Destination - San Diego

"But do not ask me where I am heading,
As I travel in this limitless world
Where every step I take is my home"
~ Portion of a Poem by Eihei Dogen ~

San Diego Skyline

As part of this blog I have been picking different cities and writing about them as destinations.  It occurred to me that my own city, San Diego, is considered one of the great vacation destinations.  Just because I live here, I shouldn’t ignore it.  And for those San Diego residents who may be reading this, revisiting the city we live in can be fun.  We sometimes get busy and don’t take the time to see our own city.  I have heard of people who live in New York who have never visited the Statue of Liberty.  I am equally sure there are people who live in the San Diego area who have never been to the Pt. Loma Lighthouse.  The past few years we have heard the term “staycation”, which means taking a vacation where you live.

from the air looking toward OB

I recently had out of town visitors and I was showing them around San Diego.  It made me realize that this is a city that I am proud to live in.  Yes, it was February and sunny, in the low 80’s, and my company was from places that were cold and snowy, so the weather was a big factor in how I felt about the city.  It was nice to take them to the beach on a sunny day in the middle of winter.  But more than that, we really do live in a really pretty city, with a lot of history, and culture, and things to do and see.

There are a lot of guide books to San Diego, and information on the web, and everyone will have their own ideas of the top things in the San Diego area.  Here is my list of the Top 10 Things to See or Do in San Diego:

Inside the Natural History Museum
Balboa Park

     Visit the Hotel Del Coronado

      Balboa Park
      San Diego Zoo
      Beaches
      Take the Trolley tour from Old Town

       Old Town

       Pt. Loma Lighthouse

       Sea World

       USS Midway

       Seaport Village

Of course there are a lot more than 10 things, the list is just to get you started.  I’d like to talk about the things on the list, giving a little more detail.

Hotel Del Coronado

One of my favorite places is the Hotel Del Coronado.  I think this hotel is a symbol for the cities of both Coronado and San Diego.  When Presidents come to San Diego and spend the night, they stay at the Hotel Del.  It has been featured in movies, the most famous was “Some Like it Hot.”  It is considered by some to be haunted.  It is one of the oldest and most famous landmarks in the area, and certainly one of the most beautiful.  At Christmas time most locals visit the hotel just to see the decorations, we have made it a Christmas tradition.  There is not a better beach in the city than the beach in front of the Hotel Del.  Anyone can walk in and see the hotel, you do not have to be a guest.  Check out the shops, and in the hallways downstairs there are pictures of the hotels past and information about famous people who have stayed there.  Have lunch in the outside café on a sunny day and enjoy the ocean view.  Walk up the beach.  If you walk clear to the northern end of the beach you will reach the “Dog Beach” area and you can enjoy our four-legged friends romping on the beach and having fun.  You may even see my 2 schnauzers, it is their favorite place in all of San Diego to go to. The website for the Del is http://www.hoteldel.com/

Botanical Garden Building

Balboa Park is our version of New York’s Central Park.  It is in the city and covers a very large area.  There are beautiful gardens, lots of different museums, fountains, restaurants, an International Village, a Botanical building, Spanish Art village, Japanese Tea Garden, the Old Globe Theatre, and the Spreckel’s Organ Pavillion, which gives free concerts on Sundays.  It is a wonderful, diverse area to walk around and just enjoy the outdoors.  On the weekends in particular the park is full of street performers and families, and is a good place to do some people-watching.  There is also a wonderful fenced, off-leash dog park.  Even if you don’t have your dog with you on vacation, it is fun to watch the dogs playing with each other.  There is a large number of museums, the most famous ones being – The Museum of Man, The Natural History Museum, The Air and Space Museum, as well as various art museums. There is also The Reuben H Fleet Science Center and IMAX Theatre, which is a great place to take the kids.  On Tuesdays they offer certain museums free to San Diego residents.  There website is http://www.balboapark.org/

Panda at the SD Zoo

Also part of Balboa Park is the San Diego Zoo.  Our zoo is world famous, and is considered one of the great zoo’s in this country.  We have animals you won’t see at most other zoo’s.  We have several giant pandas, and I believe that we will soon have another baby panda, which is always a big attraction.  Our panda breeding program has been quite successful.  We also have koalas, which are certainly adorable, although I have to say they don’t do much except sleep, but you can watch them do that.  There is a bus that will take you around the zoo, and you can hop on and off whenever you want.  Some areas you do have to walk to get to, but if you plan it right with the help of the bus, you can do most of the walking downhill instead of up.  The zoo is well worth one day of your vacation.  http://www.sandkegozoo.org/

Crystal Pier - PB

My favorite place to be anytime is the beach.  In San Diego you can spend a day at the beach almost any time of the year.  The water is not necessarily warm enough for swimming year around, but certainly you can wade all year long.  I talked a little about Coronado Beach already, and it is certainly one of the prettiest beaches, but there are several other great beaches worth mentioning.  Ocean Beach, known locally as OB is a typical beach town.  The town is full of antique shops and other types of fun shops as well as some fun restaurants.  It has a great pier where you can walk out and watch the surfers.   Pacific Beach, or PB, also has a great pier and lots of surfers.  When I want to go boogie boarding PB is where I head because the waves are better there than some of the other beaches.  It also has the best hamburgers in town at Kono's and you can sit on their outdoor deck and watch the action on the beach.  Mission Beach is a nice beach and it has Belmont Park, where you can ride the old wooden roller coaster.  And the best of the northern beaches is La Jolla Shores, which is a sheltered cove, so the waves are milder for swimming.  You can take a kayak trip from here to the caves or to watch the whales when they are around.*  The town of La Jolla is more upscale, and The Scripp's Institute and Birch Aquarium are nearby.

Old Town

Old Town San Diego is where the city started.  It is now a historical park that recreates life in the Mexican and early American periods of 1821 to 1872.  There are old buildings that you can go into, lots of shops and restaurants. For the best carnitas in town, try the Old Town Cafe.  Spend a few hours, have lunch and then sign up for the Old Town Trolley Tour which is 2 hours and takes you around Old Town, as well as to Balboa Park, the Gaslamp area, Seaport Village and across the Coronado Bridge to see the Hotel Del.  You will stay on the trolley the whole time, so it is actually something you could do when you first arrive in town, and it will give you and overview of the city, and then you can go back and really visit those places on your own.  www.trolleytours.com/san-diego   http://www.oldtownsandiego.org/

Point Loma Lighthouse

The Point Loma Lighthouse is also home to the Cabrillo National Monument.  The Lighthouse has stood on this point of land since 1855.  It is no longer a working lighthouse, as they found it was not the best location to have it, but you can visit it and see how lighthouse families lived at that time.  The Cabrillo National Monument is also there.  Climbing out of his boat and onto shore in 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo stepped into history as the first European to set foot on what is now the West Coast of the United States. In addition to telling the story of 16th century exploration, the park is home to a wealth of cultural and natural resources. From both places you have fantastic views of the cities of San Diego and Coronado.  www.nps.gov/cabr/historyculture/old-point-loma-lighthouse.htm

A day at Sea World is certainly a fun thing to do while visiting our city.  How can you go wrong when you have Shamu, the killer whale doing several shows a day.  There are quite a few shows as well as some fun rides, lots of aquariums, and places where you can touch sting rays, dolphins and other sea creatures.  www.seaworldparks.com/SeaWorld-SanDiego

USS Midway in SD Harbor

The USS Midway was an aircraft carrier, the lead ship of her class and is currently a museum ship in San Diego.  You can go aboard and experience what life was like aboard ship.  There are over 60 different exhibits and 27 restored aircraft on board. http://www.midway.org/ 

Seaport Village is a shopping area on the harbor-side of San Diego.  It is a short walking distance from the Midway and has many different and quaint shops, as well as restaurants.  There is also a boardwalk area and a park behind the village where you can watch the boats on the water.  It is a pleasant place to spend an afternoon.  http://www.seaportvillage.com/

Besides the places I listed as my top ten, there are so many other areas to visit here.  The Gaslamp area downtown is also a historic area, and there is a great walking tour that tells the history of the area.  There are many great restaurants and antique shops in the Gaslamp. 

And there is of course the Zoo Safari Park, known to the locals still as the Wild Animal Park, which is about an hour drive out of San Diego in the Escondido area.  I didn’t put it on the list, because technically it is not in town, but certainly worth the drive.  You see the animals in their natural habitat, with much more freedom than they have in the zoo.  There is a train that takes you through a good portion of the park, but to see it all, there are walking paths that will give you good views.

Old Globe, San Diego

Starlight Theatre, Balboa Park

San Diego is full of culture, with some great museums and lots of theatre.  We have lots of little local theatre groups, and you can find a play to attend almost every day.  The Civic Theatre downtown puts on traveling Broadway plays.  The La Jolla Theatre and the San Diego Repertory groups are quite active, and both have great reputations.  The Lambs Players have theatres in both downtown and in Coronado.  And my favorite, The Old Globe, has 3 theatres in Balboa Park.  In the summer, I love going to the Old Globe's Festival Theatre to see a Shakespeare play.  The Festival Theatre is outdoor, under the stars, and it has a natural backdrop of trees behind the stage.  You can hear the animals in the zoo at night, in the not too far distance.  It is a wonderful way to spend a summer evening.  And nearby is the Starlight Theatre, which does strickly musicals, and is also outdoors in Balboa Park.  It is directly under the path of the airplanes landing in San Diego.  They have a person who watches for the plane, and as it gets close she turns on a red light, and all action on the stage freezes until the plane passes over, then the actors start up where they left off, even if it was the middle of a dance number, which can make for interesting theatre. 

fish tacos

I’m not going to cover places to stay, or restaurants - there are so many great ones in San Diego, but I will say that when you come to San Diego there is one thing we are quite famous for, and that is fish tacos.  So make sure you have those at least once while you are here.  Rubio’s is the home of the fish taco, and you will find them in various locations, and you can't go wrong with their food.  Pt. Loma Seafood also does a great fish taco.

*See my article about kayaking in the January archives.