My wife and I have lived in SD for almost 5 years and are familiar with most local areas and attractions. Yesterday, for the first time, we took the Land-Sea SEAL tour. The 90-minute tour goes on land from Seaport Village to Shelter Island and then down the boat-launch ramp into the Bay for about one hour on an amphibious craft that holds 40 people. The tour guide narration (ours was by Mark) was most enlightening, and you get to see lots of interesting things, including the mostly-submerged live bait containers (servicing the fishing day boats) with dozens of sea lions and their pups sleeping and moving about on the hatch covers. We were very glad we did it.

That sounds great!! Thanks so much for posting... bookmarking.

We see them out when sailing and we always wave and scream out something along the lines of 'welcome to our beautiful SD and hope you are enjoying yourselves'.
Looks like a great tour and its always full.
The tourists always wave back and say something like we love it so much here, were thinking about moving here!
We love our tourists in SD!

More info: Tickets are $32, but you can buy an e-ticket on-line for 10% less and print it youself; tickets are good for any date/time up to 6 months following purchase. No reservations--just show up 30-40 minutes in advance to sign in.

http://www.sealtours.com/san-diego/s...-and-rates.asp

During the "off season" (Note: There really is no "off season in SD") it operates only F, Sa, Su, with departures (as of this week) at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:00, and 4:00. We were on the 2:30 one, and at about 2:20 they were telling people that it was full.

And for the curious, I have no connection to this company--we just want to spread the good news because it was so much fun.

I see the tour buses around San Diego too. I will probably take a tour when friends come to visit. Thanks for the update.

One thing that bothers me a little is I was able to see a giant sign on the inside of the bus (they are pretty much open air) that says Hi, I'm your driver Bill and I take tips.
Or something to that effect. It was written in extremely large letters for all to constantly see if they were looking toward the front of the bus! I would be a little annoyed to constantly have to look at the solicitation throughout the entire bus ride.
My husband and I are very generous tippers and most tour guides will mention at the end of the tour that they appreciate tips. But this was a little over advertising IMHO>

The SEAL vehicle had a tip jar on a counter near where the exit ladder, and I saw people putting $5 or even $10 into it (we put in less). I think it was primarily a testimony to how well-received Mark's commentary was, complete with numerous photos he held up and occasional sound effects from a tape deck. There was no overt pressure for paying anything, and many did exactly that.

Is this like a duck tour they have in all sea-shore cities? Like we have them in San Francisco?

Yes, Dayenu, I believe they are the same idea. Our tour guide said the Duck Tours in other cities usually use converted military amphibious craft, but the seven SD Seal vehicles are specially built, non-military ones designed just for this purpose. Who knows???

This is a very interesting information, thank you!

Faina..when are you and the Mr. coming back to SD?
We have some great casinos to keep him busy..