When we touched down in San Diego, I made the call to our rental car agency. Now, not being 25 yet, I made sure to search for a rental car agency that wouldn't hit us too hard with the underage driver fees. The winner? Autorent of San Diego. They don't seem to have a "web page" I can link to, but they were an available option on Orbitz and charged a young renter fee of only $10 per day, versus $25 for some other places (and still other companies who won't rent to drivers under 25 at all). When purchasing, I was relatively confident that I'd made the right decision.

Well, we called them and announced our arrival, and they told us the shuttle would be right over to pick us up. We waited and watched the other shuttles drive through at least 15 times. Even the big players like Fox Rent A Car came through 3 times. I called them again to remind them that we were still waiting, and was told that they'd "send him back through" as if he'd been through already and somehow we didn't see him. Eventually the guy pulls up in a white minivan, and greets us. He says "How long have you been waiting?" Not having a watch, I estimated "20 minutes." He replies "That's it?" Kim, who was actually wearing a watch, informs me that it was more like 45 minutes. I'm still wondering if the guy was joking, since all the other rental car companies seemed to drive through in significantly shorter intervals.

As you can see, the place was somewhat small. When we got in the office there were two guys sitting there. One was on his cell phone yelling at someone, and the other was on the computer. It was clear the one we wanted to deal with was at the computer. He managed to ignore us for a few minutes even as we stood right in front of him, and then said "I'll be with you in a minute." A minute later, he was with us. I answered some questions, declined the insurance, and was handed the keys to what would be our chariot for the next few days: a forest green Chevy Metro.

This isn't your run-of-the mill vehicle. This car is really something special. I used to have a Honda CRX and would joke that it's like driving a go-cart. By that, I was referring to the fact that it was small and fun. It's really more accurate to liken this car to a go-cart though. Not because it's fun, but because:

• It rattles
• It has no cup holders
• It has no power steering
• It has 5-10 horsepower
• At no point in driving it do you actually feel safe

We arrived at the hotel, which looked quite good on web - the Holidy Inn on the Bay. The pictures showed it as this towering building, virtually all by itself overlooking the water. We showed up to check in a little early, and all they had available were rooms with 2 double beds rather than a King. We decided to wait before checking in so that we could get the room we wanted. With an hour and a half to kill, we decided to get lunch and would return to claim our room rather than settle. We went to Anthony's across the street and had a nice lunch. When we returned to the hotel, they said there were still no rooms available with a King-sized bed. They told us that although we might have requested one, they don't "guarantee" you will get exactly the same room you asked for. The woman at the desk did however promise she'd get us "a nice room" for our troubles.

We went up to our 2 double-bed room and checked it out. We were unable to determine what she thought she was giving us. I figured if she was going to give us a "nice" room it would at least be facing the water, but no sir.

In the above picture, on the left is an image on the web (from Expedia) of what the view from a hotel room looks like. On the right is our actual view. It's the perfect spot if you want to keep an eye on the parking lot, or the construction going on across the street.

On Day 2 we decided to visit the Wild Animal Park which is part of the San Diego Zoo, but recommended to us as a more pleasurable experience than the main zoo itself. We showed up just as it opened, and were among the first let in. That was especially good because there weren't a million kids running around. We walked fairly deep into the park (it's huge - all of Disney Land can fit inside just one section of it) checking out the various animals, and didn't run into very many people.

We regrettably ate lunch at the local concession stand. Kim had a chicken sandwich that was so bad she couldn't take more than 2 bites. I had a cheeseburger which wasn't very good. I finished it quickly. After lunch we went on the train ride and saw some of the more exotic animals that roam out in the open. The conductor cracked some of the dumbest jokes I've heard in my life. The passengers, of course, laughed at each and every one. On the plus side, the animals themselves were cool to look at. Kim referred to each of the cute animals as "Mookie" (her dog's name) and called each of the ugly animals "Nelson" (her mom's dog's name).

That evening we went down to Pacific Beach. It was winding down in the evening, but there was still a good bit of activity on the boardwalk. We ended up eating at Joe's Crab Shack, which I thought was sweet because I was in the mood for seafood. The food was quite good. At one point in the meal, randomly the lights changed and 4 waiters/waitresses started singing and dancing to YMCA (while it played over the loudspeakers). This seemed somewhat strange, especially if you were in the unlucky position of being at a table waiting for food and/or drinks, knowing full well you weren't going to get them until your waitperson was finished entertaining.

Today was the day we planned on seeing movie stars. We drove up to the Hollywood area. The first place we stopped was Farmers market and The Grove. It had some nice shops and we ate lunch there. Amidst all the fresh food options, I had a few slices of Pizza. Kim ordered sushi, which we later noticed was from one of the vendors who got a grade "B" from the California Department of Health. Most of the vendors had grade "A" signs hanging up, but since it was just sushi we figured it was no big deal.

We drove over to Hollywood Blvd. and checked out the stars on the sidewalk. It was neat at first, until a few minute in you realize that you don't know 80% of the people with a star, and all the stores around you sell pornography or lingerie. At that point Kim suggested we head back to the car and tour this street from that perspective. I agreed. On our way back to the car we picked up some maps of the homes of famous people. We figured it would come in handy when we headed up into the Hollywood hills.

The Metro struggled, but did make it up through the somewhat steep streets of the Hollywood hills. A closer inspection of our "map of the stars" revealed that, much like the sidewalk itself, we didn't know who any of these "stars" were. We were content to drive around the hills and look at the expensive houses. The closest we got to celebrities was seeing the red carpet an lights set up outside the El Capitan theatre for the premiere of The Ladykillers. We were there too early to actually see any real celebrities.

We went to a mall near Beverly Hills for a little while, and then moved on to an outdoor shopping area. The outdoor area was pretty sweet, namely because there was a street vendor there dressed like Yoda. He was dancing and singing to Britney Spears music. It was incredibly cheesy, but at least inventive. I gave him a dollar.

On the way home, we decided to take the Pacific Coast Highway for a while, in search of an In-n-Out Burger, which we'd heard so much about. It seemed like we drove forever, but eventually we did find one. We both agreed the burgers were overrated. I enjoyed mine (that sauce they put on them is good) but had to agree that they weren't much to write home about. Definitely better than the cheeseburgers at the Wild Animal Park though.

Based on a recommendation from a friend of Kim's, we went for a hike at Torrey Pines State Reserve. It was a very nice place with good scenery. It was more of a walk than a hike, but was still enjoyable. At the end of the walk, you can go right out onto the beach, and then walk back to the car via the beach.

Later on in the afternoon, we drove to La Jolla. This place had still more shops which we walked around at for a while. We also had lunch at a Mexican place which was quite good. By far the best attraction in this area was the small beach where the harbor seals gather. People can get fairly close to the seals to take pictures. You can watch them swim in from the ocean, play, etc.

At some point in the trip it dawned on me that being on the West coast now put me in proximity to Fry's Electronics. I'd never been there, but have heard about them. Let's just say it's one of the coolest stores on the face of the planet. Take Best Buy, make it twice as big, double the size of your computer section, and add a section for technical books. It was basically like heaven on Earth. For some reason Kim wasn't as excited to be there as I was.

Later that evening we went out for dinner at Gordon Biersch and had some of their beer. Almost better than the beer is their garlic fries. They put fresh garlic on the french fries - it's great. After dinner we went and saw Secret Window at the movie theatre. It wasn't very good, and certainly didn't seem original. Kim described the movie as "predictable." I tried to get her to explain at what point in the movie she'd predicted the ending, and she started getting mad at me. Eventually she said that she had predicted the ending before seeing the movie at all - just from the trailer. I expressed disbelief at that, at which point she totally hated me. I can indeed be a jerk sometimes.

We started this day with a nice breakfast at the Hotel Del Coronado. It was a buffet, and the buffet included stuff like crab legs, which I had plenty of. The brunch was expensive, but the food was excellent. We walked around Coronado a bit before heading back to the hotel. During our trip we saw an Ice Cream shop called "Mootime" which reminded Kim of Mookie - hence the picture to the right. The rest of the afternoon was spent mostly relaxing. We read/slept by the pool at the hotel.

In the evening we decided to go to another movie. This time we picked Starsky and Hutch. Before going, we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant in the Gaslamp district, and briefly stopped at Urban Outfitters where I bought a T-shirt that says "I'm a super-duper programmer!" with a gold star on it. It's sweet.

To start our last day, we headed to nearby Balboa Park to check out some museums. We looked around a few to decide where to go. We eventually decided that the move "Top Speed" playing in the Omni Theatre at the Science Center seemed worth going to. The rest of the place seemed like it was for smaller kids though. To kill time before the movie we went to the Natural History Museum.

They had a fairly interesting exhibit on feathered dinosaurs, but the rest of it was pretty crappy. There were 2 floors. The first one had some glass cases with bugs on one side, an an exhibit on the other with pictures of plants. The second floor was mostly open space, with a few glass cases and pictures of equally uninteresting things. Money well spent.

The movie in the Omni theatre at the Science Center was decent, and extra cheesy because it was hosted by Tim Allen. I was afraid there would be a bunch of first-person roller coaster scenes and I'd end up throwing up all over the theatre, but fortunately there were only a few. When we'd walked into the Science Center it was a zoo of maniac children. As we walked out of the movie it looked a little calmer (some kids were going into the next movie). I walked around the center a bit and it was pretty cool. They had some interesting exhibits on computers (how ASCII encodes characters), Sound (analog->digital conversion), and an HDTV demo.

That afternoon we walked around Pacific Beach, this time during the day. This was the time to start shopping for souvenirs. I found a T-shirt store that sold 3 shirts for $12. It was pretty sweet. I did buy some, but there were other shirts that I really wanted to get which they didn't offer. I told Kim I'd get them online after the trip. She seemed to think that was defeating the purpose of a "souvenir" - and she might be right.

Our flight was at noon, so we had a relaxing breakfast at what had become our daily breakfast spot - Hazelwood's Deli. We ate outside and then walked down the boardwalk for some more last minute souvenir shopping.

Returning the car at Autorent went more smoothly than I expected. We saw our same familiar friends from before, but they seemed to be acting a little more professional. It's probably because there were more customers there (a line out the door).

The flight back offered a meal, but this time it was lunch instead of breakfast. We got turkey sandwiches and the turkey was disturbing. I, of course, ate it anyway. Kim had two bites and stopped in disgust. During our brief layover we were able to grab dinner. I got a cheeseburger and fries from a fast food place. Kim went to another place and got a sandwich of some sort. It was prepackaged, and apparently "gross" so she threw that out too. Total count of sandwiches thrown out by Kim this vacation: 3. I, of course, ate everything no matter how questionable it was.

All in all the vacation was fun, and had it's funny moments. It was certainly a good break from our normal lives. If the gas and rent were cheaper, I'd say San Diego would be a cool place to live. When we touched down in Hartford, it was snowing outside. The drive to her place via Route 91 was slow going and at many points we couldn't see the pavement on the highway. It's great to be back.