Friday, February 20, 1998
Southbound
Just because you’ve petted Shamu, don’t think you’ve seen all
San Diego has to offer – from ‘Top Gun’ nostalgia to a phenomenon
known as ‘body womping,’ the city to the south is full of weekend
opportunities
A well-toned woman walks through a strip mall with her son, who
can’t be more than three years old. She stops, flexes her legs and
tells the kid, "Nobody has calves like your mother." The little boy
looks at the calves, looks at his mother’s face, then looks down
and puts his hands in his pockets. They keep walking.
A profoundly drunk high school student sprints into a restaurant
totally naked, grabs a roll off a table and starts to eat it.
Through a mouthful of roll, he sings the first verse of Stevie
Wonder’s "Part-Time Lover," then runs away before the maitre d’ can
detain him. Baffled diners hear the guy singing the rest of the
song as he flees down the street.
On a sunny beach, a man in a suit hands an oversize check for
$2,000 to a grinning beach bunny. She has just won the first place
prize in a sand sculpture contest for her rendition of a large
cartoon hermit crab. A crowd of contest enthusiasts applaud, and
the winner flashes a thumbs-up.
Welcome to San Diego. And you thought Los Angeles was weird.
Bruins looking for a weekend getaway might want to consider
making the two-hour trip south to San Diego, a city with its own
distinctive flavor of Southern California weirdness and a whopping
bundle of fun things to do.
Everyone has their ideas of what San Diego offers tourists.
Images come forth of kids petting Shamu at Sea World, sneaky dads
impressing their families by feeding peanuts to an elephant at the
world famous San Diego Zoo and crazed Charger football fans with
lightning bolts painted across their chests. In addition to
standard tourist fare, however, San Diego can supply Bruins with
activities both restful and wild.
"L.A.’s such a bustling community; coming to San Diego makes you
feel like you’re in a small town," says Catherine Bertine, a
representative of the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce. "We
have a host of things to do."
For instance, want to play paintball with a bunch of Vietnam
veterans who still think they’re living in a war zone? Head down to
Borderland Paintball Park, the only paintball spot in the world
located right next to a skydiving landing zone (Signs everywhere
say, "Please don’t shoot the skydivers").
Perhaps lofting above the coastal cliffs of La Jolla sounds more
appealing. The Torrey Pines Glider Port, located across the street
from UCSD, gives hang gliding lessons to everyone from first-timers
to experts, and presents a spectacular view to wussies who don’t
want to strap themselves to a big kite.
With all this skydiving and hang gliding, San Diego’s culture
might seem obsessed with airborne endeavors. Remember, the naval
academy Top Gun used to be located at Naval Air Station, Miramar,
but it has since moved. Still, Bruins are welcome to visit Kansas
City Barbecue, the restaurant where the cast of "Top Gun" sang
Jerry Lee Lewis’ "Great Balls of Fire" at the piano.
Speaking of movie landmarks, if that tickles your pickle, check
out Hotel Del Coronado, the elegant and ultra-classy spot that
served as a backdrop for Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Marilyn
Monroe in "Some Like It Hot."
Or, if the Del Coronado strikes you as dull, sign up to become a
Navy Seal and go through the infamous "Hell Week" training regiment
on the other side of Coronado. It might be wise to hit the
exer-bike at the Wooden Center for some training beforehand.
More mellow San Diego pursuits include strolling down Prospect
Street in La Jolla, watching chubby sea lions lounge at nearby
Children’s Cove, shopping at downtown’s Horton Plaza or checking
out Old Town, home of the Whaley House, the country’s "most haunted
house" according to some federal landmark agency. Animal lovers can
find a turtle farm in Jamul, a parrot ranch in Mt. Helix and plenty
of fish and sea life at the Stephen Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. If
you have to drink during the day, the aquarium is by far the best
place to explore in San Diego while intoxicated. Have you ever
chugged a 40 and then really taken a good look at live jellyfish?
Those tentacles are amazing.
No, no, liquor is bad. But for Bruins old enough to responsibly
disagree, San Diego serves up some great bar scenes with sexy young
patrons. Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach, lined with bars, thrift
stores, music retailers and pool halls, goes off at night, as does
downtown’s historic Gaslamp District. Even La Jolla’s Prospect
Street turns up the funk-o-meter a few notches at night, cutting
loose at places like Jose’s, Moondoggie’s and the Hard Rock Cafe.
The area around SDSU gets pretty crazy, if Bruins can handle
sucking it up for a while and venturing to a (gag) State
school.
"We have over 45 TVs, and we get a huge UCLA crowd for the Bruin
basketball games," says Todd Jilbert of Moondoggie’s.
After a night of cavorting, the best place to wind up in the
morning is buck-ass naked on the sand at Black’s Beach, about a
mile north of Scripps Pier. Black’s Beach has earned notoriety over
the years not necessarily because it is a nude beach, but because
it is a nude beach with excellent waves. Mr. Black, for whom
Black’s Beach was named, actually lives farther south in front of
another beach with excellent waves, Windansea in La Jolla.
No experience on a San Diego beach would be complete without
taking part in a phenomenon called "body womping." Body womping is
best enjoyed at Marine Street in La Jolla. It involves standing
about waist deep in water a few feet from the shore and waiting for
a massive wave to womp you onto the sand. After a hard landing,
people traditionally yell, "Dude, killer womp!" The kids love it.
Again, a little time on the exer-bike at the Wooden Center wouldn’t
hurt before giving womping a try.
Farther down the coast, south of Mission Beach, Belmont Park
dares thrill-seekers to take a ride on a historic wooden roller
coaster called The Giant Dipper. Other rides and interesting shops
highlight Belmont Park, as well as an enormous public pool called
The Plunge. The Plunge is bigger than Lake Tahoe, but it’s a public
pool. While that might not sound too clean, it’s supposedly quite
sanitary.
Bruins visiting San Diego have permission to keep going south,
south, south, all the way to Tijuana where the drinking age is 18.
Many clubs and bars wait for your patronage. Tijuana is also home
to perhaps the most bizarre tourist photographic opportunity in the
world. You and your friends can put on a sombrero, sit on a donkey
adorned with colorful blankets and clothing and spend $10 to have a
black and white Polaroid taken. Be sure to keep this memento in the
glove box on the drive home, or the Border Patrol agent will see it
and giggle. Then he’ll make you stop while he shows the picture to
his Border Patrol buddies, and they’ll all have a good laugh before
letting you return to the United States. This can be embarrassing,
and yes, it does happen!
Now that Bruins have a few ideas what to do in San Diego, two
questions arise: how to get there and where to stay? Amtrak
round-trip rates are $40 from Union Station in downtown L.A. to
downtown San Diego or $32 from Union Station to Solana Beach, about
30 minutes north of downtown San Diego. The best bet by far is by
automobile; take the 405 South which merges with the 5 South to San
Diego.
If you’re from San Diego, call your parents. They might let you
stay in your old room. If you have friends in San Diego, stay with
them. If you have a Bruin buddy from San Diego, impose yourself on
their family. Otherwise, find a hotel. La Jolla hotel rooms get a
little pricey, except for maybe the Travelodge and the Sea Lodge
(at La Jolla Shores). Downtown gets a little expensive, too, so try
near Ocean Beach or Hotel Circle, near SDSU. It’s all pretty
simple, and a trip to San Diego is well worth the little effort
required in getting there and finding accommodations.
While enjoying a San Diego getaway, it’s always important to
remember one thing: nobody has calves like your mother.