. Apparently they used to be called Devil Fish in the days of whaling as they were so aggressive but are now called The Friendly Whale as they're used to being left alone!



This is the train station.


California was mostly as I had imagined it would be: wide open streets, hot and sunny, good local wines, beaches and abundant Mexican food. I hadn't expected the excellent selection of local beers I'd never heard of before though. My Californian trivia: if California was an independent country it would rank 8th biggest economy in the world, smaller than Italy's but bigger than Canada's. Worried about the US recession yet?

Next stop Las Vegas, Nevada.

Dylan