A week in America’s Finest City, San Diego

La Jolla coves near San Diego

I spent a month during winter of 2021-22 in California, in San Diego, Joshua Tree National Park and the Bay Area. The key reason for this travel was to avoid the lockdown and winter time of Amsterdam. in addition to that, I also ended up travelling quite a bit, exploring a new part of California this time. I hadn’t ever visited either San Diego – the relaxed seaside resort town of California – or the Joshua Tree National Park – famous for the Joshua trees - before. And was pleasantly surprised to see how gorgeous and diverse these places were.

We started our holiday with a week in San Diego and around. Our itinerary was as follows:
Day 1: Explore La Jolla shore and coves
Day 2: Visit Balboa Park, Embarcadero and Gaslamp quarter in San Diego downtown
Day 3: Walk from Torrey Pines beach to Del Mar and back
Day 4: Run in Mission Bay park and explore Little Italy in San Diego downtown
Day 5: Hike in Mt Laguna/Anza Borega desert park
Day 6: Explore Balboa park


Drive to San Diego

Our trip started in San Francisco where I landed from Amsterdam. And from there we started our long full day drive to get to San Diego. At one point, we drove 300 miles straight on the same highway, without a turn or an exit! The landscape was sometimes boring and sometimes interesting. The exciting parts of the drive were the green rolling hills which accompanied us for most of the way. There were some impressive huge houses on top of those hills too - Californians sure love to live big!

 

Drive to SoCal

And between those hills and our highway were farms, lots of them. Some farms had orange plantations, others had dry fruits plants. And there were loads of cattle everywhere. And sometimes it was just yellow flowers covering the whole valley, till wherever the eyes could see. And wherever in the world there is agriculture, Sikhs are present 😊. We drove through one such valley which was full of large Khalsa and Singh farms all along the highway. The service station we stopped at there also sold Indian snacks - gulabjamun, amla murabba, aloo bhujia and many other such things. It was quite a pleasant surprise to see so much Indian food stuff in the middle of nowhere and we stocked up big time there.

Then we got to some dry areas where there were many posters put up all along the road, asking for more water for the farmers. Apparently in recent times, due to water shortages, farmers had been asked to cut down on their usage, and these boards were a sign of protest against those moves. And then we passed some small scale industrial areas, which were full of oil wells, warehouses and windmills. This was definitely the boring part.

Soon, we crossed some mountains covered with snow, and finally we reached the South California (known as So-cal) life. We drove past Los Angeles which just felt like an unending expanse of lights, crowded and bright, full of vehicles and traffic jams. It was good to avoid this part, and as we got closer to San Diego, it was still just one whole long populated and lighted place all along the highway. But surely calmer and more spaced out than LA.


San Diego

San Diego is quite a spread out town, all along the sea coast, lined with hills all along. A lot of the houses, especially holiday homes are perched on top of these hills and cliffs with some breathtaking views of the sea beyond. The town felt different, it had been a part of Mexico for a long time. So it was an older place with some interesting Spanish history, as compared to other parts of the US. It is on the border of US and Mexico, and apparently has the second busiest border in the US. Lot of people live on the Mexico side and work in San Diego. And of course it has lots of beaches and related activities too. The city overall had a very relaxed feel to it, probably because of the many beaches around.

Weather is the highlight of San Diego. It has a nice temperate weather all year round. And the winters are supposed to be moderate, with highs of 19 degrees. Last year though, December turned out to be much colder, around 15 degrees. It rained a few days too, though some days were still sunny and warm (one of the main reasons I flew all the way from Europe to US😉).

Sunset from our airbnb

We were staying in an apartment on Golden Hill. It was an ok area, with some parts more gentrified than the others. We could see the sea from our window and saw some glorious sunsets in the evenings. At night too, the area looked nice, with all the lights around and the downtown lights down below all switched on.

Balboa park, Embarcadero, Gaslamp quarter and Little Italy in San Diego downtown

Balboa park was a few minutes walking from our airbnb, so we tried exploring it. It was huge, but not so friendly for walking as it had more roads than trails. So we just walked around the roads a bit and came back soon. It has a few places of interest within it but one would have to drive to those places, so we didn’t explore more. One day when I went running in the park, I did find some walking trails but in the end had to run in a Golf course to finish my run. (It’s at times like these you realise how much European cities are setup around walking about, while US cities are not).

One of the days, we walked towards downtown and it was a mixed experience. There were some very nice areas on the way, and some quite the opposite. We had to walk through a few not-so-great areas, where there were lots of homeless people and lot of litter. The city also lacked character and it wasn’t as fun to walk as expected. But it was all so open and green, everywhere, so that was a plus.

Embarcadero waterfront

After the walk, we reached the Embarcadero waterfront and it was splendid. A long pathway all along the sea, lined with ships, yachts and boats on the one side. And hotels, open air concert spaces, shops and restaurants, the Seaport village and loads of small parks on the other side. We did our regular run there and it was fun to look around while exercising. We stopped for a meal at Seaport village and it felt fun (quite European actually 😉). We walked a bit further and passed by a huge USS ship on the way. It started raining suddenly though and we had to make a dash to our airbnb. Surprisingly, Uber was very cheap here compared to other cities, even in the US.

Little Italy on New Years

One other day, we went into downtown, to Little Italy (which is actually located on India street). It was tough to get parking as everyone was out that day (though the pandemic was still going on). The Little Italy street was lined with restaurants, all with outside seating. It was very very lively there. And they even had heaters outside even when the temperature was just 16 degrees! We had an Italian dinner there and walked around a bit, enjoying the vibe of the place. The area was well lighted for the festive season. But the food felt quite far from authentic Italian food though.


La Jolla shores and coves

La Jolla shores

One of our first days in San Diego, we drove to the La Jolla area which looked like a nice resort kind of place just outside of San Diego. The La Jolla shores was quite a scenic beach and everyone was kayaking and surfing there, in wetsuits though as the water was still cold. We walked on the beach for a while as I took in the warmth of the sun, after the cold fall months in Europe. We had lunch at Storehouse café, the area around it was full of restaurants and people. It felt such a welcome change from the lockdown I was just flying from.

Cliffs of La Jolla coves

We then walked all the way to the La Jolla coves, along the cliffs. The walk was along the luxurious huge houses on the cliffs overlooking the sea. You could see these were the holiday homes of the rich of California, just from the location and size of houses. The vegetation there was also different, with a lot of scrubs and shrubs. Somehow it reminded me of South Africa, both with the vegetation and the huge houses on the cliff. The weather kept shifting though, from sun to rain the whole time.

Sea lions at La Jolla coves

Once we got to the coves, the place was full of tourists. As we kept walking along the sea shore, we walked past herds of sea lions, seals and pelicans, all of whom have made this area their home. They were just lying on the rocks along the sea, sunning themselves and lazing around, while the tourists all around were coo-ing and caa-ing looking at them (while also trying to get too close to them). It was quite interesting to see so much wildlife so near the high-rise hotels and other accommodation on the seaside.

La Jolla cliffs

The area was full of people. And restaurants. It felt so much like a resort area for the rich. We hung out around the coves for a bit, then walked back to the beach. It soon got rainier, so we called it a day and drove back to San Diego. One other place we could have gone to nearby was to drive to Mt. Soledad, for apparently breathtaking, 360-degree views of San Diego but maybe that’s for next time.


Torrey Pines park

Restaurant on the Torrey Pines beach

One of the days, we drove to the Torrey Pines park which has some nice trails around. It had been raining for a few days, so it turned out that all the trails were still closed even though it wasn’t raining that day. So we just walked on the beach all the way to the next El Mar town. The whole beach was lined with tons of beach houses. And there were many birds along the water, notable among them were the local terns. It was cloudy and rainy all the way. And when it started raining in between, we stopped for lunch at the Jakes restaurant. 

Sailors at Torrey pines beach

After the break we walked till the end of the beach and then walked all the way back. The sky was still full of clouds but the sun came out for a bit, and we saw a magnificent sunset that day along the beach. And we also saw some people who had been surfing or sailing come back at the end of the day, while it was still raining.
 

Sunset at Torrey Pines beach

We really enjoyed this day, and even though simple, it had turned out to be quite a magical one, especially with the sunset and its reflections. And we got to do a bit of a hike anyways, as we still ended up walking 12 kms to and back. But of course, the park trails are still left, to be trekked some other day.

Mission Bay

Mission bay

On one of the rare sunny days during the week, we just went to the Mission Bay park which is a huge park all along the sea. We did a nice long 5kms run along the sea. It was a good place to walk, run or just spend a nice picnic day out. It also has a few lakes around and tons of picnic places. It seemed like a good place to hangout. There are two other islands in front of Mission Bay - sea world and fiesta island. We went to the Fiesta one, it was completely empty and we saw some people cycling there. But Mission Bay felt like a more active island, with some sea world etc. We didn't explore the islands much though


Mt Laguna park

On the new year, it turned out to be a warm sunny day in San Diego. So we chose that day to go for a hike to the nearby Mt Laguna Park. We drove there in the morning, passing through some small but gorgeous towns, all in the hills, offering a grand panoramic view all around. As we got closer to the park, we ran into fog. And once we entered the park, we were shocked to see snow! 

It was totally unexpected. There was snow all around, at least 1-2 feet everywhere. Most of the open grounds were covered in white. And the trees too. There were some wooden houses along the road, plus a lot of restaurants and other activity places too. There were loads of people around too, enjoying snow fights in the snow, sledding etc.. It seemed like this was quite a popular tourist spot and we had no idea what to expect.

That’s when we realised that the park was at a height of 4000ft and hence colder than San Diego. It felt a bit stupid that we had come here looking for a hike in the sun, without checking the weather at all! Anyways, we kept driving through the park and it kept getting colder and snowier. We stopped at a few viewpoints and finally got down at the start of the Mount Garnet trek. 

 

Cold and foggy on the trek

Even though it was cold, we thought we might as well do the trek, as it was a short one. We didn't really know the route, but started anyways following what looked to us like a trail. The path was there, though not well marked. We didn't know where we were going, but just kept walking, encouraged by people coming down, that it was worth it. But it was quite a rough one given how cold and windy it had become. It was extremely cold at 0° temperature, foggy, very windy and wet, as the fog and the wind were hitting across our clothes, making them wet. Walking was tough all through the trek due to the strong winds, as it felt like we would fly off.

Anza Borega desert view

The vegetation was all scrubland, everywhere we could see. At a viewpoint on the trail, we got our first view of the desert beyond - Anza Borega - which was sunny and bright. It looked quite the opposite of the conditions we were trekking in. It was also the last of that view from the trek. The last 10 mins of the hike were extremely steep and rocky. But somehow we made it to the peak. It was supposed to have a panoramic view of the Anza desert, but we didn’t see the desert below as it was completely fogged out. The peak was still nice though, with a lot of beautiful rocks strewn all around.

We would have stayed longer but it was too cold to be there. So slowly we walked back and then warmed ourselves in the car. We had finished the trek of about 6 kms in about 2 hours. And even though it had only been 2 hours, we were quite cold and tired due to the wind. So it took us a while to get back to normal. Still overall, we enjoyed the trail especially the fresh mountain air whispering through the pines. 

The drive back to San Diego was again foggy all the way. We couldn’t see anything till we got over a mountain pass and the weather cleared up only as we got to San Diego. And such was the first day of the new year spent by us 😕.

The whole stay in San Diego was fun, with lots to do. I could see how it would be a nice place to spend time in, with lots to do. And there’s a lot more to explore around, like visiting some of the other beaches, the old city, hiking in the nearby national parks or doing one of the picturesque drives along the coast. But as I always end every post with, to the next time😊.