A New Cruise Series — First Stop San Diego

Grand Princess, fresh from Los Angeles

Today I begin a new travel series on a ten-day cruise Ursula and I took out of Los Angeles to Mexico back in October/November of 2014.  Along the way I’ll give you a glimpse of some seldom seen ports of call in the Sea of Cortez, rather than the usual fare along the Mexican Riviera.  First stop out of L.A. was San Diego, but unlike the last time we went there we visited San Diego on a cruise this time we ventured went farther from port.  But first we would have to find transportation.

Union Station, San Diego

Pretty neat looking train depot, isn’t it.  You’re looking at San Diego’s Union Station, originally known as the Santa Fe Depot.  And befitting it’s original name there are some pretty awesome tile works inside.

Tile from when Union Station was known as the Santa Fe Depot

Tile from when Union Station was known as the Santa Fe Depot

The tile work alone is worth a quick visit, but the interior in otherwise impressive as well.

Union Station, San Diego

There is of course that stunning exterior as well, dating back 100 years ago this month.

Union Station, San Diego

For instance, take a gander at that tiled dome atop the structure.  It’s a match to the interior tiles in both theme and color.

Close up of the Union Station tiled dome

Here we purchased our tickets and headed out onto the quaint passenger platform.

Passenger Platform at Union Station, San Diego

Then we waited, but not too long.  Just enough to capture this fun image and a bit more.

Tracks leading to Old Town and beyond

After our brief wait we boarded an ultra-modern and comfortable San Diego Trolley for our journey to Old Town, four stops to the northwest of the Union Depot.  Don’t try this on foot.  The route crosses many areas impassable by foot.  After exiting the Old Town Transit Center we took a brief stroll across the street to this day’s sightseeing destination, the San Diego Old Town State Historic Park.

Old Town, State Historic Park

It will take the better part of a couple of hours to explore all there is to see and do here, which is why Old Town will feature both this week and next.  As an added bonus we arrived here for Day One of the three-day Día de Muertos, the Day of the Dead.  Día de Muertos will be the subject of my April 1 blog post.  Be sure not to miss that because the colors and decorations associated with this celebration are quite stunning.

The park in San Diego Old Town

We’ll continue our exploration of Old Town on Wednesday and this week’s Fun Photo Friday, but until then I’ll leave you with this panorama of the Old Town Park that awaits you upon entry:

Old Town Park panorama

By the way, if you’re reading this and other material authored by me on The Destinary website, this post was not “Posted on (fill in the date) | By destinary” as they’ve been erroneously claiming; this material was in fact reposted.  The Destinary have also been claiming the right to do so, without links back to the original and without full attribution (“by RDoug” and a nonworking link is not proper attribution) with a rather bizarre interpretation of U.S. copyright law in which they claim I’m responsible for changing my RSS feed settings so that they cannot skim my material for commercial purposes.  That would make reading my blog less convenient for you, which I’m not willing to do.  As such, I’ll be running this little diatribe on all travel related posts until they cease and desist, along with this:

© 2015 R. Doug Wicker (RDougWicker.com)
All right reserved — that includes you, Destinary

Final note:  Considering The Destinary is a site listed as owned by Sonia Bosquez-Platt of Indianapolis Tour & Travel, you may want to rethink doing business with either her or her company.