]This morning, the first thing on our agenda was to get a Compass card. San Diego uses something called a Compass card for there public transportation. We walked to the Transit Store, which was about a mile from our hotel. I purchased a Compass card for $2 and a four-day pass for $15. I also purchased the same for Jay. The Compass Card allows us to travel on both buses and trams. I had downloaded an app to my iphone that allows you to put in your starting point and your ending point and it tells you which buses or trams you need to take. Our next stop was to got to Old Town. According to the app, we needed to take the #30 bus for about 5 stops.
Old Town had a lot of neat shops and shows how they lived when the town was first formed and highlights the Mexican influence. They had shows that sold pottery, candles, soaps, tin products and jewelry and other stores. There were also several restaurants. We ate at a Mexican restaurant. Jay had a steak and I had the beef fajitss. After lunch it was time to head back to the Harbor for the Big Bay Balloon Parade. To get back there, we took the Green line train. We then walked along the harbor until we found some benches to sit on. I asked Jay about his Compass card and he couldn’t find it. We had only had it for a few hours and he lost it. Jay looked in all his pockets and could not find it,
When the parade started, we went over to the curb to watch. The parade lasted about 1 1/2 hours. We were standing in the shade and it was cold. The parade was a lot of fun. After the parade was over, we walked back to the hotel.
I used the app, Open Table, to make reservations for supper. The restaurant I chose was the same one, several people who had worked making the parade possible was celebrating that it was over. Actually they took up two large tables and they were loud and having a good time.
Because they were so busy, it took them a long time to bring our food, so the waitress brought us salads to appease us. Jay ordered the steak and I had the fried shrimp. After we ate, we headed back to the hotel, on the way we came across a cupcake shop. I stopped and Jay and I each got a cupcake to take back to the hotel with us.