From Frommer's guide to San Diego

For many people, a visit to San Diego begins with the purchase of a travel guide. In some cases, the guides tell visitors all they ever will know about our city. If you live here, on the other hand, you may never experience San Diego through these intermediaries. The following questions and answers have been prepared to provide a glimpse of what you’re missing.

Why would anyone want to vacation in San Diego?

“Relatively free from smog and jungle-like freeways, San Diego, set around a gracefully curving bay, represents the acceptable face of southern California,” says the Rough Guide Online.

“The city is so mellow, pretty, and laid-back that stress just melts away.... Nothing dramatic happens here,” Access San Diego states. San Diego “has little of the sprawl characteristic of Los Angeles,” according to the Globetrotter guide entitled California. It adds, “On San Diego’s fringes, the urban trappings subside quickly. Even north along the coast, where some of the state’s most expensive ocean-view homes stand, a relaxed and friendly small-town mood pervades. Heading inland, the roads narrow and the population thins, and forested mountain foothills are only a 90-minute drive away.”

Chamber of Commerce 1930 brochure

The findmyroom.com Web-based city guide hints of a weird blend of cultures. “San Diego, with its mean temperature of 70 degrees F, swaying palm trees, Mediterranean-like white-washed stucco buildings and strong cultural influences from sunny Mexico, is as close to visiting a foreign country as visitors could get and yet, is as American as apple pie.”

According to the German-language LosAngeles/San Diego, selbst entdecken (Discover Los Angeles and San Diego), “The city is in comparison to the rest of California relatively safe from earthquakes and floods and protected from forest fires.”

Access San Diego guide

How big is San Diego?

Frommer’s San Diego 2001 informs us that it’s “the sixth-largest city in the United States (after New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Phoenix).”

What language do people speak?

“Although English is indeed spoken, the locals (especially teenagers and twentysomethings) have put their own spin on it, resulting in a hip patter that may throw many visitors for a loop,” Access San Diego declares. Examples include,

• amping: frantic or hyperactive behavior, as in Quit amping, dude, everything's cool
• dude: man
• hatin': miserable, as in I am so hatin’ righ now
• no way!: You can’t be serious! The typical response is Way, meaning Yes, I am serious
• vegging out: heavily relaxing
• wiggin': showing signs of anxiety; as in Mellow out, you’re wiggin

Best Places San Diego reports that “Many San Diegans speak Spanglish, a mix of Spanish and English that comes naturally after you’ve been here a few years.”

What are we locals like?

Guidebook writers often touch upon this subject, and sometimes they unearth surprising tidbits. City-Smart San Diego pontificates, “If forced to generalize, it might be fair to say that San Diegans are comparatively unpretentious, open-minded, and easy-going. Yes, there are the intensely ambitious among us, but more locals follow the motto etched in the glass over the booths at the La Jolla Brewing Company: ‘Live longer.. .digress often.’ ” Frommer’s San Diego 2001 claims that relaxing with afternoon tea is "a genteel tradition in San Diego” and lists this activity among its “favorite San Diego experiences.” The Frommer book also says > that “wandering down to the water at dusk, wineglass in hand, is a nightly neighborhood event” at Windansea Beach in La Jolla.

With nightly events like that, it’s no wonder that “San Diegans know then-neighbors and are darn proud of it” (as The Insiders’ Guide to San Diego asserts). Furthermore, we San Diegans “practically live outdoors,” according to Best Places San Diego, and we “resent rain and chilly fog for impeding fun in the sun.”

From Access San Diego guide

In good weather, “Do as the locals do,” urges Access San Diego, “and order a glass of white wine and seared ahi at George’s Cafe overlooking the cove, or cruise Prospect Street in a limo ”

How can tourists pass as locals?

Try “lots of bare skin,” states Best Places San Diego. It recommends wearing thongs (“a.k.a. flip-flops”) or running shoes, polarized sunglasses, baseball caps, and “hats with enormous straw brims ” Would-be local pretenders should avoid wearing socks, it advises, along with cutoff jeans or garish aloha shirts (“collared shirts with muted fish themes are fine”).

Michelin guide to California

What about local dogs?

“Dogs are pampered nearly as much as kids in this outdoor-oriented community,” Best Places San Diego claims. It adds that “Beach dogs tend to sport bandannas and carry Frisbees in their mouths.” (It doesn’t mention that dogs are not allowed on most beaches, on the sidewalks near beaches, or in public parks adjacent to beaches, leashed or unleashed, during daytime hours.)

Is there any pollution in San Diego?

“Breezes off the bay keep the air relatively pollution free,” says Michelin’s California.

What's the weather like?

“San Diego is California’s most climatically blessed coastal city, with soft ocean breezes keeping the air fresh and free of humidity.” (Globetrotter)

Balboa Park map from Michelin guide

“The only San Diegans who complain about the weather say that they prefer more rain and cold to mark the change of seasons,” asserts City-Smart San Diego. It adds, “These people tend not to be native to the area.”

Do you need a car to get around?

The San Diego County chapter in the Dorling Kindersley California guide advises that while “a car is essential for exploring the county’s inland areas..., within San Diego itself, public transportation is a viable option for the visitor.” The Globetrotter guide, another British publication, agrees. “The interesting parts of San Diego are generally safe and enjoyable to explore on foot.” But they “tend to be scattered across the city and separated by petrol stations, used-car outlets, and fast-food franchises.” A car thus “will save time but street parking is notoriously difficult.”

Best Places San Diego, on the other hand, is emphatic about having one’s own wheels. “You must have a car, unless you’re a firsttime visitor content with packaged tours.” Newcomers should know that “San Diegans are ruthless drivers,” this book advises. “They act as if mellowness is best left at the beach. Forget slowing down for merging traffic; locals love to speed up and challenge anyone with temerity. Study your entrances and exits before hitting the freeways, especially during rush hour.... If you’re a tourist, take the surface streets.”

Dorling Kindersley guide

What's the most ambitious itinerary suggested by a local guidebook?

A tough call, but the Best Places San Diego directions for how to spend two days here may be the winner. It recommends staying at the downtown San Diego Marriott Hotel and starting off early on the first morning, walking past Seaport Village but stopping “to admire the yachts in the marina, the early-morning light on the water, and the seagulls announcing the morning like roosters.” Then the visitor should walk to the ferry and take it to Coronado, rent a bike and pedal to Spreckels Park and the Hotel del Coronado, eat lunch there, “stretch your legs on the beach,” return to the ferry and downtown, shop at Seaport Village, return to the hotel, change clothes, then spend the evening din-ing and exploring the Gaslamp Quarter. The schedule for the next day starts with taking the Old Town Trolley or a city bus to Balboa Park, exploring the San Diego Zoo and eating lunch there, walking to the Prado, stopping at the Visitor’s Center, then visiting the Museum of Man, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Botanical Building, and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, then returning to the hotel, changing clothes, and going out to eat at the Star of the Sea, followed by a nightcap at the Top of the Hyatt At the same time, the visitor should “spend as much time as possible at the [ Marriott’s] tropical lagoon pool or on the waterfront walkway running to the Convention Center and Seaport Village.”

Gaslamp in the Dorling Kindersley guide

Attractions

Michelin, the venerable French publisher of travel books, offers no separate volume devoted to San Diego, but it does sell a “Green Guide” to California. This book judges only 11 “principal sights" in the state to be “Worth the Trip” as opposed to “Worth a detour”, “Interesting”, or merely noted, starless. From north to south, the 11 are the Avenue of the Giants (which adjoins Humboldt Redwoods State Park), San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, Death Valley National Park, Big Sur, Hearst Castle, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Disneyland, the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and San Diego. At the latter, the guidebook bestows three stars on only five places: Balboa Park, “Old San Diego,” the zoo, the Wild Animal Park, and the view from the Cabrillo National Monument.

In its introduction to the San Diego County section, the current Michelin guide claims, “Mexican is the dominant element in arts, architecture, crafts, culture, and food.” This book offers the strangest list of commercial recommendations to be found in any local guidebook. It mentions only six stores in San Diego County: John Cole’s Book Shop, the Cook’s Bookshop (now out of business), Blue Door Bookstore (also defunct), Joseph Tabler Books (also defunct), -Bazaar del Mundo, and the San Diego Hardware Company. Only one restaurant makes the Michelin California's cut, Kansas City Barbeque (“This very American watering hole is famed as the setting for scenes in the movie Top Gun”).

Los Angeles/San Diego...selbst entdecken (German guide)

What color are San Diego's beaches?

“To the north and south of the city are 70 miles of white-sand beaches, stretching from Oceanside to the Mexican border, where you can surf, sun, fling a Frisbee, even walk your dog,” Fodor’s San Diego 2001 informs its readers. “Visitors may see little beyond the harbor and the white-sand beaches,” echoes Moon’s Southern California Handbook. The Frommer’s San Diego 2001 describes Coronado Beach as “lovely, wide, and sparkling white.”

What's the beach culture like?

“If Southern Californians worship at the altars of youth, health, and beauty, then their churches are the beaches,” states the Dorling Kindersley book. “Here unbelievably beautiful men and women parade their surgically enhanced bodies beneath the ever-present sun.” Along San Diego County’s coastline, “The beach culture is sophisticated, particularly at Del Mar and Mission Beach, and the sports activity is frenzied. At La Jolla, hang gliders leap from the cliffs and nudists jog along the beach.”

Chicano Park in the German guide

Speaking of Black's Beach, is nude sunbathing still legal?

It is on the pages of The Insiders Guide to San Diego, which informs readers, “Even many Insiders don’t know that there are two Black’s beaches. The beaches divide at the bottom of the curving trail that leads from the beach access path at Torrey Pines State Beach. The path to the right is Black’s Nude Beach. Here swimsuits are optional.”

Most guidebooks report — correctly — that nudity is against the law on all parts of Black’s Beach. The City of San Diego did permit it between 1974 and 1977, an interval that City-Smart San Diego recapitulates in this manner: “For a long time the city designated Black’s Beach as a clothing-optional spot for sunbathers and swimmers. But recently city leaders changed their minds and rescinded the birthday suit option.”

Is Mission Beach now the wildest beach in the county?

The Globetrotter guide says, “With surfers, suntans and palm trees, Mission Beach... is the Southern California of popular imagination,” and the Rough Guide Online further elaborates. “Anyone of a nervous disposition, or lacking a physique appropriate to bathing apparel, might find Mission Beach...too hot to handle. On the other hand, the raver-packed sands, scantily clad torsos, and surfboard-clutching hunks may be precisely what you’ve come to the West Coast for.”

Where is this place?

Mission Beach is “three miles west of Downtown,” (Globetrotter) Geography trips up other guidebook writers. Michelin, looking inland, sees “a jumble of mountains and valleys that climax at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.... West of the mountains are the charming hamlet of Julian and the Palomar Observatory.” The Wild Animal Park, according to this guidebook, is “in the heart of San Diego County” and, later, “in central San Diego County.”

According to Best Places San Diego,"Harbor Drive runs along the north edge of San Diego Bay and then wraps southward to Harbor and Shelter Islands and Point Loma.”

British publisher Dorling Kindersley, best known for its series of “Eyewitness” travel books, suggests in its California volume that the Whaley House (incorrectly identified as “the first two-story brick building in California”) is “far beyond the official limits of” Old Town State Historic Park. (It’s one block away.)

Dorling Kindersley’s approach to statewide geography is offbeat. The book distinguishes only four areas: Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Bay Area, Northern California, and Southern California. In the last category, it lumps everything from San Luis Obispo and Death Valley on south, and it informs readers that the Southern California coast “From San Simeon to San Diego...is lined with resorts...” Attractions include “historic missions, the charming cities of Santa Barbara and San Diego, and the theme parks of Orange County.”

As for the inhabitants of Southern California, they “are very proud of their car culture and history,” the Brits declare, adding that indeed, “It is difficult to understand Southern California without considering the influence of the car.” The 1959 pink Cadillac, “with its glamorous design and convertible roof...suited California’s image and climate perfectly.” (An example of a pink 1959 Cadillac fills the two-page spread on “California Car Culture,” positioned above a box that explains our status as “Birthplace of the Motorcycle Gang.”)

Forget the motorcycle gangs. What I want to know is, who goes to the Del Mar Racetrack?

“Hollywood stars continue to flock here, in the grand tradition begun by Bing Crosby, Betty Grable, and Jimmy Durante.” (Frommer’s)

Is there any public art?

According to Los Angeles/San Diego, selbst entdecken, Chicano Park has “one of the most beautiful and politically engaged wall paintings you can see in the entire USA.”

And what about the media?

The German book says about the San Diego Weekly Reader, “If you understand enough English, it is thoroughly interesting to look through the free paper, larded with advertising. Otherwise, leave the newspaper lie; it is too heavy to carry.”

Do the guidebook writers know things we locals don't?

Sometimes it seems that way.

“With the bright and busy Horton Plaza, comer of Broadway and Fourth Avenue, Downtown also has a Southern California rarity: a shopping mall that is open-air and not located in deepest suburbia.” (Globetrotter)

“San Diego seems to face even its toughest challenges with an energy and resolve other cities may lack, as evidenced by the preservation of the Victorian-era residences in the Hillcrest neighborhood north of Balboa Park and the revitalization of Old Town and the Gaslamp Quarter.” (Michelin)

In San Diego’s coastal communities “lurk everyone from oil company executives and retired CIA operatives to surf-crazed beach bums.” (Globetrotter) “The rare bighorn sheep can often be spotted navigating rocky hillsides” in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. (Frommer) “Bicycle transportation on public streets is free, but a ‘bike permit’ must be obtained ($3) ” (Los Angeles/San Diego, selbst entdecken)

What special events might sound like standouts to a visitor?

Frommer’s San Diego 2001 claims that the annual Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade is “one of San Diego biggest draws.” The digitalcity.com visitor’s guide to San Diego states,“In March, the Ocean Beach Kite Festival makes for days of fun for the whole family, as does the rollicking, downtown St. Patrick’s Day Parade.”

What if someone wants to venture off the beaten track?

Frommer suggests a visit to Golden Hill, explaining that this “is an area where you’re likely to see coyotes, opossums, and even red foxes trotting down quiet streets. You’ll also find dyed-in-the-wool hippies, shacking up in unrestored shanties and hanging out at Santos Coffeehouse, whose Bohemian style is reminiscent of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury.”

The online Rough Guide points out that Ocean Beach “is currently one of the more sought-after addresses in San Diego. But the new money flooding in is barely in evidence at the main beach...”

Where might a visitor take children?

“If you and the kids need a shot of intense family fun, steer the car to Chuck E. Cheese’s,” advises The Insiders' Guide to San Diego. “No one has to be quiet or use proper manners here...”

Is it worth visiting Tijuana?

One of “Frommer’s Favorite San Diego Experiences” is riding the San Diego Trolley to Mexico. “The trip from downtown costs a mere $2, takes only 40 minutes, and the clean, quick trolleys are fun in their own right. Once in Tijuana, load up on colorful souvenirs and authentic Mexican food,” the author advises.

Dorling Kindersley points out that, “Thousands of Americans, who come to Tijuana every year to enjoy its inexpensive shopping and exuberant nightlife, often affectionately refer to the city as TJ.

Michelin sounds more dubious. “San Diego’s growth as a naval port and the relative proximity of fast-living Hollywood contributed to Tijuana’s reputation as a bawdy town of inexpensive pleasures. But tourist dollars, in turn, have begun to transform the city—sometimes affectionately called ‘TJ’ by Americans — into a commercial center where high-rises and luxury hotels have replaced some of the meaner streets of decades past.” (Michelin nonetheless awards only one star to a Tijuana attraction, namely Mexitlan, the collection of scale models of Mexican buildings and monuments that went out of business several years ago.)

In the judgment of the Globetrotter guide, Tijuana is “unrepresentative of Mexico but (gives] a brief glimpse of south-of-the-border life.”

How many people live in Tijuana?

“[S)ome 989,000 people.” (Michelin’s California, published in 1999)

“(With almost 1.8 million people, it’s the second-largest city on the west coast of North America.” (Frommer’s San Diego 2001)

“The city’s population-mushroomed from a mere 300,000 in 1970 to more than 2 million today.” (Fodor’s San Diego 2001)

What's Tijuana's weather like?

“Similar to San Diego’s,” says the Frommer guide, which warns, “Don’t expect sweltering heat just because you’re south of the border, and remember that the Pacific waters won’t be much warmer than those off San Diego. The first beaches you’ll find are about 15 miles south of Tijuana.”

Does any guide advise against going to Tijuana?

Well, there’s “Local Wally” at www.localwally.com. “I don’t deny it’s an experience, but having starving young children begging for money and getting sick from eating off the wrong taco stand is not my idea of a great vacation.” He tells visitors to “Go to Old Town instead and see the ‘sanitized’ version of Mexico and, yes, you will have a better time. Drink a margarita at Casa De Pico, stroll through the Mexican pottery shops, visit some of the free museums showing the history of Old Town, then cap it off with a great dinner of carnitas (shredded pork with homemade tortillas) at Old Town Mexican Cafe and I’ll guarantee you will thank me...”

Local Wally’s “San Diego Tourist Guide” stands out amidst its competition for another reason. Its creator, Gary Ng, a 42-year-old Carlsbad resident, hasn’t sought commercial sponsorship for most of the site’s three-year existence. Ng says the inspiration for it came after he and his wife vacationed in Hawaii and felt frustrated at not knowing about the best things to do there. He says it made him think that “in San Diego, if you’re a tourist, there are definitely key things you should do. There are key restaurants you should eat at — and the locals may not agree. Like, what’s the best Mexican food in town? Well, we know it’s not in Old Town. But you know what? If you’re a tourist, that’s where you gotta go! Right? Because if you go to some hole-in-the-wall Mexican joint out in Chula Vista, granted, you may get better-quality food, but you will have missed the whole experience.”

Ng says that while on a long airplane trip, he “just got on my laptop and started hacking away.... I’ve always been kind of a frustrated writer,” he confesses, and “this thing kind of fell into place — this whole persona of being a guy named Wally who knows all the cool stuff to do in San Diego. It was a way to unleash some of my creativity, because my real job at the time was as sales manager for Sprint.”

Today the persona of Wally — blunt, sarcastic, but passionate about pointing tourists to the ultimate “vacation in paradise”— infuses the extensive site. “As incredible as it seems, there ARE some bad spots in America’s Finest City,” he announces. The eight worst offenders, in his opinion, are Tijuana (“Getting to the border often means parking in San Ysidro, a border town in the US that will remind you of the cantina scene in Star Wars”); Julian (“45 minutes of fun, then it’s back in the car for that long drive back to the hotel”); East County (“There are NO tourist attractions worth your time in La Mesa, Lemon Grove, El Cajon, Santee, Lakeside, Alpine, or Ramona”); South Bay (“There is also nothing to see in Chula Vista, National City, Imperial Beach, or San Ysidro”); North County (“There’s just nothing there. I can’t even think of funny stuff to write. That’s how nothing there is there”); Viejas Casino (located in “Alpine, where desert is more like dry brush with buzzards flying over you just waiting for you to pass out in the heat. Add some cigarette smoke and a packed parking lot and you can see why Wally says NO to this attraction”); Hillcrest (“Local Wally has nothing against gays. But bad vacation stops? Absolutely”); and the Campo train to Tecate (“a hot, dusty train trip through bone-dry scenery”).

Discussing the airport, he “suggests you make a bet with your fellow traveler which terminal you’ll land in: the cool new one or the crappy old one.” Confronting the question of how to get around, he commands, “Don’t even think about public transportation. The books that tell you the ‘red trolleys’ are fun are insane!” And “if you try to take a bus, you will waste most of your day trying to get there.”

Asked how many people visit his creation, Ng answered, “I’m kind of embarrassed to tell you. Because I’ll get laughed at. I’m certainly not as big as the big boys — the corporate sites.” Furthermore, the number of visitors fluctuates, depending upon “stuff like whether someone wrote an article about me or someone put a link somewhere. You’ll get this big blast of people coming through, and then it tapers off” He says he measures how successful his site is by his e-mails, all of which he answers. In the summer he may get a dozen or two a day. People have told Ng they’ve printed out his seven-day sightseeing plan (“For Type-A Personalities”), followed it to the letter, and had the best vacation of their lives. “I didn’t really mean for people to take it literally, but that’s kind of cool.”

This spring, Ng finally added a few income-producing “affiliates” to the site, but he makes it clear that financial gain is not his main incentive. About two years ago, he was up for a promotion that would have required him to move to the Bay Area. He didn’t get it and was glad, “because I realized I would have had to take Local Wally down.” He says, “It’s a goofy little site. It’s just something I did in my spare time. But people who know me know I’m Local Wally. And you just can’t walk away from that. It’s a weird little responsibility.”

Is Local Wally correct in saying that guidebooks urge tourists to go to Julian?

Here’s a sample: “If you’ve never heard of Julian, then you’re in for a treat.... You won’t be able to resist partaking of the apple pie so beloved in these parts.” (Frommer’s San Diego 2001)

What other local legends do San Diego guidebook writers love?

First prize has to go to the story of where the Duke and Duchess of Windsor met. Although a historian named Benjamin Sachs more than a decade ago laid waste to the theory that this encounter took place in Coronado, guide-book writers continue to offer the following, whenever the subject of the Hotel Del arises.

“Its most famous foreign guest was Edward, Prince of Wales; while staying in 1920, he reportedly first met Wallis Simpson, 16 years before he abdicated Britain’s throne to marry her.” (Michelin’s current California guide) “Legend has it that the Duke of Windsor met his American duchess [at the hotel]....’’(Frommer’s San Diego 2001)

The Hotel Del's “Crown Room was that fateful place where Edward I, Prinz von Wales, First met the middle-class Wallie Simpson, which led to his renouncing the throne.” (Los Angeles/San Diego, selbst entdecken) “Wallis Simpson met Britain’s Prince of Wales here in 1920, beginning one of the great love stories of all time.” (Access San Diego)

“It is said that the Duke of Windsor first met Wallis Simpson here.” (Fodor’s San Diego 2001) “(I]n 1920 England’s Prince of Wales (who later became King Edward VIII) was an honored guest, and it has long been rumored that the Del was where he met Wallis Simpson, the woman he abdicated the throne to marry.” (The Insiders’ Guide to San Diego)

Just how romantic is San Diego?

Well, this part of Southern California has fostered some of the great romances — real and celluloid — of the twentieth century. It’s where Edward, Prince of Wales, met his future wife, Wallis Simpson, in 1920 (or so die-hard romantics believe).” (Introduction to Romantic Days and Nights in San Diego)

The legend of the Jessop clock (now located in Horton Plaza) also pops up. Frommer’s San Diego 2001 recounts the story this way: “In 1935, when Mr. Ledger [ the clock’s primary builder] died, the clock stopped; it was restarted, but it stopped again 3 days later — the day of his funeral.”

Then there’s the Whaley House. Almost every mention of it includes a reference to its alleged ghosts, though these come in several variations. Access San Diego counts “four resident spirits — Mr. and Mrs. Whaley, a young girl, and Jim Robinson (who was hanged near the house).” Romantic Days and Nights in San Diego includes “daughter Violet Whaley” among the spooks. San Diego Specters (a guide to haunted San Diego) calls the Whaley House “America’s Most Haunted Place” and lists “seven revenant spirits” among the “more common reports of the haunting” (Thomas and Anna Whaley; Robinson; “a little girl whose name is given as either Annabelle or Carrie Washburn”; a female Native American servant; a workman seen in the dining room; and Dolly, the Whaleys’ Scottish terrier). Perhaps most charming is Frommer’s San Diego 2001's assurance that “Director June Reading will make you feel at home, in spite of the ghosts.” (Do they mean among the ghosts? Reading died-in January 1998.)

Also intriguing are the repeated references to the site’s status as one of only two California houses “certified by the US Department of Commerce” as haunted. “We’ve asked a number of people and they’ve assured us that there is a list and it is legitimate,” said Bruce Coons, president of the Save Our Heritage Organisation, which has operated the Whaley House since November 2000. However, “We haven’t seen the list since we’ve taken over,” Coons acknowledged. (He added that “at least 85 percent” of the people who visit the Old Town attraction “are interested in the hauntings.”)

Coons suggested that someone who would know the details of the federal government’s list was Robert Wlodarski, a Los Angeles-area archaeologist who wrote The Haunted Whaley House: A History and Guide to the Most Haunted House in America. But when contacted and asked about the list, Wlodarski sounded regretful. “I’ve heard for 15 years about this wonderful list that’s supposed to apply to certain houses. I’ve called the government, and everyone says,‘Well, we’ve heard this too, but we don’t know where it is.’ ” Wlodarski has concluded that someone probably prepared such a list but it no longer exists.

What's the most bizarre report of a legend?

“Some say Bigfoot visited San Diego in the late 1800s, but proof of his presence has yet to be found.” (Access San Diego)

How are the guidebooks at recounting more conventional San Diego history?

Consider the question of why Father Serra moved the first San Diego Mission from Presidio Hill to a site up the river in Mission Valley;

“The land surrounding the new site was more fertile and had a larger population of potential Native American converts.” (Dorling Kindersley’s California) “The proximity of the garrison hindered the mission’s work, as the soldiers intimidated and sometimes molested potential Kumeyaay converts” (Michelin’s California) “Due to the original location’s lack of a water supply and exposure to Native American attack, the mission was moved after four years to a then remote site at 10818 San Diego Mission Road.” (Globetrotter)

City-Smart San Diego removes Father Serra from the picture altogether and replaces him with Inspector General Jose de Galvez. De Galvez, in fact, was the Spanish administrator in Mexico who planned Serra’s expedition, but he never set foot in Alta California. In the City-Smart guide’s version of history, however, De Galvez established California’s first mission and “brought with him colonists and missionaries...”

When did the first settlement occur, by the way?

Most of the guides get this basic historical fact right (1769). But Best Places San Diego would have its readers know that “Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo found the bay in 1542, and less than a century later, settlers and missionaries were building forts and missions on hills overlooking the water.”

What else might San Diego tourists wind up believing?

•That “a special favorite” at the Children’s Zoo is “the resident wombat.” (Frommer’s San Diego 2001)

•That gray whales once had their babies in San Diego Bay but later began bypassing it (Michelin). (Whaling historians say there is no evidence that the whales ever calved in local waters.)

•That “you can walk around Mission Bay on a series of connected footpaths” (Frommer). This assertion can only be considered true if one construes “around Mission Bay” and “connected footpaths” with a looseness that may exceed the average tourist’s imagination.

•That the middle section of the Coronado Bridge floats, “so that if it’s destroyed in wartime, naval ships will still have access to the harbor and sea beyond” (Frommer).“It’s a great story,” chortled Caltrans engineer Dennis Wilder, who says he’s been asked about it innumerable times. “But if that structure ever fell to the bay below. I’m sure it would crush like a tin can .” Wilder speculates that this piece of folklore had its origin in the fact that when the bridge sections were barged down to San Diego after they were built in the Los Angeles area, the builder’s insurance company required that the individual pieces be able to float.

•That Ray Kroc founded the McDonald’s hamburger chain in San Diego (Access San Diego). Although Kroc moved to San Diego toward the end of his life, he founded his fast-food empire in suburban Chicago.

•That “San Diego’s tuna fleet, with about 100 boats, is one of the world’s largest (and perhaps smelliest)” (Frommer’s). (While that was probably true 15 years ago, today only a handful of small boats continues to operate out of San Diego.)

•That Tom Wolfe’s Pump House Gang was a “surf novel” (Best Places San Diego).

Why do the guidebooks get so many things wrong?

A better question might be how they get so much right. Most of the books make an effort to be encyclopedic, so they contain a staggering quantity of information. Given the way the industry works, it’s a miracle the books are as accurate as they are.

Two factors work against getting the facts straight. The first is that the guidebooks often don’t reach print until long after their authors have researched them. “Most books are written at least a year before they ever appear on a shelf,” points out Maribeth Mellin. An Ocean Beach resident, Mellin has been writing guidebooks for almost 20 years. She’s contributed about 20 different volumes focusing on San Diego, California, Mexico, Costa Rica, Hawaii, Argentina, Peru, and the Caribbean. One consequence of the time lag until publication, she says, is that the writers feel some pressure to mention only time-tested establishments. “You never want to put in a new restaurant because you don’t know if it’s going to last,” she explains. “It may be the hippest, coolest new restaurant in San Diego, but if it doesn’t have a track record, I won’t include it.” If a book is updated every year (as both Fodor’s and Frommer’s San Diego books are), the author has a chance to catch outdated information. But Mellin says many publishers postpone revising their books until they’ve sold enough copies (figures that are never revealed). This was the case with Best Places San Diego, published by Seattle-based Sasquatch Books in 1999. Mellin was the editor and one of the writers of it, and she heard only this past spring that Sasquatch wants to redo it. A more extreme example is Access San Diego. Mellin wrote the first edition in 1989, and she revised it for a second edition that bore a 1996 publication date. But Harper-Collins called a halt to the series in the late 1990s.

The 1996 book is nonetheless still being sold, filled though it is with incorrect area codes and references to such nonexistent local fixtures as the 55-mile-an-hour speed limit, Jack Murphy Stadium, the Palladion shop-ping center, the Naval Training Center, and more. Mellin says she once was having lunch at the Hotel del Coronado, when she spotted a couple with a copy of the book. She couldn’t restrain herself from asking them what they thought of it. When they mentioned inaccuracies, Mellin confessed she was the author and did some off-the-cuff updating." ’Cause I felt so bad! These books are not cheap.”

A second reason inaccuracies occur in guidebooks is economic. It costs a lot to get facts right, but most publishers want to pay the guidebook writers as little as possible. “The pay is terrible, and they keep asking for more and more,” says Edie Jarolim. She worked for several years as an editor for Frommer’s, the Rough Guide, and Fodor’s, before moving to the writing side of the business. She revised Fodor’s San Diego book for several years (including the 2001 edition). She’s the sole author of Frommer’s San Antonio and Austin, The Complete Idiot's Travel Guide to Mexico's Beach Resorts, and Arizona for Dummies. Jarolim says the most she has ever received for writing a guide-book was $25,000, an amount that’s near the top of the scale for the industry. At the low end, Maribeth Mellin says, some publishers will try to get inexperienced writers to produce a book for as little as $2500.

Both women say that although years ago writers received royalties for travel books, today no guidebook publisher to their knowledge offers this kind of arrangement. Nor do the publishers maintain fact-checking staffs; instead, they assume the writers have gotten everything correct.

Furthermore, no publisher reimburses its writers for expenses. Every penny spent by a writer comes out of his or her flat fee. Mellin and Jarolim say one way writers get around this is by accepting free meals, lodging, and admissions. Most publishers have no policy banning this, they say, though Sasquatch (the Best Places company) is one exception. (“Because we accept no free meals, accommodations, or other complimentary services, we are able to provide tough, candid reports,” the company boasts.)

“It’s a very difficult policy,” Mellin says.“But the way they [implement] it is interesting. They gave me a fee to be the editor of the [San Diego] book and then a budget to assign the writers.... And what you do is work with writers who’ve written other books and know this stuff, so they don’t have to ask for comps.” Her own experience covering Mexico is an example, she says. “I’ve probably done six different guidebooks to Mexico, plus I’ve written tons of articles. So I piggyback that knowledge. You know, you just sort of create a knowledge bank in your head and then find enough assignments to cover yourself.”

Writers nonetheless wind up having to pay for various expenses. Mellin and Jarolim say it’s demeaning to ask for freebies, plus it’s time-consuming (hotels, for example, often insist on providing a tour of the property). The bottom line is that the more thorough and meticulous a writer, the less money he or she makes. “I finally decided it wasn’t cost-effective,” says Jarolim, who recently abandoned the guidebook-writing business to take a job as the travel and food editor for the Tucson Daily Star.

“I don’t want to ever go back to doing guidebooks,” she declares. She says she has no illusions that publishers will increase what they pay writers. “They can always get young writers who think it’s glamorous.” Jarolim laughs at that image. “I don’t think I ever once lay on a beach in San Diego or Mexico. I was always too busy asking how much it cost to rent a Wave Runner.”

What sights did local guidebooks recommend in the past?

When the Chamber of Commerce published a brochure entitled San Diego: 503 Things to See in 1930, its suggestions included activities still touted by guidebooks today: touring the bay on one of the daily harbor excursion boats (cost then: $1), visiting the Junípero Serra ("Hoo-nee-pair-oh Say-rah") Museum, boarding the Star of India ("now the property of the Zoological Society and...being preserved to house a Marine Museum"), venturing down to Tijuana ("'Tee-hwah-nah' — A blending of the quaint and the modern.... Visitors welcome and treated with courtesy.... Border opens at 6 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m.") and paying a call at the Whaley House (no ghosts were mentioned). However, a tourist might also drop in at the Theosophical Headquarters on Point Loma, see the oldest palm tree in California ("planted by Father Junípero Serra in 1769" and still allegedly clinging to life in Old Town at the corner of Taylor and Chesnut Streets), or rent horses in Balboa Park for $2 an hour.

By 1941, Your San Diego was boasting that the San Diego Zoo was "one of the finest zoos in America," home to "Martin Johnson's world-famous Gorillas Ngagi and Mbongo...the only two Mountain gorillas exhibited in the United States." Polar bears were "kept comfortable throughout the year by specialized feeding," and the zoo was supplying "ninety per cent of the trained seal acts int eh world." Visitors might want to catch a baseball game at Lane Field ("The Padres have represented San Diego in the Pacific League for the past several years...") or make the trip south to Agua Caliente ("A glamorous setting in a foreign country, right at our doorstep almost").

Eight years later, with the 1949 publication of Seeing San Diego County and City, tourists were advised that "Within the confines of a single county are such oddly divergent items of interest as the world's greatest astronomical observatory and the nation's smallest national monument; the scene of the only really bloody battle in the American seizure of California, and the site of the first of the Mission chain established to being Christianity to the native Indians; the Navy's greatest air-base and the Marines' greatest training base; the world's largest sea-plane manufactory and the world's foremost Institute of Oceanography." Yet "with all this, it is just enough out of the beaten path to have remained a place of 'dolce far niente.' It is still the land of 'Mañana.'"

This author also pointed out that "Nothing is a more valued and picturesque characteristic of the streets of San Diego than the crowds of sailors, snugly uniformed in blue, and crowned with the traditional little white hat set at its precise jaunty angle. The same is true of the erect young Marines, conscious of the fighting traditions of their Corps, who throng the streets of Oceanside and San Diego when on liberty." Also winning positive positive mention were "the men who man the hundreds of boats in the fishing fleet. Their catches are processed by the canneries of San Diego, which pack 65% of America's tuna, with an annual value exceeding $50,000,000.00"

When he turned to the history of San Diego, however, the writer saw more repulsive characters. "it cannot be said that the aboriginal inhabitants of San Diego County were of the highest type of the human race.... Actually they seem to have been a rather degraded race of humans, with a stone-age culture which had not yet advanced to the stage of much organization beyond the family group.... Decidedly these were not the 'noble red men' of eastern America.... Yet they were a cheerful, carefree race who spent much of their time in dancing."

By 1969, with the publication of Leander and Rosalie Peik's Discover San Diego — Things to Do, Places to Go, City and County, Sea World (Admission $3.25) and Old Town State Park ("really just beginning to take shape") had made their appearance. But the Peiks also recommended outings to Bible Land ("a most unusual display of Biblical scenes...created entirely from sand...25 miles north of Escondido.... Children especially will enjoy a stop here") and Scripps Miramar Ranch (the 20,000-square-foot-mansion built by newspaper magnate E.W. Scripps, open to visitors willing to pay $2), among other attractions. They listed 15 different aviation companies, offering "scenic flights over the city" for prices as low as three dollars per person. And they pointed out that among the tours of San Diego business establishments, "Pacific Telephone and Telegraph will gladly five you a [free] tour through any of their exchanges [where] it is amazing to see the thousands of relays and electronic gadgets in action."