Old Town San Diego: Preserving the Past

San Diego. Best known for its ideal warm climate, massive zoo, and yes of course, Sea World. Little do most people know that there are several other sparkling gems that lie in this southern California oasis. One of my favorites is the Old Town District of San Diego.

When most use San Diego for no more than a spring board to Sea World, Disneyland and a plethora of amusement parks that surround the area, many don't know that there exists Old Town San Diego.



The city has outdone itself to preserve the area where the first foundations of the city were laid. Upon visiting this area, one comes upon a down filled with history. Several pioneer replica buildings surround the half mile block. These buildings are meant to look the way they did back when the city was first founded. One can find various museums housing antique furniture, aged Wells Fargo wagons, and photographs of the early inhabitants and settlers of San Diego. Accompanying the museums are various tourist shops and markets as well as a general store and an old fashion candy shop where they arduously pull taffy in the window for onlookers to experience.

The city also is home to some of the best authentic Mexican food in the city. Situated a short distance from the Mexican boarder, San Diego is filled with the influential food and culture that the Mexican people have brought with them. We had the fortune of eating at one of these restaurants close to old town called Old Town Mexican Cafe. The restaurant, like many within walking distance, serves a huge variety of delicious authentic Mexican. I highly recommend the Molcajete, a cornucopia of marinated chicken, carne asada, and jumbo shrimp. If you are lucky you will be there when the mariachi bands are serenading patrons.

One of the most interesting places in Old Town San Diego was the Mormon Batallion Museum. Located a block just outside of old down, this museum was amazing. Owned and operated by the LDS church, missionaries and attendants take you back in time as you experience the journey of the Mormon battalion. Just as a little background, when the Mormon pioneers were making their way out to Utah in the 1840's, the United States Government ordered the formation of a battalion of 500 men to go combat the Spanish in the southern territories several decades before the actual Spanish American war. While en route to Utah, the U.S. army, with help of the church's leader Brigham Young, recruited nearly 500 men and there families for the battalion. Long story short, the battalion weathered several months of marching through the desert, starvation, and disease before arriving in San Diego. In the end the battalion did not firing a shot against anyone. The battalion helped the locals develop the city creating waterways and irrigation canals for farming and helping to build buildings and homes thus helping the city to become what it is today.

While walking through the interactive guided tour of the museum, you will move from room to room, all designed to look just like the locations that the battalion marched through. Some of the places include the prairie of Iowa, a general store, and the desert to name a few, all while videos of actors tell the story of the battalion and the founding of San Diego. It is interesting and fun for the family. At the end of the tour you can get your old fashion sepia tone picture taken as well as mine for gold (fools gold)  in their custom build creek bed. It is an good place to immerse yourself in the culture of the city.

Whether its strolling down the dirt paths alongside 1800 style buildings, chowing down on authentic spicy Mexican food, or learning about the town's past, Old Town San Diego is a great place for getting away from the crowds and experiencing history. San Diego is truly preserving its past and providing its visitors with a sense of culture and adventure.

"Pay As You See Fit": Gimmelwald’s Honesty Shop, a Store Without Prices

Nestled in the the heart of the lush Lauterbrunnen Valley in the Jungfrau region of Switzerland, lies Gimmelwald. A typical Swiss mountain village anchored on the slopes of the alps. The village is surrounded by fertile wheat fields, hungry Swiss cow herds, steep mountain biking trails and and forest clad hiking paths connecting neighboring villages.

Gimmelwald is also home base for many adventure seekers. Centuries old chalets, conventional hotels, and quaint adventure youth hostels line the switchback cobblestone streets. Walking through the town, one can venture into one of a handful of tourist shops, artisan bakeries and made by hand woodcraft shops.

Amidst the many shops selling high priced goods and quality souvenirs lies a small shop that has no attendant or prices. The vacant shop is lined with no more than a few shelves and a small refrigerating unit. The shelves are full of a variety of unique goods, some of which look very expensive. From hand carved and crafted cookoo clocks (a Swiss trademark) to intricately laced macramé to general food items such as cookies and soda, the shop is like no other in the country, if not the world.

Looking past the shelves of goods, one can find a small antique oak box with an envelope sized slit sitting atop a wooden stand. Above the slot in German, French, and English, a small carved sign reads “Please Pay As You See Fit”.

This shop relied upon the honesty and trustworthiness of its customers. Truly a pure case of business ethics. Pay as you see fit. Now I am sure that there have been a few people that have come across this store and took what they say they needed for free, but for the most part the honor system had worked.

Talking with a couple of locals that owned a one of the hostels in Gimmelwald, I came to find out that the shop had been their for over 15 years and that every week villagers, not just from Gimmelwald, but from all over the Jungfrau region would come to the shop to sell items. The village designates a local to be no more than a care taker to make sure the shelves are filled as well as collect the money which is then split among Gimmelwald and the neighboring villages.

Two things stand out to me about this concept and the shop itself that I find most fascinated. 1) the shop had been open for 15 years meaning that it has been a viable source of income for the village and 2) The types of items in the store.

When visiting the store I was accompanied by a few friends. One of them found a hand carved smoking pipe that looked to be over one hundred years old. Surrounding the pipe we found intricate hand painted figures and decorations highlighting Swiss culture. In any of the big cities in Europe, this item was worth more than $200 but there it was sitting in a “Pay as you see fit store”. My friend bought the pipe for around $150. Items like these were found on the shelves amongst candy bars, chocolate and postcards. This shop was a treasure in and of itself. 


People are generally good hearted, honest, charitable individuals. I believe that if more of these stores existed throughout the world, business owners would still make plenty of money while at the same time creating a customer loyalty which will keep them coming back. I guess you could say it would be the first stepping stone to building a Utopian world society. The shop was just another example to me of one of a plethora of things that Switzerland is doing right.