My last day in San Diego was without a doubt one of the highlights of my trip. I checked out of the hostel after breakfast and shorty after was picked up by Tina, a German born friend of a friend of my family’s, who has lived in San Diego for a great part of her life. I hopped into her red BMW convertible and it was clear early on that we got along perfectly. Tina had great charisma and we started cracking jokes and having a great time from the first minute on.
The beamer was amazing. Just the car you want to drive in a place like this with the sun blazing down on us, a nice breeze and good tunes blasting through the speakers. I was lucky to have such an amazing guide to show me around. Tina really knew where to take me, starting at one of the Navy bases which had a huge cemetery for veterans on it. I have never seen so many graves in one spot, and we were able to drive through the graveyard in the car.
At the end of the drive we ended up at the top of Point Loma, a spot with a beautiful view of the city and the bay. You could see all the way to Mexico from there. Those are the kind of spots that only locals can show you and I am so happy that Tina took such great care of me and opened my eyes to the beauty of San Diego.
We cruised around for a little longer and ended up at a seafood market and restaurant right by the water. I ordered fish and chips and Tina went for fish tacos. We ended up sharing both meals since I had never tried fish tacos before and apparently it is a must when you’re in the area. All of the food was delicious and we topped it off with some ice cream and cappuccinos in Little Italy. Tina and I got along so well and like with many people I met on my trip it felt like I had known her forever.
Next, we drove through downtown San Diego and through the beautiful Balboa Park. Part of the park is the huge San Diego Zoo, which I had heard about from many people but didn’t go due to extraordinarily high entry fees. Luckily Tina had a year pass for the zoo which allows her to take one guest in with her for free! We went in together but she had to leave quite soon in order to get home before rush hour. We parted ways after those awesome few hours we spent together and I continued wandering the zoo by myself for a few hours.
There were all kinds of unique animals in this zoo which was overwhelming in size. I could have easily spent a whole day in there without seeing everything. Along the way I met some really friendly Canadians and joined them for a little while. When I completed a full circle around the zoo I got on to a bus going to the Amtrak station and got onto my train back to Los Angeles.
calitripping 
Love the car, and the tiger. I never got to the zoo, but I loved Balboa Park. Sergei and I stayed in Little Italy. Cool part of SD.