THE SUN COAST INN has the most comfortable bed I've slept in since we left home. We start this morning with breakfast at the Village Kitchen & Pie Shop, just around the corner from the motel, after which we all drive in our car to San Ysidro. Here we park at the Border Station parking lot and hop onto the big red Mexicoche bus that will take us across the border.

Linda is not real impressed with Tijuana. Neither are the others. For one thing, Tijuana is a big city, and none of us are all that thrilled about cities anyway. And it's not a very clean city. The aggressiveness of the shop peddlers and street hawkers makes us uncomfortable, and the fact that they include beggar children is not at all pleasing to Lizzy. We walk all the way up Avenida Revolucion, the main street, into a part of town that we would not ordinarily wish to visit, and this does nothing to make the area more appealing to Linda. She is more than a little negatively impressed with seeing the prostitutes hanging out at 11:00 in the morning.

Life gets a lot better, though, after we stop for lunch at Iguana y Rana, a restaurant/bar with dining outside on a balcony overlooking the street. It also sports another balcony made from an old school bus. Lizzy likes that. There are strolling mariachi musicians and really good guacamole. As we leave we notice a wall covered with photos of all the famous people who have supposedly eaten here.

We explore the avenue for bargains. There are a lot of them. Linda finds a woven wall hanging that she likes, and begins a long round of price haggling for it. She ends up buying it for a price she likes, plus having a wooden coyote statue tossed into the bargain. Later, Linda buys a piece of pottery. All of these things will end up in our Southwestern style recreation room.

By afternoon, we have seen as much of Tijuana as we ever want to, and we head back to the bus depot, where we again board the Mexicoche bus. Coming into the United States from Mexico is more complicated than leaving. At the border, we have to leave the bus and wait in line at the Border Patrol station to be asked what country we're from and have our shopping bags run through an airport-style x-ray machine. Then it's back on the bus to wade through heavy traffic to the parking lot.

Of course, we've spent only a brief time looking at just the surface of a small part of Tijuana. Not only is our experience not typical of Mexico, it isn't even a very good look at Tijuana (although it's often the only part that a casual tourist sees). If you would like to read some really fascinating stories about things to see and do in and around Mexico's third largest city, check out Joel Siegfried's excellent series of articles:  

Once we're on our way home, the traffic is not bad until we come upon road construction near Del Mar, where it comes to practically a complete standstill. The fact that it is now about 4:00 on the Friday of Labor Day weekend is probably a contributing factor.

Tonight we have dinner with Mom at the Chart House, overlooking the marina in Oceanside. It's nice, but a bit overpriced. After dinner, we go back to Mom's for more poker, and Lou begins a futile attempt to get the VCR hooked up and working. First of all, she lives, without cable, at the fringes of two broadcasting areas, and there is not enough reception to support another piece of equipment. Secondly, there are cables needed in order to hook the VCR up. Lou gives up for the night. He will buy stuff at Radio Shack tomorrow to complete the job.

Oceanside Harbor & Marina The Chart House is the cantilevered triangle-shaped building on the right

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Story and original photography copyright ©1996-1997 by John Lipman. All rights reserved.
Descriptions, observations, and characterizations expressed are solely those of the author.
Background music is copyright © 1996 by Tom Wagner and Steve Baker. All rights reserved.

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