My plan today was to ride the entire network of the San Diego Light Rail System better known as the San Diego trolley. Well, my wife after all the excitement of the past few days was feeling really tired and was slow getting up so she decided to rest while I rode the light rail line to San Ysidro and back.

     I had ridden this line several times after it had first opened in 1981 but have not had the opportunity to be on it since 1986 so I was interested to see what changes I would find along the line. I would have walked over to the light rail station but I was going to get breakfast when I got back so I drove over the station which was just across the freeway from the hotel.

     The bad thing was that it was Sunday and the trains only run every 30 minutes Sunday mornings despite the trains being full. The first train to pull in was heading north so it gave me a couple of minutes to walk over to the southbound platform. I noticed that the Chula Vista Visitors center was located here at the station, so great job to them.

      After waiting about 10 minutes the southbound train arrived with 3 SD100 cars. I boarded the last car of train, actually found an available window seat on the left side of the train and waited for us to leave which we did in about one minute. The trip down to the border only takes 19 minutes from the E street station. The trolley goes through largely run down neighborhoods with lots of graffiti. In fact there is areas around here were you cannot tell whether you are in the United States or Mexico and you have to wonder if that is our countries future.

      I had originally planned to get off the train in San Ysidro and take some pictures but when we pulled into the station there was a huge group of people waiting to board the train so I just moved to the opposite side of the train so I could see the other side of the tracks on the trip back.

      The train was standing before leaving the station. Most of the people looked to be residents of Mexico heading to jobs on this side of the border. The trolley is really convenient for people traveling back and forth between both sides of the border. In addition Interstate 5 can be the biggest nightmare so the Trolley makes a great alternative. For tourists, downtown Tijuana is less than a mile from the border so it is an easy walk or there is shuttle buses for those who can’t walk.

      As we started to leave I noticed that all the traffic lights in the area were out. I would later find out that power was out along the border for most of the morning. The trip back was much like the trip coming down except that most of the commercial areas appear to be east of the train and mainly residential to the west which was the side I was on now.

       Once we got back to the E-Street station, I drove over to Dunkin Donuts and bought some donuts and orange juice and headed back to the motel. By this time my wife was almost ready to go so we enjoyed our breakfast before driving back to the trolley station and waited for our northbound train. The trip to downtown is pretty uneventful and pretty boring mostly industrial areas.

       The San Diego Trolley’s Maintenance base and headquarters is located at the 12^th and Imperial station (Jim Mills Transfer Station). The last time I was here there was nothing but a junction for the Eastside line and the maintenance building. But today there is three story building that covers the tracks, some shops (all closed on Sunday), plus an area for the Orange Line trains to layover after traveling through the station, through downtown and then past the convention center area.

       Once through the downtown area which is not that exciting since most of the current development is along the seaport line near the convention center. The train then wraps itself around the San Diego train station. This station is very busy as it serves not only the trolley but Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliners and commuter trains of Coaster. From here until old town the train follows the mainline of the railroad. You past fairly close to the San Diego airport and can have planes fly right over your train as they approach the airport. The trip from E station to OldTown takes about 38 minutes much of it traveling through the downtown area.

        At the OldTown station you have to get off the train and then board a separate Green Line train. I always try to sit on the left side of the train because it gives a better view but all the seats on the left side of the train were already taken. In addition I was hoping to ride one of the new S70 low floor cars since we are supposed to get them in Salt Lake City in a couple of years but they turned out to be the older SD100 cars like we have already.

       My father oversaw construction projects for the FW Woolworth Company and he spent some time at the store at Fashion Place Mall when I was a teenager. I spent a few weeks with him and got to spend a lot of time in the area. Overall, the area has not changed much from that point mainly having lots of hotels and motels plus the mall. After passing the mall you go through a transit oriented development that looks really nice and then the line goes through the parking lot of Qualcomm Stadium on an elevated structure.

       At this point the train has been on the north side of Interstate 8 but now goes over the Interstate then travels along the south side of the interstate. Then the train goes into the only tunnel that the San Diego light rail system has including the underground station at San DiegoStateUniversity. After leaving the tunnel the line continues along the freeway past a hospital before joining the Orange line just south of the GrossmontCenter.

       We rode the trolley to the end of the line at Santee with the trip taking 48 minutes from Old Town .When the trolley was first extended out here there was nothing here but now a large commercial area has been built but sadly it is not well designed around the rail station. My wife was thirsty so she went looking around for something to drink and finally found a smoothie place and bought one before we got back on the train and headed south to Gillespie Field which is the next station on the line and the terminus of the Orange Line, the whole trip taking about 3 minutes.

       Since the Orange line train leaves 4 minutes before the Green line train comes along, we have a 26 minute wait for the next Orange Line train. That gives my wife plenty of time to finish her smoothie. This station appears to be out in the middle of no where. There is an airport directly across the street, and for those NASCAR fans the El Cajon Raceway is at the far side of the airport and this is were 2006 and 2007 Nextel Cup Champion Jimmy Johnson got his start.

       After a while the Orange line train and we boarded it heading toward downtown. My father had stayed near this line many times in El Cajon but I did not recognize the place or the area. After the Grossmont Station the line moves away from the Green Line and follows the former right of way of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern. This area is still gets rail freight service at night after the light rail line has gone to sleep for the night.

       This route also goes through mainly older areas some of which look pretty run down. When the trolley first came down Commercial Street, the area really changed as it was pretty run down but it has changed little since then. The line then goes through the downtown area before traveling along Harbor Blvd past a lot of new construction, the convention center and hotels. The line ends right next to the 12^th and Imperial Transit Station that the train passed 20 minutes earlier. Total transit time from Gillespie Field to the end of the line is one hour and 3 minutes.

       As I mentioned before area is closed up on Sundays which means there is nothing in the area to get a soft drink or anything to eat. We just missed a Blue Line train but we only had to wait 15-minutes before the next train came along. We took the Blue line down and back to the car. After arriving at the transit center I went into the visitor’s center and got some brochures for future trips.

       We then got into the Torrent and drove over to CoronadoIsland. Our destination was the Del Coronado Hotel which is a famous beach hotel that is supposed to be haunted. Trying to find parking in the area was a headache but we found a place to park and started walking around the hotel. If you can afford it, you must spend a night at this lovely hotel. The next time my wife and I come down here we are planning to spend a night here. Not only is the outside beautiful but the inside of the hotel is just as immaculate. We went through the various stores before getting some sunset pictures along the beach.

       After spending about an hour around the hotel we started looking for a place to eat. We could not find anything that look appealing in the area that was reasonably priced so we headed back over the bridge and started looking for a place to eat. We stopped at a shopping center to find some film then continued looking for someplace to eat. We drove down several streets but decided to head to another Carrow’s restaurant which happened to be only blocks from our hotel.

       While the food was good at this Carrow’s, the service was poor and was a disappointment compared to previous experiences with the place. After dinner we headed back to the hotel after another fun day. Tomorrow it would be up early for a tip to the San DiegoWildAnimalPark.