Week 27: Vacation In a New City

When my husband told me last year that he had a conference coming up in San Diego, I knew that Middle Child and I would have to go. The San Diego Zoo has always been on her bucket list and we try to get her out of her small world as much as we can. Plus, lots of new things for me!!! So, on the last day of the conference, we flew out to join him. I will do a few posts with photos from the trip.

View from our hotel, which was adjacent to Seaport Harbor. You can see how palm trees line the street and separate the train tracks from the main road. I took an uber for the first time to get from the airport to the hotel and we used uber for the entire trip. Parking is nearly impossible to find and at $30/day just to park at the hotel, it's not worth renting a car.

After getting the hotel key from my husband, Middle Child and I ventured off to find lunch. We had left our house at 4 a.m., and by this time, it was 4 p.m. EST, so we were hungry. We went to Puesto, a Mexican restaurant located in the old SD Police Headquarters. The square had been turned into restaurants and shopping. We had some fun looking at the old jail cells, a poster of mug shots, and taking photos of each other on the line up wall.

We enjoyed delicious guacamole with pomegranate, mango, and candied walnuts, along with a trio of blue corn tortilla carnitas, al pastor, and verduras tacos. Topped off with pina-melon and mango-limon aguas frescas. I can't make that at home!

We spent the rest of the day walking along the harbor, which stretched for miles, from Seaport Village to the Embarcadero. You can see the bridge to Coronado in this picture. Being a Below Deck fan, I got a kick out of seeing the massive yachts along the way. The weather the entire time was picture perfect: 74 degrees and sunny, with no humidity. Oh, California, how I lust for you in the winter.



It was impossible for me to get the entire USS Midway in the photo, but you can see the aircraft on top, so imagine how huge it really is.

I had to get a picture of this iconic statue, Embracing Peace.

There was a nice memorial to Bob Hope nearby. The soldiers are facing a statue of Bob Hope and there is audio playing of him entertaining the troops. Walking among the statues was a bit creepy, to be honest, with the voices. My daughter didn't like it!

 

It became a ritual on this trip to get gelato at the end of the evening. Here, I had coconut, black raspberry chip, and dark chocolate. I do not know why we do not have gelato places in Ohio, but I like it much better than ice cream.

The following morning, my husband was now free to join us for the rest of the trip. We spent the day using the Old Town Trolley, which stops at 10 locations around San Diego. You are able to hop on/hop off and start and stop wherever you want. Our narrator/driver called himself 'Boxcar' and he was fabulous! Very entertaining and nice to hear the background/history of some of the sights we saw and names around town.

We spent the majority of our day at Balboa Park, home to numerous gardens and museums. On Sundays, a pipe organ concert is performed in this pavilion. Behind that door is the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world. It was Saturday, so we weren't able to see it, but we could hear someone playing songs on it.

The Botanical Building, which was full of orchids and other beautiful plants.

Facing the other way, the Lily Pond and Casa De Balboa. The architecture of all the buildings was quite beautiful.

We spent a lot of time exploring all the gardens. This photo does not do it justice, but it's the most roses I've ever seen in my life. My husband and I talked about how no one seems to grow roses anymore where we live. We both remember lots of rose bushes when we were kids. It seems like an 'old fashioned' flower now.

There were two desert gardens in the park. We love looking at cactus because they are so unusual for us to see. We also took a walk through Palm Canyon, which was exactly like the name sounds.

We only went into the Timken art museum, because it was free. This is one of the many other museums on the property. Again, the architecture was stunning. We had brunch outdoors at Panama 66.

We toured all of the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages. They were all manned by people of that descent. My husband thought it was all a bit strange, calling it a "poor man's Epcot." I enjoyed it because people were serving little snacks or drinks in each cottage, so you noticed an aroma when you entered each one and saw some of the customary furnishings of the different countries.

We also hopped off the trolley at Old Town. I didn't take many photos there. It was mostly shops, but there were a few remnants of the past, like a blacksmith and an old mission church.

That evening, we had dinner in the popular Gaslamp Quarter. Many of the restaurants had outdoor patios along the sidewalk. We dined outside at Café Toscana and all ordered different pasta dishes. My daughter had the pasta primavera and we all agreed it was the best we've ever tasted. Afterwards, we walked with the baseball crowd over to Petco Park, just to see it from the outside. Then it was back to the hotel to rest up for the next day of new things in 2019.