Thursday, Day 138 - May 24 - 2:30pm to 11pm, San Diego, California, USA

San Diego seems to be ever changing focus, and each change adds to the city’s complexity and attractiveness. The city began as a remote Spanish mission and later came to be dominated by Navy and Marine bases. More recently, San Diego has established itself as a leader in scientific research and as a near perfect place to live, retire, conduct business or visit as a tourist. Its year-round perfect climate also helps lure people to its historic attractions. We spent time here before as we sailed round trip from San Diego on our first trip to the South Pacific in 2011. 

We have seen most of the attractions on our previous visits and since this is our last day we spend some time packing the last of our six bags before we head out to enjoy a ride around this pretty city on the “Tour San Diego by Trolley,” one of the ships free tours.

Oh, the last day! How can that be....didn’t we just leave LA? We go to breakfast and then head to the theater for the Grand Farewell. It is a combination of video clips from the cruise and song and dance routines by the Regent performers. But the best part is Terry and his farewell performance of which there is a 40 verse song he has written about our trip. He does this in his wonderful sing along style. He sings the verses and we sing along on the chorus. It is a great song with lots of fun poked at the good and not so good of the trip. We are all laughing and crying at the same time when he is done!! 

We finish up the packing back in the room and watch sail in from our balcony. We are escorted in by two Coast Guard patrol boats with manned machine guns on the bow....hummmmm! 

It takes until nearly 3:30PM to get the people disembarking in San Diego and the people going on tours cleared through US Immigration and Customs. As we clear we head directly to the dock where we meet our trolley for the 2 ½  hour ride. We sit back and relax as we take in the historic sites of San Diego on the narrated, open-air trolley tour. Along the way, we hear about the city's history, pass by the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum, Seaport Village, Convention Center and Horton Plaza. We ride  through the historic Gas Lamp Quarter and on to the Coronado Bay Bridge, which offers spectacular views of the city. 

We cross over to Coronado Island, and learn about the unique history of the Hotel Del Coronado. We drive by the famous zoo and Balboa Park. Leaving Balboa Park we go on to the neighborhood of Little Italy and Old Town's State Historic Park, California's birth place. At Old Town we have about 30 minutes to walk around. It is getting late and a bit cool as we head back to the ship. Along the way we enjoy tales of San Diego's past, which dates back to 1542. It is the perfect tour to end our time on the ship. It gets us out for awhile to see the sites without too much effort or the dreaded bus ride.

It is after 6PM when we get back on board. We decide to go to the dining room and have our cocktails with our dinner. We are sitting at the table enjoying our drinks and thinking about dinner when Jean walks by looking for someone to share a table with on this last night. We ask her to join us and get Vishnu to set an extra place and pull up an extra chair. She is a delightful, 92 year old lady traveling alone and we have enjoyed eating with her off and on over these 137 days. She leaves us about 8:30PM to go hear Clive while we stay and linger over dessert one last time.

Back in the room Dick closes and tags the four pieces we are shipping and sets them outside. Carolyn will close up the two carry-ons in the morning. The boys climb into the “Jack Sack” to sleep. Jack has a huge fear of being left!