We have yet another adventure to share with you, but first a review of one spectacular day in San Diego.
Our day started out slowly after a very big party last night at Newport Place, and more specifically in Adriano’s flat. However, we made it out to the
Puppets at the Fall for the Arts Festival
Fall for the Arts festival on the Broadway Pier. It was a small event, but showcased San Diego’s arts and dance talent very nicely. From there we ventured over to the Maritime Museum to have a look at the Star of India, and other beautiful old boats on the harbour. After a nice long walk on the boardwalk, we found ourselves at the Seaport village in time for lunch. One massive plate of nachos later and a couple of frozen margaritas, we were stuffed! What a great atmosphere though, families all around enjoying the sunshine and listening to some live music favourites. On our way back to the apartment we took a walk through the Historic Gaslamp District, down Fifth Avenue where more of San Diego’s locals were enjoying the Saturday afternoon. The restaurants and shops on Fifth Avenue are housed in beautifully restored old buildings, which gives the Gaslamp District the feeling of going back in time.
Our Nachos!
The plan for the evening was to get the bus out to the MCAS Miramar Air Show and then catch the last bus back, at 8:45pm. Unfortunately the show finished at 9pm but the bus timetables weren’t adjusted for the show so we would have to miss the last of the show in order to get home. Anyway, we found the bus and headed out to Miramar for the show at about 5:30pm. When we arrived at the closest bus stop, we found that the walk to the actual runway was a lot longer than expected and there were no shuttles in sight.
Douglas OA-4M Skyhawk at the Miramar Air Show
We arrived at the runway just in time to see the last of the AV-8B Harrier plane doing its vertical take-off and landing. There was a really comprehensive expo of planes and helicopters so we were able to walk around a lot and take photos. The night-time schedule of events included the U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team, who jumped out of a plane and parachuted back down to the runway with a stream of pyrotechnics coming from their ‘chutes; a special effects show using a glider shooting fireworks to music and another light show using a Romanian IAR plane. A highlight for us was the F/A 18 which flew by burning its afterburner as it went by. Soon after that we had to head out though, to take the long walk back to the bus stop in order to catch the 8:45 bus. Sadly we making the long walk with a massive fireworks display going off behind us and as we were turning to start running down the road to catch the bus we saw a massive wall of fire explode, check out a video of the “Wall of Fire” from the 2009 air show here!
So back to the story, we ran down the road, and I must admit I am certainly not as fit as I was when I ran the Two Oceans Half Marathon last year…despite all the walking we do. We made it to the bus stop at 8:45pm exactly, well what we thought was the bus stop, but found no bus. So we waited, all the while I am wheezing and panting trying to catch my breath. Eventually we figure we must have missed the bus so we frantically run across the road to the corner shop to ask if they know if there are any other buses going downtown at this time. As we suspected, the 20 at 8:45 was the last bus. Disheartened and stressing because we don’t know how we are going to get home and can’t afford a taxi, we look up and see the 20 driving up to the red traffic light (not allowed to say ‘robot’ here-they don’t get it)! So we run over shouting please let us in!!! But the bus driver just looks over and shakes his head. It turns out the bus stop was all the way down the road. It was ridiculous, there he was stopped at the light and we’re desperate to catch the last bus and he would not budge. Anyway, so there we are, on the side of the road in a random area half an hour outside of the city, with no way home. By this time, I have managed to control myself, but I’m starting to have a panic attack at the prospect of walking home. I figured the only way home would be to hitch a ride to the nearest train station so I just stuck out my thumb and prayed that we wouldn’t get picked up by a psycho. Not 5 minutes later, a guy in his really nice bakkie (pick-up truck) stopped up ahead of us and called us over. When we said we were going downtown he said no problem, he would drop us off on his way through. We struck up conversation about what we were doing way out in Miramar and it turns out he was a Blue Angels pilot in the U.S Navy! He gave us his card and all his contacts and said if we were ever in town again we should look him up and he’s take care of us. A real angel I would say, and he even dropped us off a couple of blocks from the apartment. What a lifesaver!
D x
