It was time for another senior trip and this child of mine loves the beach. We made a plan to go to San Diego for three nights with one of her friends and her mom. The night before when I went to check our flights, they had filled up, so we had to change plans to leave from a different airport and an hour earlier. We made a quick connection thanks to the other plane being a bit delayed and landed in San Diego early afternoon Pacific Standard Time.
We got a rental car, checked into our hotel, got situated and then decided to head out to one of the many beaches. Ocean Beach was the closest and we immediately got the chill California vibe. We saw the surfer vans and walked along the beach for a bit. We found a restaurant with a beach view to get some dinner and then headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Our first full day was an exploration day. We headed to Balboa Park where we found an artist’s hub with a cute coffee shop, a fountain, a rose garden and walked by several museums. Then, we headed to Old Town San Diego to get authentic Mexican food at Café Coyote (yum!). Across the street was the Whaley House, which is supposed to be the most haunted house in America. My daughter and I did a self-tour and didn’t notice anything. We spent the afternoon wandering around, looking at stores and historic sites and I even found a Catholic Church.
After grabbing some food at Panera, we headed to a 3-hour whale/dolphin watching boat tour. We saw so, so many dolphins, including many baby dolphins! Several got really close to the boat. We didn’t see a whale, but on the way back, we saw a very large Ocean Sunfish. The sun set on our way back to land, which was incredible to see.
The second day in San Diego was more of a beach day. We headed to La Jolla Shores and spent about two hours just enjoying the sun, the sound of waves and people watching. I took a walk along the beach with the other mom and we saw a house built on the beach that looked like a castle. Then, we found cute coffee house nearby for lunch. In the afternoon, my daughter took a surfing lesson while the rest of us enjoyed the beach for a bit more. She got the hang of it by the end of her lesson.
Then, we headed to downtown La Jolla (it’s a drive since it’s up a cliff). We were going to go into a sea cave, but we had to find a restroom first. As we walked down, we started seeing a lot of pelicans and then we started seeing seals and sea lions. There were more than a hundred of them enjoying the shore! We spent our time watching them instead of visiting the cave.
Dinner was at In-N-Out before we headed back to the hotel to pack up and get some sleep before heading out the next day. It was another early flight and tight connection, but we got home as planned. California was fun and a very different, chill vibe everywhere.
