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WE visited San Diego during one of our tours of North America. It is not on the usual Indian tourists’ circuit. The year round moderate climate is San Diego’s best asset. It enables people to visit it both in summer and winter. Situated between the high sierra and the sea, it has developed hugging the western crest of the mountains range. Seventy miles of beaches and a dazzling array of world-class family attractions, including the San Diego zoo and wild animal park, sea world San Diego and Legoland, San Diego offers a wide variety of things to see and do. It has emerged as California’s second-largest city, replacing San Francisco, and is now the United States’ seventh largest, with citywide population of nearly 1.5 million. Of late, it has emerged as a destination for hi-tech industry and attracts trained manpower. Its forte is now aerospace, electronic and pharmaceutical industries. San Diego employs four times more PhD graduates per capita in industry as any other place in America. In San Diego’s North County, the land produces quantities of flowers as well as quality grapes that become excellent wines, which are served at some of the most elegant restaurants and resorts in the region. Along the west, 70 miles of the Pacific Ocean coastline not only supports year-round outdoor recreation, such as surfing, boating, sailing and swimming, but also important scientific research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. San Diego’s arts and culture and culinary arts are making a name for themselves, both nationally and internationally. Balboa Park, the largest urban cultural park in the US, features 15 museums, numerous art galleries, beautiful gardens, the Tony award-winning The Globe Theatres and the world-famous San Diego zoo. The region is also breeding ground for the hottest, new talents of culinary arts, who prepare award-winning meals in many of the region’s 6,400 eating establishments. San Diego County also features 92 golf courses and exciting participatory and spectator sports, beachfront resorts and luxury spas, gaming, a dynamic downtown district, annual special events and unique holiday offerings, multicultural festivals and celebrations, colourful neighborhoods and communities, a rich military history, accessibility for travellers with disabilities and much more. We also visited the famous La Jolla beach resort. Although a part of San Diego, this snooty area prefers to consider itself different from the rest of the hoi polloi San Diego. It has a separate postal identification and a small, very high profile population, content with its own importance. More costly cars and jewellery shops are found on that stretch than anywhere else in San Diego. Following the La Jolla trail was a nice experience. A visit to San Diego will not be complete without a visit to the (Red) Indian reserve where they run a casino. That is the new trend in America. In theory, the (Red) Indian reserves are treated as sovereign in their internal rule. Many tribes have opened casinos to attract the gaming crowd from the neighbouring areas. California does not allow casinos in the state hence people make a beeline toward them in the reservations. The casino we went to was adequate, though not very big. It had all games, roulette table, black-jack, slot machines etc. There was a goodly crowd as well, even on a weekday. It kept everyone happy, the gamesters, the Reservation Indians and the tour operators. |
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