San Diego Part 1

Last weekend we decided more or less at the last minute to make a spontaneous trip to San Diego.  I'd never been to the west coast, we were tired of the cold, we had a long weekend, and most importantly we had some friends we'd been meaning to visit.  So we said goodbye to winter in Virginia and hello to the sweet, sunny 70's in southern California!

We used Booking.com to find a hotel to stay in for our first two nights in San Diego before staying with our friend in Irvine.  I love historic hotels and when we saw the Horton Grand Hotel listed with its gorgeous courtyard and right in the Gaslamp Quarter we decided to treat ourselves.  They also conveniently have the Palace Bar in the hotel, which boasts 500 whiskeys and scotches.

Our first day in San Diego was a long one as we had a 3:30 AM EST wake up, a 5:00 AM EST flight, and didn't go to sleep until about 1:30 AM EST the next day.  However, this meant we had a full day on California time to explore a few San Diego highlights.  We started off at the USS Midway Museum (seen behind the trees), which is a U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier that also showcases restored aircraft.  It's a fantastic place for plane and Navy enthusiasts and it was great to see some Veterans on hand to answer questions on select aircraft.  There's an audio tour included with the entry and I appreciated that it included stories from Veterans about their experiences with the aircraft.

We also visited Balboa Park, which is home to the famous San Diego zoo.  There are some beautiful gardens in the park where there are giant koi in the ponds, not to mention the architecture is gorgeous.  My favorite section of the park was the gardens near the Botanical Building.  Everyone there was lying out on the grass enjoying the sunshine; and there were street musicians playing different instruments to add to the casual vibe. 

On our second day we went on a hike in the Mission Trails Regional Park.  Here we had a lovely (and hazy) view of San Diego from the top of the trail.  It was a bit humorous to us that the park categorized the trail we hiked as difficult whereas many other states (and even countries) would categorize it as an easy three-mile round trip hike.  Sure, there were a few switchbacks and it had some steep sections, but it was nothing like you'd find hiking around some of the more challenging trails in the Shenandoah, for example.

After our hike and a trip to a local brewing company (that part to come in "San Diego Part 2"!), we watched the sunset at the aptly-named Sunset Cliffs Natural Park.  It was easily one of the best sunsets I've seen so far in my life.

In the morning we set off for Irvine we first obligatorily stopped in La Jolla.  We saw so many sea lions and seals lounging around in the sunshine.  The water was a "lovely" 60 degrees, so needless to say we didn't jump in.  But I did stick my foot in the water just to say I'd been in the Pacific Ocean.  That counts, right? ;)

But wait, there's more!  We also visited a local brewery and a couple of local wineries on our way to Irvine.  Stay tuned for San Diego Part 2!