On our way to San Diego, we stopped off in Yuma, Arizona for a couple of nights. While we enjoyed cloudless skies, it was a bit cool which made the nicely heated pool and hot tub a place to hang out for a couple of days. While I was pool lounging, Bill scouted out some RV parks for next winter and we booked a place for a month in January 2019 with a couple of pools, hot tubs, nearby golf courses and some parks for hiking and biking.
On to San Diego. The weather was pretty decent but a bit cooler than usual for San Diego…mostly in the low to mid 60s and only one rainy day. We did a fair amount of sight seeing in San Diego and (as usual) saved all of our errands, laundry and cleaning for the rainy day. We spent the weekend walking along the beach and visiting Cabrillo National Monument and Point Loma which has breathtaking views of the San Diego harbor and walks along the cliffs. As usual for any national park, monument, we learned a bit of the history of the area while enjoying the views. We were hoping to catch sight of the whales in their migration north but none made their appearance. It is also the site of a historic lighthouse as well as national military cemetery with monuments commemorating many of the lives lost in the pacific in WWll. We passed on the Sunday brunch at the Hotel Del Coronado at $99/person but enjoyed walking the grounds and the beachfront and picked up a more cost-effective muffin and Starbucks drinks that we consumed on the beach with a view of the Pacific ocean.
No visit to San Diego is complete without a day spent at the SD Zoo, which is considered as one of the best in the world. We had the perfect day, cool, sunny and not too crowded. The animals were all very active and there was so much to see as you can see from some of the pictures. There were many places to eat including several full service restaurants within the zoo so we enjoyed a delicious burger and a beer as a nice respite in the middle of the day. The entire experience was fantastic! We easily met our goal of 10,000 steps that day and more.
We decided the next day to break with the sight-seeing and treated ourselves to some beer tasting and an outstanding lunch at one of the classic SD breweries. We visited Ballast Point brewery which has a great lunch menu and then onto Alesmith brewery which was practically up the road. Both had delicious tasting flights and we could not help purchasing some of the hard-to-get brews. Too bad our refrigerator was not larger. Can’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon!
At our campground we met a wonderful couple who we spent some time with. They are full timers and during our stay she ended up with some urgent surgery followed by recovery in their RV. It illustrated some of the challenges you can face in this “homeless” lifestyle such as fast access to quality healthcare. They still plan to drive their RV up to, and through, Alaska in the next few months. You can’t help admiring their strength and character. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for a speedy recovery and a great adventure.
We also visited the historic Midway aircraft carrier which I confess I had some reservations about but was so glad we did. Compared to the Intrepid in NYC, I found it much more enjoyable and interesting. The “life on a naval carrier” aspect was pretty extensive and a guided tour of the captains and navigational areas (the island) offered a lot of information about life on a carrier. The volunteers and veterans discussions about their roles on the carrier were really good and helped bring it to life. Visits to the SD Gaslight district for happy hour and a drive up the coast to La Jolla to see the seal pups on the beach were also some of our highlights to San Diego. We loved it and I personally could have watched the seals all day.
As an aside, I really miss Wegmans. Most of the grocery stores anywhere else in the country do not begin to compare and San Diego was no exception. In the Southwest, including San Diego, many of the grocery stores cater to the Hispanic population and feature central and south American foods. There are a lot of things that you simply can’t get in these stores and I needed my very rusty high school Spanish just to navigate the aisles. Will have to wait ’til we get back east to have that Wegmans experience!
SEB
