May 7, 2016

May 7  arrival in San Diego

  

    We were up early to get to the airport for our 6:50 a.m. flight to Calgary.  We had plenty of time to have coffee and share a bagel at the airport then walk around the departure lounge while we waited to board the plane.  After a breakfast in Calgary airport, we walked around the USA destinations departure area ensuring that we got four kilometers walked before leaving for San Diego.

   Both of the planes were Boeing 737s, the one to Calgary had TVs on the back of the seats in front, but the San Diego plane did not. You needed to download an app so you could get the movies, audio, etc on a smart phone or tablet – that is, if you owned one.  Meals cost extra payable by credit card, but there was complimentary coffee, soft drinks or water and cookies or a package of pretzels on both flights.  When the plane landed in Calgary, we had to wait about ten minutes for a gate to be assigned, then collected our luggage, went through American Customs, put the luggage on the conveyer belt to go onto the next plane to San Diego and cleared security. The plane took off five minutes early arriving 27 minutes ahead of schedule. Both flights had empty seats and we were lucky both times to share three seats. After a short cab drive to our hotel, we were checking in about 1 pm, just 8 hours after we took off on our first plane.  We left the luggage in the hotel’s baggage storage room as no rooms were available yet, since check in was not for another two hours.

  We set out to explore San Diego, walking less than a kilometer to San Diego’s historic Old Town where there is a major transportation hub for buses, trolleys and trains.  We purchased $3 return trolley tickets for both of us to go to the baseball stadium stop via the trolley, which is a three to five car train.  The stop by the main gate of the baseball park was half a block from the Padres baseball team ticket office.  We bought tickets in row 34, section 120, on the outfield side near third base, and were told that early arriving fans would be given souvenir long sleeve T-shirt hoodies as they entered the baseball park, so we made sure that we returned by 4 pm for the 5:30 pm game against the New York Mets.

  The Petco Park baseball stadium is located in the Gaslamp area near the waterfront, close to the Convention Centre and about 15 minutes walking distance to the Midway battleship museum (not far from the cruise ship terminal).  We walked two streets from the stadium over to Fifth and found a restaurant to enjoy a late lunch. It was called Don Chido, located in a 100 year old building with six meter high ceilings.  We chose either fish tacos accompanied by refried beans and Spanish rice plus a Negro Mondelo beer or a chicken Caesar Salad plus a marguerita made using Jimador Responado, lime, agave and Grand Marnier float. 

  The street was full of people enjoying the 16 C windy but partly sunny day, a few on restaurant patios, but most were inside the restaurants.  We walked around fascinated by the lively atmosphere of a Saturday afternoon. There were many people wearing New York Mets t-shirts, especially orange “Beach Blast” ones, or New York Mets hats. Two years ago when we explored the streets of Gaslamp at was 8:30 on Sunday morning, the streets were quiet and the cafés and restaurants were all closed. The baseball park gates opened at 3:30 pm.  We wandered back to the stadium and went through a security check before receiving the brown souvenir long sleeve Padres T-shirt hoodie. We were able to exchange the XL size, which fans were given, for a smaller size at a location deeper into the park, then looked around at the kiosks and took some pictures. There was even a small plane in the sky pulling a banner.  Fans waited until 4 pm for closer to the field sections to open and we easily found our seats in the facility.

  The San Diego Padres are hosting the 2016 All Star baseball game on July 12.  We watched the New York Mets warm up on the playing field, then they left and the field crew prepared the filed for the game for about 30 minutes.  It took 4 crew members to spray water on the sand between the bases and the pitcher’s mound also 4 crew members to refresh the white paint lines from home plate to first base and from home plate to third base. The seats filled to about 85 % capacity by the end of the second inning. The temperature at game time was about 17 C.  It was cool in the shady stands with the wind blowing about 30 km per hour. Across the field were a large number of New York Mets fans in orange “Beach Blast” T-shirts, in a section of close to 1,000 people, plus lots of other Mets fans scattered throughout the stands. The first and second inning saw the Mets get 2 runs in each inning, including their pitcher, Bartolo Colon hitting one of several home runs.  Then the Padres fought back with 3 runs in the third inning, followed by five scoreless innings and the Mets hitting 2 more runs in the ninth to win the game.   We left at the 7th inning to take the trolley back to the hotel and get our room card.  Then we walked a few blocks and found an Olive Garden restaurant to have a quick salad as something to eat as dinner before returning to the hotel before 10 and call it a day.

  Total distance walked =14.75 km