Laguna Beach Bikini

I have been in southern California for the winter. But springtime is almost here. So for me it is time to get back on the road and being my travels for 2010.

The first leg of my journey is from San Juan Capistrano, California to San Diego, California. The distance is just about 50 miles, and it takes just under two hours by Amtrak train. The train is the Pacific Surfliner which starts in San Luis Obispo, goes through Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Orange County and ends in downtown San Diego.

I have ridden this route before and it is a very pleasant journey. The train is rarely crowded, except around holidays, and the scenery is excellent. And my tickets was not expensive, about $18 one way.

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All photos courtesy of Amazing Travel Photos
Last fall when I was visiting the midwestern U.S. I spent a few days at Oberlin College in Ohio. Oberlin College, a small liberal arts college, is located in tiny Oberlin, Ohio about 50 miles from Cleveland. The college dominates all activities in the town. In other words it’s [...]

When you visit San Diego, the best area to stay is the Gaslamp Quarter. Located downtown it is where many of the cities restaurants and entertainment venues are located. It is also within walking distance of many of the main sights including Petco Park, the Embarcadero, Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo.
USA Hostels San [...]

Photo courtesy the author
As I write this, I am sitting in my living room in southern California drinking a Corona. It was on sale at Ralph’s Supermarket. Twelve 12 oz. bottles for $9.99. That works out to 83 cents per 12 oz. bottle, not a bad price.
The clear bottle with the blue painted-on label is [...]

Italian pizza is a popular food in many countries. The wonderful thing about pizza is that it is made differently in every city and country. Each region has its own style of pizza–New York-style pizza, Chicago-style pizza, Moscow-style pizza, etc. Everyone has their favorite regional style–I am partial to New York-style pizza myself. Then within [...]

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After spending about three weeks in San Diego I moved again. I traveled by Amtrak to Irvine Amtrak Station and then took four local buses to Laguna Beach. OCTA buses 86, 70, 89 and 1. (OCTA stands for Orange County Transportation Authority.) An all-day pass on OCTA costs four dollars.
Actually the way I [...]

The panoramic photo above was taken at the Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma in San Diego, one of the National Parks run by the national park service. Point Loma is a peninsula that shelters San Diego Bay. The park is on a bluff that is over 400 feet high.
The national park is named [...]

If you are staying in downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, there are dozens of restaurants to choose from for lunch or dinner. You will get the best deal for a meal at lunch time.
One of my favorite places for lunch in the Gaslamp Quarter is the Cheeseshop Delicatessen on 4th Avenue. I learned about Cheeseshop [...]

You have to sleep somewhere while traveling. Should you be looking for a hotel room or hostel?
Traditionally, tourists and business travelers stay in hotels. Hostels were the low-cost choice for backpackers. Many backpackers are students on break or are new college graduates taking a trip before starting their working careers. So naturally, backpackers often have [...]

Photos courtesy of Amazing Travel Photos
During your stay in San Diego, you will want to become familiar with the Number 30 Bus. Especially if you are staying downtown near the Gaslamp Quarter like I recommend.
Bus Number 30, or “Old #30″ as I like to call it, runs from downtown to the UCSD campus. Service [...]

Photo courtesy of Amazing Travel Photos
Formerly Houston Intercontinental Airport, the George Bush Intercontinental Airport (airport code: IAH) is a large, modern efficient airport in one of America’s largest cities. It is the second largest airport in Texas after Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and the 17th busiest in the world. I would say 43 million passengers each [...]

Photos courtesy of Amazing Travel Photos
While in San Diego, you must visit Coronado Island. To get there, you have three choices. By car, drive over the San Diego-Coronado Bridge. This is how people that live on Coronado commute to work or go shopping. There is also a bus that goes from downtown San Diego over [...]

Photo courtesy of Amazing Travel Photos
Perfect weather year round, Blue skies, blue Pacific water–what more could you ask for? San Diego is one of the nicest cities in America to live. Or to visit.
San Diego is home to the San Diego Padres baseball team, the San Diego Chargers American football team and the United States [...]

Everyone knows that the USA is a land of immigrants. Around the end of the 19th century and early 20th century there were massive waves of immigrants from Europe. Many came from Italy and Eastern Europe and settled all throughout America. As a result, many U.S. cities from New York to Chicago to San [...]

A few organizational notes here. The Roving Photographer column, which is my personal travel blog, is now a part of Travel Planet. Travel Planet also has a section for food and drink called Bon Appetit, a section for covering travel accommodation called Hotels & Hostels and a section covering transportation called Planes & Trains. So [...]

Photo courtesy of Amazing Travel Photos
The Amtrak Sufliner goes from San Luis Obispo down to San Diego. It is one of the most scenic rides I have been on. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes to travel by train. You can either start in San Diego and go north, or start in San [...]

Photo courtesy of Amazing Travel Photos
“All Aboard! Next stop San Diego!”
The Amtrak locomotive is sitting in San Diego’s Santa Fe station which is the main railway station. It is located right downtown in beautiful sunny San Diego. I had just stepped off the train with all my bags and saw this incredible sight of the [...]

At the beginning of November I flew from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Orange County’s John Wayne Airport on Continental Airlines. The route went through Houston, Texas, which is a Continental Airlines hub, and then Newark Airport on the east coast before flying to California. Total travel time was about 28 hours.
In California, everything is spread [...]

Of course, the big attraction in Argentina is the beef. But in Argentina you will also find some of the best ice cream in the world in Buenos Aires.
The word for ice cream is helado, kind of similar to the Italian word Gelato. It has the same Italian roots has gelato but it is made [...]

Well, it is time to say Adios to Argentina. I fly from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Newport Beach, California. Google maps can’t show direction across continents, but Argentina is on the east coast of South America way down in the south. It is something like 6000 miles from Bs. As. to Newport Beach.
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I [...]