Tintagel Christmas 2002
Virtual World Tours.
My favorite view is from Point Loma,
looking back at downtown.
Jan
San Diego, California, USA.
As
per request, we'll start our virtual tour of San Diego. Sweet
Sue, join on in, if you want to add anything. You also live "in the
'hood".......
We're coming in for a landing on a Southwest Airlines jet, just barely over
the tops of the huge eucalyptus trees in Balboa Park then over downtown and
then onto Lindbergh Field, the airport, which is right along San Diego Bay.
The eucalyptus trees are just one kind of the many kinds of trees that have
been planted here. There are really no native trees to this area, except for
the Torry Pines, which are found along a ridge overlooking the ocean about
20 miles north between La Jolla and Del Mar.
San Diego is basically a desert on the ocean. We usually have very little
rain here and comfortable weather most of the year, although I have heard
complaints from tourists on vacation here from Minnesota and New York. I
guess they think we are supposed to be like Florida. NOT!!! They are
tropical. We are Mediterranean in climate.
Several groups of people have planted lots of trees and flowers, imported
from all over the world, in the past 100 years, and now San Diego can be
called a large botanical garden. In our yard, we have Brazillian Pepper
trees, huge palm trees, cape honeysuckle, jade plants, ferns, grass lawns,
lantana, many kinds of cacti and succulents, bouganvillea, roses, Birds of
Paradise, lavender, jacaranda, and eucalyptus trees. (We have .63 acre.) Our
neighbors have ash trees and other kinds of trees. Many people in the area
have citrus trees. Our little city, Lemon Grove, was all groves before the
housing boom in the late 40s and early 50s. There used to be a lemon packing
plant in the middle of town next to the railroad track and the lemons were
shipped all over the USA. Now those tracks are used by the San Diego
Trolley, for commuting to work.
San Diego was populated by several small bands of native peoples scattered
here and there until the first of the California missions was established
here in the 1700s, by Father Junipero Serra. Juan Rodrigo Cabrillo
discovered San Diego Bay in 1769. It was part of Mexico until the mid 1800s,
and still retains its Mexican heritage, many descendents of the old families
still still live here. It was not until the late 1800s when Americans
started moving to the San Diego area. It was not a comfortable place
then......unpaved roads in the sand, fleas, primitive transportation and
connections to the rest of the USA through Los Angeles. West was the ocean,
east was the forbidding desert and south was Mexico. The only way out was
through L.A. and we were considered their poor stepchild until some pretty
powerful people found favor in our climate and saw the potential in life in
our fair city. John D. Spreckles, the sugar "baron" took a liking to
the
area and invested a lot of money here. So did a couple of men from the East
who built the Hotel del Coronado in the late 1880s, the largest hotel in the
West. When they installed eleectric lights......well, the tourists came
flocking! The hotel is still the largest all-wooden building in the USA and
is a Victorian charmer. If you saw the Marilyn Monroe movie, "Some Like it
Hot", you saw the Del!!!
The 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition brought more people to the area and then
movie stars started to come down to vacation in Coronado, La Jolla and Del
Mar. Investors brought more people and the city grew like crazy after that.
World War 2, of course, and the US Navy, Army and Marine Corps and
shipyards increased the population even more. After the war, the biggest
population boom happened when all those servicemen went home, married their
sweethearts and came back to San Diego to settle down.
I moved here in 1965 when I came to start San Diego State College (now
University) as a freshman. I have seen a huge increase in the population
since then. The population of the city of San Diego is now close to 1.5
million. The surrounding suburbs add another half million. The freeways look
like Los Angeles traffic every morning, which is distressing, but I can
understand why poeple keep coming here. Unfortunately, that has also made
housing prices go up very fast. The average house sale now is over $300,000.
We bought our first house in 1974 for $28,500, four years later sold it for
$60,00, bought another house then for $60,000. That house is now worth
$280,000. We rent it out to some friends. We bought an old 1895 restored
farmhouse in 1997 for $179,000 and it is now worth over $500,000. So real
estate has been a very good investment here. (By the way, I just retired as
a realtor (for 15 years) so I know what I'm talking about...)
San Diego, like I said is a very nice place to live. The weather is usually
very nice, not too cold in the winter and not too hot in the summer, unless
you travel inland more than 20 miles. Going east, you hit the 2000 feet
above sea level about 30 miles inland and about 20 more miles east you are
6000 feet up. So they have some snow there. We can go 40 miles from our
house, find plenty of snow to throw at each other, and then go home where
it's warm or spend the rest of the day at the beach!!! If you keep going
east from where the snow is, another 20 miles, you will be in the desert! So
you can choose the climate you prefer!!!
I'm sure you have heard of our famous San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Sea
World, etc. They are on all the internet pages for San Diego. You can look
that up yourself! We are also proud of Mission Bay Park, a public park using
sea water, with lots of swimming areas, boating and picnic areas and sandy
playgrounds for the kids. Our ocean-facing beaches are wonderful and you can
see surfers out there everyday. At this time of year, you can go on a boat
about a mile off the coast and see the California Grey Whales migrating,
getting right in the middle of their groups. Sometime you can get very close
and they like to get a good look at the people, too.
There are 14 incorporated cities in San Diego County, and several
unincorporated areas. All have their own personalities. Some are quite
affluent, like La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe and Fairbanks Ranch. Some are not,
like San Ysidro, right on the Mexican border. Speaking of the border, the
city of San Diego goes right down to the border, and the city of Tijuana is
right on the other side, so they are really part of our metropolitan area,
too, adding another 2-3 million people. Many people commute across the
border everyday to work (leaglly) in the US. Also many Americans prefer to
live in Mexico, as it is less expensive.
The US Navy has always been a large presence here, but now other industries
have grown in importance, so the Navy isn't the biggest anymore. Biotech,
research and communications companies, the Salk Institute, Scripps
Institution of Oceanography, several major universities, but no industries
that cause pollution. About 40-50 years ago, the city leaders had a
contoversy over "Geraniums v. Smokestacks". Geraniums won!
Well, I don't know what else to say about San Diego. It is after midnight
here and I'm tired.
If you have any questions, I would be glad to answer them individually.
Yes,
ListMom, this is WAY off topic. The little town of Julian, up in the
mountians about 80 miles from downtown, now knee-deep in snow, DID have a
gold mine and there were some Cornish miners working there, of course, but
that's the only Cornish connection I have found in San Diego. I even have to
make my own pasties.....Nobody even knows what they are in restaurants or
bakeries here! I doubt if half the people here even know where Cornwall
is!!!
Good night, listers, wherever you are!!! Jan
Rickard Davis
Looking for Chegwidden,Thomas, Moore, Rickard, Perry, Hicks, Hosken,
Treverton, Mundy, Minear, Barkel, Spargo, all from Cornwall..............