Friday 5 March 2010

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Awake: 6+26      Temp 46      sleep 6+01      sunny      overnight @ San Diego, CA.     

Kathy did (2) laundry loads mid morning.

Dick called from Goodyear, AZ & gave us an update on his health. Seems he had kidney stones & a stint was put in following removal of the stones. The stint is to be taken out soon, but due to this complication, they are still not sure if they can join us in Vegas.

I called nephew Brian & talked for (18) min. We are planning on a rendezvous either Saturday & Sunday.

I called Alaska & asked to have our mail forwarded to this campground before we leave.

Before we motored downtown today, we had a good chit-chat with our new neighbors who, just this morning, moved over close to our campsite. We met them (5) days ago while walking around the campground. Richard & Nancy are real Alaskans from Fairbanks, so we had a lot to talk about.

K & I left around 12:40pm for the big city of San Diego to continue our walk around the town. Same deal, we parked in the Horton Plaza & walked the blocks in a rectangular fashion. This time, we went in a north to a south direction & then a south to north direction repeating every block.  

After walking up & down the city blocks for over an hr with nothing of interest to report, finally we came into the Historic Gaslamp Quarter where there is plenty to see & do; dining, bar hopping, entertainment & urban shopping available. Note: the San Diego Convention Center in the background. DSC08837.JPG How about a little history of how this came about: In the 1870s Alonzo Horton built a wharf at the foot of Fifth Avenue and a development boom ensued. The original visitors of the 1880s were gamblers and prostitutes, such as Wyatt Earp and Ida Bailey. In the "Boom of the Eighties," numerous gambling halls, (71) saloons, opium dens, and (120) brothels sprang up in San Diego's "Stingaree," the wide open, red light district, esp. around 3rd & I (Island).

The Grand Horton was an elegant, ornate structure built by a German immigrant as a replica of the Innsbruck Inn in Vienna, Austria. Opened in 1886, the hotel was one of many constructed during the "Boom of the Eighties" to accommodate the influx of people.

After the arrival of San Diego's first trans-continental train in 1885, some 26,000 visitors flocked to the little town of 5,000 the following year.The Grand Horton and Brooklyn hotels were scheduled for demolition in the late 1970's and were purchased from the City of San Diego for $1.00 each. The redwood infrastructures were swapped for the labor needed to dismantle them brick by brick. Over 10,000 pieces were cataloged and stored in a warehouse until the rebuilt "Horton Grand Hotel" reopened at its present location in May, 1986. DSC08833.JPG Ida Bailey, for whom the Horton Grand Hotel's turn-of-the-century restaurant is named, was the district's most famous - and classiest - Madam, with an establishment less than two blocks from where the Horton Grand Hotel now stands. DSC08835.JPG But by 1909, when Chief of Police Keno Wilson expressed opposition to closing down the red light district (he preferred the status quo so the police could keep an eye on things), the public outcry to "clean up" the Stingaree was nearing the point of no return. DSC08834.JPG The "Great Raid" was finally planned for November 11, 1912. At 6 a.m. on Sunday morning the police struck and 138 ladies were arrested. There was so much confusion over the date the raid was going to be held, that the Mayor of San Diego and three Councilmen got the dates confused and were picked up by the police while visiting Ida Bailey's brothel which by now was next door (and now part of the Horton Grand Hotel).

The Mayor offered the ladies their choice of leaving the profession by accepting a job with the city or leaving San Diego. Only one lady took him up on his offer and worked on the switchboard. Her replica can be seen in one of the whimsical vignettes, visible when using the Horton Grand's north elevator......which we missed seeing.

When we walked past the Petco Park & the stadium of the San Diego Padres, we also saw the sign: Little League World Series 2009: Chula Vista Named Champions ... DSC08838.JPG The Coast Express Rail, or Coaster can be seen behind the palm trees, & in front of the San Diego Convention Center; also in blue & white. DSC08840.JPG We wanted to avoid the Friday rush-hr so we hustled back to the Horton Plaza & whistled outta town just in the nick of time. The pedometer registered 4.7 miles for today.

Dinner: Pasta with a crab & asparagus sauce & whole wheat bread.

Evening movie: "Two Weeks in Another Town" with Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, George Hamilton, etc. Overly ambitious attempt to intellectualize Irwin Shaw novel, revolving around problems of people involved in movie-making in Rome. Reunites much of the talent from THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, footage from which is used as the film-within-a-film here.1962. We didn't really care for this movie or story, but we did enjoy seeing a few of the photo's around Rome.

Lights out: 12:07am.

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This page contains a single entry by George Monte Kirsch published on March 7, 2010 2:27 PM.

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