San Diego, So Cal

Following Las Vegas, we headed for San Diego. Within 1 mile of crossing the California border we hit our first major traffic jam of the trip. Joe put it best "It's like Independence Day." The traffic was at a stand still and people had gotten out of their cars to see what was going on. We tried to detour, but that failed miserably because roads in Nevada apparently don't have to be paved. We finally made it into California and drove through the Mojave Desert, which was pretty scary. Nothing looked like it could survive in that environment. Once we got closer to the traditional "So Cal," everything started to cool off and the hills were very cool. We were staying with a family friend because my mom was out there during the same time. Their house was very nice and they had a pool that overlooked a valley and the setting sun. For dinner, we got a nice home cooked barbeque meal, which was delicious. After dinner, I wanted to go to the beach because we had driven this far and I wanted to go to the Pacific Ocean. So we went and checked out the sunset. There was not much of a beach, mostly just sand cliffs down to the water. I had to go in. I climbed down the cliffs and jumped in and the experience was surreal. There was mist down the coast, the setting sun, and surfers riding in those last few waves. Joe ended up getting in also, but his reason was different than mine. We then drove down Rt. 5 into downtown San Diego, had a few drinks in the Gas Lamp district (which was very cool, especially for a Tuesday night,) and headed back to our home for the night. Next day we went to breakfast near the beach, played some Wii, did some laundry, and headed off for LA. San Diego was a very cool town and the accomodations were some of the best we had so far.