Roaming Free In An RV

It’s the city everyone loves: San Diego. The perfect weather, being right on the ocean, and tons to do, so it’s no wonder that Brad and I fell into the “we love San Diego” category. In February, we visited this area twice within a two week span and I know we would have gone back if we would have had more time.

San Diego has a semi-Mediterranean climate, meaning it doesn’t get too hot or too cold and has very minimal rain or snow. The winter average temperature is 58 while the summer temperature is an average of 72. Perfect! The weather was perfect both times we visited, in the lower 60’s and sunny. Everywhere we went people we out and about, enjoying the nice weather that only San Diego can bring in February.

There is a lot to do in this little town, here is a breakdown of what we did:

Balboa Park: This park is HUGE! 1,200 acres dedicated to open spaces, gardens, walking paths, museums, restaurants, shopping, theaters, a sculpture garden, and is by the famous San Diego Zoo. Parking is free and so is access to the park. There are lots of free activities in this park, including museums and touring the gardens. There are paid passes if one wants to see all 16 of the park’s museums and the zoo. One can spend a half a day to all day in this unique park.

Cabrillo National Monument: This national monument is on a peninsula on the southern tip of San Diego offering great panoramic views of the ocean and surrounding islands. Cabrillo is where the first European, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, set foot on the West Coast in 1542 and this area became a national monument in 1966. On the drive to the park, we passed Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery and once in the park, we explored the lighthouse and tide pool. It was high tide early in the afternoon so we were not able to walk on the normally exposed rocks out into the ocean but the experience was still neat as the fast ocean waves crashing against the rocks.

Old Town San Diego: This town was built on the base of a bluff and in the 1700’s was the hub of the government and had a schoolhouse, a blacksmith, the first San Diego newspaper office, and a jail. In 1860, the development of the now downtown San Diego started, making this area “Old Town” and is now a state historic park. Now a days, one can tour those old buildings along with going shopping, visiting the many museums, and dine in the many Mexican restaurants. We got a handmade flour tortilla hot off the grill and omg, it tasted like a dessert!

Sunset Cliffs Natural Park: As one can guess by the name, this is a popular spot to watch the sunset. We explored this park during the day with my grade school friend who took us to a secret area that only the locals know about called Garbage Beach. We hiked down the cliff and used a rope to get to the beach and stepped onto the very pretty beach. The water was so clear and there were only a few people on the beach with us so we really got to enjoy this secret little spot. All three of us took turns crossing the rocks to get a photo of us out on the ocean.

Torrey Pines State Park: This is a very popular state park and we went there to see the unique torrey pine trees, which are an endangered pine tree that only grows here and Santa Rosa Island along with seeing the famous Torrey Pines Golf Course.

Access to the park is free and if one can find parking on the street, consider yourself lucky. There are two paid parking areas, one farther away from the entrance to the park and another one closer. We choose the farther away one to get in more steps and realized that the closer one was more than double the price we paid. Ouch! Many of the hiking trails were closed due to construction so we hiked to the very top of the park (which is along the road) and then worked our way down, exploring a couple of shorter side trails along the way. Instead of hiking all the way back down on the road, we took a hiking trail that lead to the beach and walked along the beach back to our truck. It was a beautiful day to walk on the beach with the warm ocean breeze and the smooth cool sand at our feet.

We have a couple more California adventures to share so stayed tuned! Till then, happy exploring!