Saturday Roundup: San Diego, Charlie, and This Week's Posts
Walking tours, Dr. Seuss, & downtown legends
Did you know San Diego was originally called San Miguel when discovered in 1542?
It wasn’t until 60 years later that another Spanish explorer renamed it San Diego, and the name stuck.
It was also once part of Mexico before becoming part of the United States.
Yesterday I went on a 5 hour walking tour with a fabulous local chap called Charlie, who’s something of an amateur historian, and he absolutely wowed us with his knowledge, not just of San Diego and California, but of American and world history too.
He’d be amazing at Trivial Pursuit.
Of course, I retained about 1% of what he told us.
But I can tell you that the word “dame” comes from the French word for lady, a “cracker” was originally a cattle-driving cowboy who cracked a whip while herding livestock, and that much of modern downtown San Diego exists because one determined businessman called Alonzo Horton bought a load of dusty land near the waterfront when everyone thought he’d completely lost the plot.
I also discovered that Dr. Seuss spent many of his later years living in San Diego, and every year The Old Globe Theatre stages How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (My daughter’s favourite Christmas movie!)
One of my favourite parts of the tour was wandering through the Gaslamp Quarter. Today it’s full of restaurants, bars and beautifully restored Victorian buildings, but in the late 1800s it was a rough-and-ready district known for gambling halls, saloons and brothels. Sailors arriving from the nearby naval base often headed straight here looking for entertainment.
Unfortunately I haven’t taken full advantage of my time here due to being a bit under the weather, but the more time I spend here, the more I realise how much there is still to discover.
Between the history, the waterfront, the naval heritage, Balboa Park, Coronado and all the different neighbourhoods, I could happily spend several more weeks exploring.
I’ll just have to come back!
Anyway, enough of my San Diego history lesson. Here’s a roundup of this week’s posts in case you missed any.
Have a fab Saturday!
I’ll be back tomorrow with 6 Notes Sunday, a roundup of my fave notes from Substack this week.
Right now I’m off for a BBQ on the beach!
Jo 😎🥳