San Diego, Tijuana!

On Wednesday we ventured down to Tijuana. We took the bus down to Old Town and boarded the trolley all the way down to San Ysidro and then walked across the border. I didn't take a single photo while we were there, however. :(

When I lived in PB, I went to Tijuana regularly, mostly at night, as you might imagine an 18 year old would do. Wow. Tijuana has grown a lot since I was here last. I couldn't believe how much it has changed. There have always been street vendors and the painted donkeys, etc. but the vendors extend far beyond Revolution Boulevard now.

In 1985 and 86, we would often walk across the border, party a while and walk back. It was pretty much a wasteland between the end of Revolution Boulevard and the border, but they have fixed up the streets and there are vendors lining both sides of the path all the way to the border. There is a nice plaza area on either side of the foot path across the river, and even a map of downtown Tijuana and the border.

I can still recall my first venture into Tijuana on foot. We made our way into town, but took a wrong turn down a rather dark street, not knowing where to go. A kind American man, who was, for some reason sitting next to the road in his car, opened his door, as we approached and said, “You don't want to go that way.” “Uh, thanks.” We said and turned around to find the slightly more travelled path.

When we told people that we were headed to Tijuana this week, they all said, “Good luck.” I don't know how long its been since they've been there, but our experience was down right enjoyable. The people are far friendlier to a family walking the streets than they are a single white man. We did a bit of shopping, had lunch and then headed back across the border.

Here too, I noticed a drastic difference. A sign of the times. In the 80's, we walked back and forth across the border unchecked on either side. There was an occasional border guard coming back to the USA, but usually not. This time, we had to stand in line for about ten minutes before we had our bags checked and provided our passports to a guard.

We got back to San Ysidro just after 4pm and were looking forward to spending the remainder or our day at the beach. We boarded our Trolley at 4:25pm and headed north. At 4:30pm, less than a mile from the San Ysidro station, our train came to an abrupt stop. We sat on the tracks until 5pm, then another train pulled up along side us and the doors opened. We all transferred to the new train, got to the next stop and were told to transfer trains again. Apparently several road crossing signals had failed and we inched our way north. We finally arrived in Old Town at 6:30 and were back to the hotel around 7pm. We took a quick dip in the ocean. The waves were big. It was overcast and a little chilly.

We packed up Thursday and made our way home.

As much as San Diego has grown, it is still mostly as I remember it. Hailey said repeatedly, "I love it here. I want to stay." I can't really disagree with her, if we could just hang out at the beach all the time. I loved going out for a swim in the ocean in the mornings and taking walks along the ocean. The sunsets are usually terrific too. Even Becky said, "I think I could handle retiring to a Southern Californian beach." I'm holding out for Hawaii!