Visiting San Diego

Visiting San Diego?Let me share with you some traveling and itinerary tips that will hopefully make you appreciate my adopted hometown. 

Downtown San Diego Skyline from Coronado's Ferry Landing

San Diego has been my home since 2004, and I believe I have explored a lot of San Diego in my 7 years here. However, most of the time I write about San Diego, it's about hiking at the backroads. I neglect the fact that San Diego is one of the popular tourist and vacation destinations here in US, where a lot of its tourists went back to make this place their new home.

Relaxing at North Torrey Pines State Beach

Instead of making an itinerary which I usually do when writing road trips to National Parks, I will instead feature here clusters of places in and around San Diego, grouped together for a day of activity. These are also the places I bring visiting friends and or family. Unless friends request for Sea World or Legoland, I usually do not bring them there, for I feel like there are other more interesting places to see AND FREE. And I feel like there is more joy out in the sea than inside Sea World.

Here are my list of places to see ( and all these assume starting from downtown San Diego ):

A: Explore Balboa Park, San Diego Hillcrest Area, Old Town, some of the beach communities nearby ( Pacific Beach or Mission Beach or sunset Cliffs at Point Loma) Cabrillo National Monument, Gaslamp Quarter and downtown San Diego. (one day)
1. start the day at Balboa Park.

Reflecting Pond at Balboa Park

Balboa Park is a cultural park right next to downtown San Diego, San Diego Zoo, the community of Banker's Hill and nearby is San Diego Hillcrest Area, which has a great selection of eclectic restaurants and coffee shops. Unlike other parks, this is actually a cultural park that houses many museums, gardens and the San Diego Zoo. If Torrey Pines State Reserve is my favorite place in San Diego for a natural setting, Balboa Park is my favorite if I wanted a mix of culture, civilization and nature photography. There is no fee to enter Balboa Park, but there is fee to enter the museums. Sometimes, I do get inside the museums ( especially if the weather is not good and if it is a Tuesday because of Free Tuesdays ). What I will share here is enjoying Balboa Park for free. Maybe, you can start your walking tour from The Desert Garden,

Desert Garden, Balboa Park

to the Rose Garden ( but Rose Garden has no flowers yet at winter ). My collection of grasshopper, different birds, hummingbirds, butterfly photos are mostly from the Desert Garden. From the Desert Garden, cross the footbridge to the other side of the park where the museums are. Even outside the museums, the old Spanish architecture of the buildings are good enough. If you love collection of orchids, proceed to the Botanical Building, where there is a collection of blooming orchids and other flowers year round.

Botanical Building

inside Botanical Building

After Botanical Building, depending on time and interest, you can continue walking around the park for more Spanish Architecture and other Buildings. If you want to see butterflies regardless of season, most likely, you will find one at Zorro Butterfly Garden, though of course, there are a lot more butterflies during spring, but I have seen the common one, such as Monarch butterfly year round at the garden.

2. From Balboa Park, move to Old Town State and Historic Park to revisit California and San Diego's History. There are many city tours provided here, but depending on your interest, you can get one or make your own tour by following this itinerary :). Maybe, you may want to have lunch at Old Town for some Mexican cuisine.

3. From Old Town, proceed to Cabrillo National Monument, both a natural and historical site.

Cabrillo National Monument

Cabrillo National Monument closes at 5:00 pm, you may want to skip the beaches and proceed directly to Cabrillo National Monument. At wintertime, it is great to spend sunset here, since at the top of the cliff, looking west, is the sunset,

One of My Favorite Sunset Pictures @ Cabrillo National Monument

and looking East is the changing of the colors of sky and clouds above downtown San Diego.

Looking East from Cabrillo National Monument @ Sunset

If you get there before 4:30 pm, you may want to explore the tidepool area first at Cabrillo. Even at high tide where you may not be able to see a lot of tidepool creatures, the rock formations in this piece of coast are still worth seeing.

Tidepool Area of Cabrillo National Monument

Me @ Tidepool Area of Cabrillo National Monument ( this is only accessible at low tide )

The Tidepool Area Below, from Above the Cliff

4. If Cabrillo closes before sunset, you can head out to Sunset Cliffs. It's one of the scenic places in San Diego to sit on top of the cliffs to enjoy sunset.

SUNSET CLIFFS

 If you want to have dinner with the San Diego skyline and harbor for a view, from Cabrillo or Sunset Cliffs, stop by at Shelter Island or Harbor Island for dinner ( the view is great while having dinner). However, if you want to experience a livelier atmosphere and with a lot more dining choices, move to downtown San Diego and Gaslamp Quarter.

B: Exploring Torrey Pines and La Jolla area ( one day exploring and sightseeing)
itinerary:
1. from downtown San Diego, drive North to Torrey Pines State Reserve. Torrey Pines State Reserve is about 18 miles North of downtown and is still within San Diego city limits, but feels like outside of San Diego. You can take a walk at the beach right next to the sand stone cliffs, or take a relaxing hike on top of the bluffs, or both ( make a loop hike from bottom to top ).

North Torrey Pines State Beach ( part of Torrey Pines State Reserve) and sandstone cliffs at low tide

Me @ Guy Fleming trail Lookout, Torrey Pines State Reserve
( if you plan to hike from bottom to top, you can park on the shoulder of  North Torrey Pines Road, then enter the park on foot for free. However, most tourists drive to the top and then take the short trails from the top to the look-out points. If you enter the park by car and drive to the top of the reserve, you pay $10 entrance fee).

Badlands and the Sea, Yucca Point at Torrey Pines State Reserve

2. from Torrey Pines State Reserve, drive South to Torrey Pines Golf Course, home of Buick International and 2008 US Open.

@ Torrey Pines Golf Course

3. from Torrey Pines Golf Course, continue driving South, and if you wanted, you can stop over at Torrey Pines Gliderport,

view from Gliderport

UCSD, and have lunch at University Town Center (UTC) area. Going to UTC, you will be passing the Science and Tech area, Scripps Green Hospital, Scripps Research Institute, Veterans Hospital, where you will be experiencing the unique well planned mix of residential, restaurants, hotels, retail and office spaces. Or you can proceed directly to La Jolla and have lunch at La Jolla.

4. Continue driving southwest to La Jolla.

 You can start your stroll from La Jolla Cove,

La Jolla Cove

east side of La Jolla Cove, you will see the sea caves, some sea lions, a lot of pelicans, cormorants, among other sea birds such as gulls and pigeons.

Cormorants and Gulls, Guards of the Cove :)

Barking Sea Lions

You can continue walking along the coast to Ellen Browning Scripps Park, to Children's Pool ( where the cute harbor seals reside),

Mom and Pup Pairs, Children's Pool, La Jolla

and up to where your feet will take you. Try to stay on the west side of this coastline for sunset, because it curves to the East, you will both see sunset looking West and the Earth's shadow ( blue above purple sky) looking East on Torrey Pine cliffs.

Sunset @ La Jolla ( looking West above Children's Pool )

After sunset, and if you still have some energy left for some more exploration, you can take a stroll at La Jolla shops if you are interested to see some souvenir items and for some shopping. Or you can just take a rest and have dinner in one of the restaurants.

C: Seaport Village, San Diego's Embarcadero, Whale Watching, and Coronado Island( save one day)

note: you may skip Whale Watching and still need one day for the above, just a more relaxed exploration of Embarcadero and Coronado Island.

1. Start the day at San Diego's Embarcadero, and see historical ships such as The Star of India and aircraft carriers such as the Midway, whale watching usually starts at 10:00 am, so if you are early, you have more time to explore the Marina.

Historical Ships and Midway from Embarcadero

2. If you want to go whale watching, you must wait at the port by 9:45 am. However, if you want to further explore the Marina, and explore the Seaport, there are also so many things to do. Some of my friends prefer to visit the Midway Museum and other Maritime Museums, some, they prefer to whale watch, so it is really up to one's preferences.

Grey Whale

Pacific White Sided Dolphins Spotted from Whale Watching

If you want to do both whale watching and exploring further the maritime museums in the Embarcadero, save a separate day for whale watching. If you plan to go whale watching, buy ticket from Goldstar (online) since you can save a lot of money through this.

3. If you are still not tired after whale watching and have some energy, when you get back to San Diego Harbor, take another ferry to Coronado Island. Though it may be past sunset ( you may spend sunset at the sea during whale watching), but Coronado Island is beautiful to experience at night, and so at day time as well. There are many restaurants here and some people just hop to the island for dinner and a short relaxing walk.

San Diego Skyline from Coronado Island

You can actually also choose to drive to Coronado Island. If you take the ferry, rent some bicycle to ride a bike to tour this small community, it is pretty safe and you would see a lot of tourists doing the same. However, if you feel not safe biking at night, you can also choose to drive or take their local bus.

D: Wild Animal Park and some sightseeing at North San Diego County ( one day )

1. start the day driving North East to Escondido to visit Wild Animal Park.

Wild Animal Park is a unique extension of San Diego Zoo. I love this park for its naturalistic setting where the animals are not caged and the exhibits are wide, and yes, animal can roam wild.

Roaming Lions @ Lion Camp

I love this park not only for its naturalistic setting, but also for the many trails to explore around the park. My favorite trail is the cactus trail where right next to it is the forest trail.

There are also many things to do and explore in this park, actually, being up close to the animals and observing them in a more naturalistic setting is a wonderful experience.

2. After Wild Animal Park, and if you want to explore the communities in North County San Diego, from Wild Animal Park, drive East on 78 to Oceanside.

Oceanside Pier

Oceanside is the northernmost of San Diego County. From Oceanside, you can go back driving South and passing some more coastal communities at Carlsbad, Del Mar, etc until you are back to San Diego. If it is spring time, you may want to reverse the order and start exploring this side first before wild animal Park for the spring wildflowers at Flowers Field in Carlsbad.

The Flower Fields ( at spring - March to May )

The Flower Fields is also right next to Chelsea Premium Outlet Mall where one may find great deals for designer items.

E: Explore San Diego Backroads: road trip to Julian, Anza Borrego Desert State Park,

Me at Font's Point, Anza Borrego Desert State Park

Salton Sea, Joshua Tree National Park,

Me @ Joshua Tree National Park

and if interested, you can stop by at the premium outlet mall shopping at Cabazon before going back to San Diego ( one day ).

There are still a lot more places to explore in and around San Diego, right now, it is wonderfully spring, and the wildflowers are blooming!!! Come, visit my city!!

Blue and More Blue

Pride of Madeira

(thanks to Diane of Desert Colors for helping me identify this flower)

Are we just surrounded with so many blue, or it is because I pay more attention now to all colors and blue, for I know, someone will be jumping with glee? Whatever is the reason, I am happy to see a lot of blue these days, and here are more blue pictures.

Blue Flowers Against Blue Sky

The pictures here were taken last Saturday, when we went to enjoy the wildflowers at Mission Bay. We parked at South Shores Park which is right outside Sea World. Now, these flowers are not really wild unlike the field of wild coreopsis and tidy tips from my post on Slowing Down To Smell the Wildflowers. These tall blue flowers are right next to the parking lot. Despite not being wild, their presence calls really attention, so we took that opportunity to also enjoy this gift of blue before and after we had fun with the field of yellow wildflowers.

When I first wrote this post, I did not know the name of this flower, however, thanks to Diane for helping me identify them. Just how tall are Pride of Madeiras?

How Tall Am I? Which One Is Taller? These Blue Flowers or I am?

 I am 5'6.5", and notice some blue flowers at the back ( they look purple when they get older) that are way taller than me! Some Pride of Madeiras grow to 8 ft tall!

For more about The Joys of Blue, please visit our group's site at The Salitype Society, where together we dream and work on making a child's life better and empower her through quality education.

Beauty Of The Sun

This is a compensated post written by me on behalf of Walgreens. All opinions are 100% mine.

Beauty Of The Sun

I love sunsets and sunrises. They are very therapeutic and magical moments for me. And it is at these times when the sun shows its inspiring beauty minus its harsh rays! I do love staying outside because I love all that nature and the relaxing power of the outdoor offers. They are my powerful antidote to stress! Staying outside whether hiking on the slopes or body surfing in the ocean has been part of my life for long. I hike when I am inspired! I hike when I am full of energy! I hike when I feel stressed! I hike when my mind seems very tired from too much thinking because of work! I hike when I wanted to be energized! I hike when I ran out of inspiration! In summertime, I may do little hiking because of the ocean! I swim because swimming with the fishes, seals, sea lions and the dolphins is very therapeutic.

I boogie board because the waves give me a very fast ride which washes all stresses away! The ocean and the hills and mountains are my local outdoor gym which is free! However, the outdoors is not really enjoyed by everyone! Some do not like the sun, others do not like the sand, or do not like getting salty water mess up their hair or wrinkle their skin. Well, I may not like them too, but I do not want them to STOP ME from enjoying life and feel the rejuvenating gifts of being outside. The joy I feel each time I see surprises from nature cannot be exchanged for gold. That joy is within, in my heart and mind. The gift of nature and outdoors open up to me a very inspiring world not controlled by materialism on Earth. Rather it opens up to me a world that cares! A world that inspires! A world that moves the heart to do good for all of and all in the Earth. Thus no whining can stop me from being out even if it means being under the sun. Thankfully, I can arm myself against the harsh rays of the sun when I am out exploring the outdoors, from the oceans, to the desert to the mountains.

And thankfully, there is the new Walgreens Brand Health & Wellness Products which includes the sunscreen pictured above. Whether I am out enjoying the water or the land, I know I am protected from the harsh rays of the sun! Since I use sunscreen a lot, the price difference in other branded sunscreen lotions allows me to save more since the sunscreen lasts a long time for me, I use less and pay less. Walgreens Brand Health & Wellness Products are a great value, allowing families and individuals to save money without sacrificing quality or trust.

Purchase of every Walgreens Brand Health & Wellness Product supports bringing preventive wellness services to local communities through the Walgreens Way to Well Fund™. Walgreens will contribute up to $3 million annually to the Walgreens Way to Well Fund™. The fund will provide free preventive health tests as well as other health and wellness services and education to local communities. Some of those services will include preventive health tests through the National Urban League Health & Wellness Tour and vouchers redeemable in select stores. For details, visit walgreens.com/waytowell.
Should you have questions about Walgreen products, you can chat one-on-one with the local pharmacist or online at walgreens.com/pharmacychat.