Exploring San Diego

Let's take a step back into August, when we got on to a red eye and headed to San Diego. A few days prior to our departure we learnt that a hurricane was heading to San Diego and planning on hitting us while we were there. :( 

M and I have a new motto in life.. we say it often enough. 

We rented a car and headed to our hotel. We stayed at the Omni San Diego Hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter. The hotel was very nice (travel tip - find out what your hotels parking policy is) The parking per night was $40 but if you spent a few extra minutes and didn't mind walking you could find free street parking as it was the weekend, there was also an abundance of parking garages in the area charging half on the cost. So M dropped us off with the bags while he found parking. Staying in that neighborhood was hands down our best decision! It was a party area.. a bit loud but when a hurricane is headed your way you want to be in a lively area where restaurants will dare to stay open. But before we get to the doom and gloom of the hurricane.. 

Day One

When you think San Diego you think the zoo. It is the number one rated zoo in the world, housing 4,000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on 100 acres. It is the most visited zoo in the United States. Have you ever been? Thoughts?

But first breakfast.. we ate at The Breakfast Company just a few steps away from our hotel. Food reel here

I have been to maybe six different zoo's.. Bronx zoo being the one we have visited most often. Would I say this is the best zoo ever.. I don't know. I don't think I have been to enough zoos' to make that call but I'll tell you what I liked about it. I liked that it was small. There were a lot of animals in a small space. The Bronx zoo is massive.. you can never see all the animals, it takes a whole day and you are exhausted afterwards. This zoo on the other hand took half a day and I think we saw a decent amount of animals. The orangutans and baboons put on a great show. I made more videos than I took pictures hence the lack thereof.  Kid's never got to the point of frustrated exhaustion, which is a plus. We loved that it had a cable car and a bus that helped us get from one far away location to the next. So it gets a thumbs up from me. 

Knowing we had a hurricane looming over us we thought to cram more into this day.. not knowing what the next day held.

Next stop Sunset Cliffs.. 

There were multiple parking lots along the way so not too hard to find parking.. we walked along the edge and went down the stairs and explored the tide pools. We wish we had time to explore or head down to the beach but we had dinner plans with friends.

We drove along Cabrillo Memorial Drive to Point Loma Lighthouse but it was closed. But on the way we made the most intriguing discovery.. 

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Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery - the final resting place for more than 120,000 people. This cemetery which borders our park is one of the largest national cemeteries in the United States. We had never seen this many graves.. so white and symmetrical.. it was quite a sight. The oldest grave dating back to 1846.

Now time for some dinner and a reunion. Our friends who once lived in New Jersey in our neighboring town moved to San Diego almost a decade ago.. we have seen each other maybe twice since but there are some friends you can not see for years and then meet like no time has passed at all. 

We met for dinner in Old Town. Couldn't have ended the day any better.  

DAY TWO

Day of the hurricane. It started out just raining. As an East Coaster we are very familiar with rain and hurricanes so we weren't too concerned. We headed out for breakfast. We ate at The Broken Yolk also just a few steps away from the hotel. The hotel was very kind in providing us all with umbrellas. 

                                             

Afterwards we walked to our car and headed out to just drive around.. many things were closed.. beaches were barricaded.. They weather was still mild. Just rain. 

It was a little drizzle really.. barely a hurricane but even the Starbucks were closed. In a couple of hours we had already driven everywhere and were now bored. We headed back in the direction of our hotel and found an ice cream place that was open and a pizza place right next door. Our lucky stars. lol

So of course we had our dessert first and then grabbed our pizza to eat in our hotel. The pizza place was take out only. Now I must say that Cali's Ice Cream was by far the most delicious ice cream ever.. ever.

The hotels pool was outdoors so also closed.. we grabbed some hotel coffee and settled down to play D's geography game which he was probably the only one super excited to play. 

Still bored and with so many more hours in the day we headed out again and found a go karting place.

The kids had fun. And we killed some time.

We headed back to the hotel, showered and ordered some thai food which was thankfully open! Watched a movie and called it a day.

And so we ended our adventures in San Diego. Not a great start to the trip but as I said before.. It is what it is.. 

                                           

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