San Diego trip Part 1

Of the two of us, my husband is the one who likes traveling the most.   I like the idea of it and I like to see new things...but I am reluctant to give up the comforts of home.

When Lonnie told me he'd like to take me on a vacation to the San Diego area though, it was just too tempting and I didn't drag my feet at all.
San Diego is a good city to visit. It's safe and clean and close to beaches on one side and mountains and forests on the other.

We chose to stay about a half hour's drive north of the city, in Escondido, since we planned to divide our time between seeing the city sights and driving up in the surrounding mountains.

The weather was perfect - mid 70's - with none of the humidity we have in Kentucky.  Many mornings would start out cloudy but by noon the sun would break through.

The harbor there is huge...and busy. There are military ships, cruise ships, commercial craft, sight seeing boats and even a decommissioned aircraft carrier turned into a museum.

They have one bridge...the Coronado Bay bridge that leads to Coronado Island, which is part touristy area, homes for the wealthy, shops, restaurants...and part Naval Air Station.

One place we visited was the Mt Soledad Veterans Memorial, a massive cross on top of the mountain, surrounded by low walls covered with thousands of plaques inscribed with photos and military career of veterans, both the living and the deceased.

From the top it was an amazing panoramic view of the city and the surrounding area.

That's the city skyline on the horizon in the far left side of the photo (if you can tear your eyes away from Mr Cutie) 

No photos, but on that day we also explored Balboa Park a bit.  It's 1200 acres of museums, trails, gardens, shopping, plazas, fountains,attractions and includes the San Diego Zoo.  It's so big, it's just too hard to decide what to see...so we left!

Another morning we decided to walk this trail across the Lake Hodges Suspension Bridge.

Where is the lake?  It was completely dried up. They haven't had any measurable rain since March of this year.

We still enjoyed the walk though, especially since we had a long scenic drive planned for the day.

We drove south...almost to the Mexican border, then cut over to drive back up following as close to the ocean as possible.  Beaches, piers, beach towns along the route.  

This is Imperial Beach. I had to walk down and put my feet in the Pacific Ocean.

The road eventually turned into the Silver Strand, a long penninsula - mostly a state park beach that leads to Coronado Island.  We looked around there for awhile then came across the bridge into the city and continued north around the bay.  We drove out on Harbor Island for a great view of the city.

Then it was uphill and more uphill on Point Loma to see Cabrillo National Monument and the Old Point Loma Lighthouse.  Breathtaking views from up here too!

We then called it a day with a fish dinner at Point Loma Seafoods.   

I will have to tell more in another post.  If I put too many photos up at a time, problems seem to happen and my post disappears.

I will follow up with part two.