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Published: June 20th 2008
kicking off our day in San Diego
We took a breif trip up to Cabrillo State Park to view the city, the light house, & Monument We're in San Diego today!!
Got up bright -n- early to head to San Diego from Palm Springs (Leaving behind 95 degrees for a cooler 72-ish temperature!) Took us close to 3 hours after coffee-breaks & a quick ATM stop... First place to visit? Cabrillo State Park @ Point Loma. There we could get a landscape view of the San Diego and it's coastline. We parked the HMV (hot-mama-vehicle), then walked the half-mile down the access road to explore the Light Station. The viewing area is comprised of the lighthouse and three original light keepers’ houses and outbuildings. The light house has been a San Diego icon since 1854. It was a bit smoggy, but we were able to see the most northern part of TJ, Mexico from the vantage point.
Thank goodness for GPS' because we had to detour our way to find a gas station and might have gotten a bit lost without it! The ride into Old Town San Diego seemed a bit long 'cause we were all hungry by then! (It was nearly 4pm at that point!) After making our way into the historic state park area, I steered us
View from point
A little hazy, but still very scenic! That's the strand directly in front -- memories of my childhood! down to Bazaar del Mundo to check out the restaurant situation. Ordered a WONDERFUL Mexican meal with salsa never tasted sooooo good!
By the way, Old Town San Diego is often referred to as California's “birthplace.” After stuffing ourselves, we watched some dancers on-stage in the center, then mosied out to take pictures on an old stage coach. I won't say who, but one of us left the "video" part of the camera on & was trying to take pictures... wondering why the shutter wasn't doing what it needed to do. Don't think I've laughed that hard in ages -- my sides were hurting! After a good laugh, it was time to check out a couple sights before packing up the car. (Did you know that La Casa de Estudillo, a mansion built around a garden courtyard, has walls that are 2 feet thick inside?)
Before heading back to Palm Springs, we drove out over the Coronado bridge (it's 200 feet tall and curves around the bay connecting Coronado & the mainland together). One thing I learned as a teen-ager was that Coronado was what inspired writer L. Frank Baum to
Who is this guy?
Reading about a relatively unknown explorer -- documentation on Cabrillo was lost along the way... create the Emerald City in "The Wizard of Oz"... as a kid, we visited the Hotel del Coronado's lobby where the Christmas tree stood all decorated with Dorothy, Toto, Tin Man, etc. Taking a quick tour of the grounds, we ended up strolling on the beach at sunset. Little butterfly clams wiggled their way back into hiding after being brought in on the surf. There were lots of beach-goers still out in the water trying to catch the last remnants of a sunny California day. Alas, the life-guards rode up & down the silvery beach shouting in the blow-horns "Life Guards will be off-duty in approximately 10 minutes. At that time, you will be swimming at your own risk..." Time to pack it up & head down the road!
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