California Vacation Part 4 - San Diego to Topanga Canyon

 We left San Diego on September 12 to drive to Malibu.  First, was a stop at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve for some hiking....

We then started our drive up Route 1 and stopped at Laguna Beach for lunch.

We continued on and arrived in the Malibu area in time to drop our stuff off at our AirBnB in Topanga Canyon, and then head to see some of the sights in Malibu.  A note about our AirBnB - it was definitely one of the most unique places we have stayed at and gave us a feel of living in a "hippie commune."

We toured the Adamson House grounds (we were there after hours, so we didn't tour the inside).

We then headed to Point Dume State Beach to hike the Point Dume Cove Trail.  This hike gave us beautiful views of the shoreline, beach, and ocean.

We finished the day by eating at The Malibu Seafood Fresh Fish Market and Patio Cafe.

California Vacation Part 3 - San Diego Day 3

 One of the few "blips" we had on vacation was that Darrell's phone screen broke, so we started our day back in the Little Italy area of San Diego to try to get it fixed.  When it was apparent that we couldn't, then a cappuccino at a little cafe helped get our day started.

We then visited the USS Midway Museum https://www.midway.org/  This was not something that I thought I wanted to do, but it ended up being so interesting and we learned a lot, so I ended up being thankful that we took the time to visit.  It was also interesting that we visited on September 11, and was able to see how they honored that impactful day.

We then headed to Coronado Island, walked the beach, and walked through the Hotel del Coronado.  The hotel was covered in scaffolding, so we didn't get the full feel of it, but we were still was grateful we visited.

We ended our day at the Gaslight District of San Diego.  We had a very hard time finding parking, which we found out was due to a home Padres game and a Pink concert.  We didn't spend much time there, as it was crowded, but found a decent restaurant to get food.

California Vacation 2024 Part 2 - San Diego Days 1 & 2

 Our first full day in San Diego was Monday, September 9.  We happened to be in San Diego during a heat wave, so that first day reached 93 degrees.  We had to decide what to do in that heat, so we decided to a Seven Bridges Hike of the city to get a feel for the city 

https://www.sandiego.org/campaigns/sunny-7/san-diegos-7-bridges-hike.aspx

The hike took us through Balboa Park and through several neighborhoods, as well as over seven bridges located within the city (one of which was a suspension bridge).

The afternoon was too hot to do much of anything outside, so Darrell found a drive that took us out of San Diego - Historic Highway 94.  The scenery was stunning and we came very close to the Mexican border.  A surprise for us was seeing the border wall!

We decided to celebrate our anniversary early in the Little Italy neighborhood of San Diego and watch another gorgeous sunset at Waterside Park.

Traveling the way we do means a lot of steps taken every day! 

On Tuesday, September 10, we went to La Jolla to spend the day.  We took a kayak tour to the La Jolla sea caves, which was an educational and fun experience!  Darrell and I took the challenge and jumped off of our kayaks into the Pacific, which was very refreshing as it was still a hot day.  We then ate lunch and walked the Coast Walk Trail, which took us along the shoreline and coastline of La Jolla.  Our favorite part of the walk was how close we were able to get to the seals and sea lions along this walk.

For dinner, we went to Old Town San Diego and ate at Old Town Mexican Cafe.  We walked around Old Town and then just barely caught the sunset at Presidio Park.

California Vacation 2024 Part One - pre-trip happenings and arrival at San Diego

 After a busy month of August moving 3 adult children into 3 different universities, we were looking forward to a big California vacation.....just the two of us!  The entire vacation worked out better than we anticipated, but did start out with a couple of problems....

The first problem was the reason why we were traveling to California:  New York Life's President Council.  Earlier in the week, prior to travel, we had gotten notified that there was a hotel worker strike, and to expect some inconveniences during our stay at the San Diego hotel we were expecting to stay at.  But then, a little over 24 hours before we were set to fly to California, NYL canceled the Council meeting due to the reports that the people striking were getting aggressive towards the hotel guests and they couldn't guarantee our safety.  Since this part of the trip was only 1/3 of our vacation, Darrell quickly found an AirBnB in San Diego, extended out rental car, and everything fell into place fairly easily.

The second problem occurred when we landed in San Diego, and only 3 out of our 4 bags made the trip.  This proved to be a pretty easy problem for the airline to figure out, and since we agreed to go and retrieve my bag later in the day, we received a $150 flight voucher, which was perfect timing to use it towards Evan's Thanksgiving flight home!  (Thank you SouthWest Airlines!)

Since we landed in San Diego before lunch, we were able to do a couple of things that first day.  We found a deli to pick up salads and ate them at Balboa Park (although NOT on the nice side of the park).  We checked into our AirBnB, found a local Trader Joe's, and bought food to last us the four days we would be in San Diego.  Then we drove to Ocean Beach, ate at Mike's Taco Club https://www.mikestacoclub.com/#mikes for dinner (highly recommend their tacos!)  

We walked Sunset Cliffs at dusk and experienced our first San Diego sunset, which was not only stunning but also at 7 p.m.!  That first day was a long, hot travel day, but we were thankful everything worked out.