I love me a good pun, and I cannot help but sing this in my head when I hear San Diego. So I had to get it out. 🤷 Turns out 2019 was San Diego's 250th anniversary! Great year to go sightseeing then. Walking along the waterfront was very pleasant, and we got a good idea of the downtown area.
The main attraction that drove us here was the USS Midway Museum, an actual aircraft carrier! After visiting a submarine in Portland, this was the next logical step, eh? Right beside it is the Unconditional Surrender statue, which you've probably seen on a postcard or two before.
We were also witness to a very special event: there were THREE aircraft carriers in San Diego when we visited! This is a rare occurrence, as the U.S. only has 20 of them, stationed all around the world. Anyway, you can't really imagine how huge these things are until you have to walk it from end to end. It's like a small floating city! To give you an idea, they could fit 70 planes on that ship... We got to visit the control centre with a guide, and we were allowed to take pictures in the planes. How cool!
After a big day of exploring like that, needless to say you get really hungry. We found just the place to fill that belly for cheap! Lucha Libre Taco Shop on Mission Hills was not only a feast for the taste buds, it was a feast for the eyes! Just look at all that lucha libre memorabilia! And if you want the full experience, you can reserve the golden booth. Perfect!
Another sweet place to visit when in town is Balboa Park. Can't miss it, and there's tons of stuff to do here. Just park (for free, yay!) and walk around, visit a museum, attend a Spreckels Organ concert (first picture), or shop. We walked around and visited the Fleet Science Center, as we had read somewhere that there was a MythBusters exhibit. And of course, only once we had paid and seen how many kids (and how few adults) were in there did we check the brochure again: special exhibit ended two months ago. 🙄 It's an ok science museum, but definitely not worth it for us. At least we got to play with a morse code machine.
Have you ever wanted to go in a smuggler's tunnel? Then Sunny Jim's Sea Cave is the perfect spot to do it! Accessible through a little gift shop, this sea cave is a nice little activity to squeeze into your schedule for cheap. We enjoyed checking out the cave first, spotting a few sea lions, and then going out on the La Jolla Cove to see them sunbathing and swimming among kayakers and divers. If you can't get enough of the view, do as we did and grab a bite at the Crab Catcher!
And I'm uploading this here if ever you need the sound of waves to fall asleep. 😉 Can you spot the sea lion?
Oh, and one last thing! The Random Art Award goes to the Fallen Star, this cute little house perched on the corner of the 7th floor of a building at the UCSD! We were unfortunately not on time for a visit, but it must be very cool to see from the inside.
All in all, San Diego was a nice surprise. It's very clean, has plenty of modern buildings but also lush parks, and you get to park for free in some spots! And now, another really long stretch of road awaited us as we were headed for Texas... but we had plenty of small stops planned along the way. Stay tuned, folks! 💜
TL;DR: San Diego allowed us to visit the USS Midway (an aircraft carrier), and get a good view of the Unconditional Surrender statue. For the best place to walk and visit museums, check out Balboa Park. Sunny Jim's Sea Cave and the nearby viewpoint are perfect to spot sea lions. Make sure you grab a bite at Lucha Libre Taco Shop on Mission Hills, too!
Comments