Day 3: Oh, Say Can you See...

San Diego

It was July 4th; birthday of the brave and the free, etc, so we went to the San Diego Zoo. It was pretty sweltering for me, being Norwegian and all, but that was fine. We got there and found that most of the animals were hiding from the sun, swimming in their pools, moving as little as possible and so on. You know: sane behaviour for creatures in the blistering sun. We’re walking around sweating profusely, nigh-on the brink of collapse, and we somehow consider ourselves smarter than these things?

Still, the Zoo is large and impressive. We saw panda bears, we saw kodiak bears, we saw polar bears! We drank beers! There were some hippos floating around; strage, ungainly creatures that somehow manage be almost cute. We saw ‘em all. I dunno. Zoos aren’t as fun as they used to be when I was younger, but this was a pretty good time.

When we got back downtown, we decided to go exploring and found that we’d basically walked around the three least happening streets in San Diego the evening before. All the life and the lights were but a few streets away from our hotel, just in the other direction. Oh well, live and learn. At least we knew, and would not make the same mistake again. We headed for the waterfront/harbor to watch the fireworks. It was crowded like a Tokyo subway car during rush hour. The fireworks display had drawn a bunch of people to the area, locals and tourists alike, and while crowded, it was pretty fun for peoplewatching. The fireworks were perfectly coordinated, but since we were so close to it, we didn’t get the full effect. It must have been very impressive from a distance, though. Either way, it seemed kind of meek to us, especially compared to New Year’s Eve in Norway. I suppose that’s a point in favour of really drunk people buying indefensibly large fireworks for New Year’s Eve. Norwegian traditions notwithstanding, people ooh-ed and aah-ed, suitably impressed.

We were nearly – nearly – busted for drinking on the street, but weren’t.

After the fireworks, everybody went home and that was that. Weird. We stopped at an Aussie bar for a last drink and were – wait for it – carded! It was all very hip and the bartender seemed less than inclined to serve us. One beer was enough. And besides, the following morning were headed south of the border to Mexico. Ay, caramba!