October 4: More Sea World, Mt. Palomar, Palm Springs Tramway

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Day 5: We had these 14 day passes good at Sea World and Universal Studios, so we went back to Sea World in the morning just to finish off a couple of things that we missed. Then we hit the road. It was the worst weather of the trip as there were intermittent showers and very low, thick clouds driving north from San Diego.

I took a side trip off the freeway and up this winding mountain road to go to Mt. Palomar. We hit the bottom of the cloud layer at about 2000 ft elevation. It was really thick, we could barely see off the side of the road. Then at about 4500 feet we broke through the ceiling to a clear and sunny day. It was beautiful. The observatory itself was something like 5518 feet. Unfortunately there was not much to see up there. The giant telescope is the only thing there, and that is not really impressive to look at.

So I drove back down the mountain and into the fog. That was exciting. You could smell the brake fluid by the time we got to the bottom. Then we had a long drive to make it to Palm Springs before it got dark. We wanted to go up the tramway to Mt. San Jacinto. The peak is 10804. The tramway goes to 8516 feet. The view was terrific, as the sun set behind the mountain and we watched the lights come on in the city below.

Then back at the hotel Mary phoned her brother Johnny and he came over for a reunion. The first time they had seen each other in 15 years.