My trip to San Deigo!

For those of you who remember my thread a few weeks ago asking for suggestions of what to do in San Diego when you only have a few days, I want to update.

We just got back last night, and all I have to say is "OMG!" What a spectacularly beautiful city! Every where we went, my girls were in awe...we all were. The only thing we were disappointed in was the weather. I guess I always thought So. California was sunny and warm. LOL I knew the temps in San Diego were mild, and we checked the weather forecast every day before we left, and it showed sunny and 72-73 every day. I thought that would be just lovely. We packed for summer, but layers. I took mostly shorts, tops and sweaters thinking I could add/remove layers as necessary. Well, pretty much every day except yesterday, it was soooo chilly. Cloudy and windy most of the day, some days the sun came out around 2-3 in the afternoon, and it was warm in the sun, but other than that, I was cold most of the time. I definitely did not bring appropriate clothing. I took one pair of jeans, which I wore at some point every day. LOL I took several sweaters, but lighter weight summer-type sweaters. I was really wishing for thicker sweaters and scarves, especially when we went to the beach. Or out to eat at night as most restaurants we went to had open air type seating. I shivered through most dinners. LOL

Anyway, we had a totally fantastic time. I don't think I've ever seen a prettier place. My entire family is a huge beach fan, and my kids have grown up vacationing on the Gulf coast of Florida. We've also been to the east coast a couple of times (Va. Beach, Hilton Head, Miami, etc) and I have also always loved Colorado. But San Diego...wow! I've never seen anything like it! (This was our first trip to California!)

So, here is what we did:

*La Jolla Beach--ended up on a cove where sea lions come out of the water and gather on the rocks and beach. So fun! We took so many awesome photos. We also loved walking around on the cliffs and took so many great pics of the waves crashing into the rocks. I could have stayed there all day, in spite of the clouds and chilliness.

*Gas Lamp Quarter--this was very near our hotel, so we spent a lot of time walking around there and ate dinner there two nights.

*Coronado--loved it, beautiful, froze our butts off on the beach so we didn't stay long. Driving across that bridge was scary, but my kids and husband loved it. I wanted to go back there when we were dressed a bit warmer, but we never did.

*Sunset Cliffs--Wow! We spent a whole afternoon there, and I gotta say, I had about 3 heart attacks because my family decided to climb down the rocks to the beach below, which was scary as heck! Got some great photos though! We went back that evening to watch the sunset, and again, it was beautiful!

*Pacific Beach--again, we didn't spend much time there. We went early one morning and had breakfast at a restaurant on the beach then went for a walk, and the food was good, but again, it was COLD! And the restaurant was open air, so all I could think of was to hurry up and eat and get out of there!

*We stayed at the Marquis Marriott, which is right on the harbor near Sea Port Village. We loved that place and spent a lot of time walking around the shops, and just walking along the boardwalk. We rented those crazy bikes a couple of times, and that was fun, too. It was awesome to be able to see some of the Navy ships on the base somewhat up close, especially since my son is in the Navy and on a missile destroyer.

*Cabrillo National Monument--without a doubt, this was THE highlight of the trip! We did that yesterday before our flight, and when I told my husband that is what I wanted to do yesterday, he was skeptical and said, "the girls will be bored with that!" (I am a history buff and love stuff like that, and they often are bored!) I talked them into it, and my husband kept saying, "thank you for talking us into this!" I don't really have words to describe being there. I have never seen anything so beautiful. I think we took about 200 photos between all of us. Maybe more. We drove down to the tide pools, which everyone loved. We literally had to drag ourselves away when it was time to go to the airport.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the reason we went was so my husband could run in the Rock 'n Roll marathon. That was fun, too. We spent the morning after the marathon in Petco Park listening to music, and my baseball-loving family enjoyed that, too.

We are definitely going back next year for the marathon and have already decided to make more of a vacation out of it. (We were only there Thursday through Monday). And we will definitely be more prepared for the weather!

Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions on what to do and where to go. There is so much more we wanted to do but couldn't fit in.