3 Days in San Diego

San Diego, California is my favorite city.  I don't like cities in general but I do love San Diego.  The weather is always great and there are lots of things to do there.  I love it as a tourist, not as a resident. I am sure it would be a nice place to live, if you like to live in a city.

Doug and I visit San Diego every year during our winter road trip.  If we don't stop there on the way to where we are going, we are sure to visit on our way home.  It is one of the only places we have visited every year for the past 7 years of trailer travel.  We always stay at the San Diego KOA in Chula Vista.  It is my favorite campground on our trail.  I believe this campground deserves it's own post.

There are several major attractions in San Diego and each year we visit one of them.  We have been to the San Diego Zoo, the Maritime Museum, Sea World, Old Town, Gaslamp, the Convention Center, and etc.  This year we were in San Diego for 3 days and rather than go to a major attraction, we decided to explore beaches and parks.

The first day was spent on one of our favorites, Coronado beach.  There is a great 'dog beach' at the end of the Coronado beach, where Cessna loves to frolic in the waves.  When we get close to this beach she whines and jumps around in anticipation of the fun she will have at one of her favorite spots.  There are lots of things for people to do on Coronado too.  You can enjoy a meal at a good restaurant, shopping, sitting in the sun, touring The Coronado Beach Hotel, and or course, running on the beach.  We had a nice run down the beach toward the Silver Strand.

The second day, we decided to go to Mission Bay and play.  We started our day on Fiesta Island, a place Cessna could swim and play on the beach.  After she had her fill of fun, we parked in a Mission Bay Parking lot and started our day of fun in the sun.  The first thing we did was pull out the Eagle Kayak and inflate it.  We spent an hour or so kayaking around the bay.  We had a little picnic and then rode our bikes along the bike path.  There is a long, well maintained bike path around Mission Bay.  We ended our day with a short, slow run along the path.  It was truly an active day.  Mission Bay park is well utilized.  There were lots and lots of people there, picnicking, boating, exercising, riding bikes, walking, running, skateboarding.

On day 3 we drove up to Mission Trails Regional Park.  This park a short drive East of San Diego.  This was our first visit to this park.  There is a road to the dam, which is the main attraction of the park.  It was built a long time ago by the native people who lived in the area.  There are lots of well marked spur trails along the main road.  There are interpretive signs at points along the trails as well. This is a dog-friendly park.  Cessna enjoyed a little swim in the dam.

A person can spend a lot of money visiting the many wonderful attractions in San Diego and we usually do find one to enjoy each time we visit.  This year, however, we had a very enjoyable 3 days in San Diego and spent very little money.  All of the parks and beaches we visited were free of charge and gas was about $2.25 a gallon.  We had a very active, interesting and fun time in San Diego this year.