San Diego - Day 3

On our third day in San Diego we decided to go back to Cabrillo and check out the tide pools. The view is amazing there. If you just pointed your camera and clicked without even looking through the viewfinder, you wouldn't get a bad picture.

Then afterward, we went to Balboa Park. Which is one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. It is a place of arts, culture, and beauty. They have 17 museums all around the area so that you can go from one to the next and get your smarts on. But even if you don't want to read plaques on walls you'll be able to see tons of native plants and flowers all along the beautiful architecture.

San Diego - Day 2

You can read about Day 1 here. 

Our second day in San Diego we hit up Cabrillo.


Cabrillo is named after Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who Columbused the West Coast.

Because without him, California wouldn't exist. 

Besides a huge statute in his likeness (and probably to scale) Cabrillo has tide pools, a lighthouse, a museum, and a gift shop.

You pay 5$ to park and have access to everything but if you keep your receipt your five dollars will last you seven days. So knowing that we had plans for the evening we decided to visit the tide pools another day and just see the lighthouse and museum on day two.

The view from Cabrillo is really breathtaking.

And the background makes for some great pictures.

We visited the museum

the monument and its lighthouse.

Then it was time to visit our first California beach. Now, I've been to Corpus Christi in Texas and the beaches it has but I've never loved it. The water is dirty and green. It's always hot out and the sun is blaring. I actually was really apprehensive about spending an entire evening at the beach in California. But as soon as we got there I knew it was going to be a totally different experience.

The water was super cold! But we all had a lot of fun anyway.

San Diego Day 1

You can read about our road trip to San Diego here.

Because we arrived so early on Saturday we basically had the full day to explore. P has some family and family-friends who live in San Diego. They were gracious enough to let us stay with them for the week. They had also taken some days off of work to give us the grand tour and boy, did they deliver.

The first thing we did when we arrived was head over to Seaport Village.

Via traceybjenkins flickr

Actually, let me preface everything by saying that in San Antonio the heat is pretty much unbearable. We don't "do" things in the summer. I mean, you get your few crazies who want skin cancer and heat stroke and will run at noon but the most of us only run from one air-conditioned place to the next. It's stupid hot here. And humid. It's like being in a sauna and opening the oven door when you're baking cookies. Seriously. It's gross. No amount of deodorant or number of showers will keep you fresh and clean for more than a few minutes. So if you want people to go to your outdoor activities they better be in the morning, in the night, or in the fall.

We don't hike here. We don't walk to the grocery store. We don't picnic outside for lunch. These things can be done, but they usually only happen in March and November.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way you can fully appreciate our love for the weather in San Diego. It was absolutely perfect. I don't think it ever got above 85 when we were there. And there is this always constant breeze cooling you off and leaving you refreshed. It was amazing. We understood why people were out walking their dogs at one in the afternoon or why hiking is such a big amusement there.

Walking around Seaport Village and taking in all the attractions was just the icing on the cake that was the weather. I mean, they would ask us if we were OK or if we needed a break and both John and I were like "Are you crazy? We can do this all day! We love hiking/walking/running/being sporty."


We found a man who was part wizard/part rock balancer.

And the cutest cow couch.

They also have a bunch of ships that you can tour.

It may sound crazy but we actually got sea sick just from being on them for about an hour. Even though they're docked you can feel them swaying with the water and when you go out onto the top deck you can see the buildings on land swaying too. One of the ships, Surprise, was actually a real ship that was redone for movies. You may recognize it from Master and Commander.

Via 20th Century Fox 

After Seaport we went to La Jolla to see the tide-pools.

And my favorite! The seals!!!

Then we stayed to watch the sunset...only the clouds weren't cooperating. But it was still beautiful.