I have been to San Diego on three occasions, though two of them were conferences during which I had almost no time to see the city. My last visit to San Diego was around Labor Day, 2004. I combined my trip there with a visit to Palm Springs.

I stayed at the Westin Emerald Plaza in downtown San Diego. It is a really cool building. Unfortunately, my experience at the hotel was not top notch. I hope they have improved since then (especially the elevator situation – it is a tall building) because the property itself is nice and the location is outstanding.

Right down the street from there is the Horton Plaza, which is a small shopping center. It is not a huge mall, but if you need a shopping “fix,” it is pretty nice. Also nearby is a place called Seaport Village. This place is very cool because it has shops that you won’t find in a typical shopping center, and it has some great food outlets – restaurants and fast food type windows. One of the neat things about travelling is meeting the “local” people. My partner and I started talking to the owners of one of the stores at Seaport Village and spent probably an hour or so there. That is a fun thing for me. I like meeting people and hearing their stories – how they got there, where they are from, why they are doing what they are doing, etc. I frankly don’t remember which store it was, nor do I know if they are even still there. But it is something that I remember every time I think about San Diego.

One of the things that my partner and I generally like to do when we visit a city that we do not know well is to take a general tour of the city. Most cities have something like this where you can go by bus or train or some sort of conveyance and see the highlights of the city. Then you can get an idea of what things you think are worth going back to and spending more time. This particular tour took us around the downtown area, through the Gaslamp District, then over the bridge to Coronado to see the island and the Hotel del Coronado. Then we got to drive through various parts of Balboa Park (I will come back to Balboa Park in a bit) and finally we got to visit Old Town San Diego. Old Town is one of the areas that I liked the most. It has, once again, tons of quaint shops. You get to see many Mexican artisans creating their various kinds of art (such as pottery, hats, etc). That alone is worth it. But there are some great restaurants here, too, including one of the top Mexican restaurants in town. Again, I am not positive about the name of the restaurant, but it is the one that is right in the middle of the Bazaar Del Mundo. I think it is called Casa de Pico. It has the BEST guacamole that I have ever had. YUM!!

Balboa Park is an area that you can spend days in all by itself. The Park area includes 15 museums, beautiful gardens, the San Diego Zoo, performing arts venues, one of the world’s largest outdoor organs (the Spreckles Organ Pavilion), and much, much more. A lot of the buildings that are there today were started for the 1915-1916 Panama-California Exposition. It is my understanding that a lot of the buildings that are there now were originally only facades for this exposition, but then were completed because they did not want to take the facades down. We walked all through the main area (that surrounds the Visitors Center). Another part of this area that is particularly interesting is the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages area. Each of these cottages represents a different national tradition. There are 31 cottages in all. On Sundays from March to October, each of the cottages showcase their national traditions. It kind of reminds me of EPCOT, but on a much larger scale. It is very interesting and my partner and I enjoyed this area immensely.

Probably my favorite thing that I did in San Diego was to visit the San Diego Zoo. I am a big fan of zoos, and have visited dozens of zoos around the world. This zoo is almost universally acclaimed as the best zoo in the US. I heartily concur. I can’t give it the honor of the best zoo that I have ever been to (that would go to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia), but I sure did enjoy it. When I was there, they still had a baby Giant Panda. I believe that there has been another born there since then. But there is so much more than just the Pandas. One of the exhibits that I loved was the Hippos. There was a baby hippo at the time. And I personally think that hippos are beautiful and interesting animals.

Another neat thing that you can do in the area is drive down to San Ysidro, at the Mexican border, park your car on the US side, and walk across the border into Mexico (at Tijuana). There are a shops and food stalls and nightclubs and all kinds of interesting things right on the Mexican side of the border. We had an unfortunate incident related to parking because we did not pay attention and listened to the advice of someone that did not know what they were talking about. If you do this, park in a designated lot and pay the appropriate parking fee. Do not try to park in the lots of any of the businesses near the border. You will be towed (as we were). It was not exactly fun to walk back across into the US, somewhat inebriated, and find that our car was gone. Once we realized that it had been towed, we had to figure out, at 2 in the morning, who to call to get our car back. $200 and a few hours later, we had our car back. We just chalked it up to one of those experiences. It did not ruin our trip by any means, but it sure would have been nicer not to have the car towed!!

After our glorious time in San Diego (during which we experienced the rare occurrence of temperatures in the 90’s – that does not happen a lot in San Diego), we then drove over to Palm Springs. There are 2 ways to go from San Diego. One is to drive to Los Angeles and then head west to Palm Springs. The other involves driving up to Temecula and then crossing over the mountains and from there into the valley where Palm Springs is located. The second option is what we chose. The reason that we did so is that I had done it before with my brother and wanted my partner to see that particular area. It is an absolutely gorgeous drive. There are parts of the drive where you can hardly believe that you are so close to 2 of the country’s largest cities (LA and San Diego) because it is so empty and unspoiled. When you come out of the mountains and begin your descent into the valley, especially if you can time it so that you do it as the sun is setting, it is truly one of the most beautiful drives I have experienced.

Palm Springs itself is kind of fun, but it is very different from other cities that I have been to. It is very “orderly” and precise. I don’t know if that will make sense to anyone. But I always feel how planned the area is when I am there. It is actually something that my partner did not like about the area. There are plenty of interesting things to do between Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Cathedral City (which are all right next to each other). And the desert can be strikingly beautiful. One thing that is not to be missed in the area is the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. It is not really cheap – costing about $20 or so per person. I have been up there 2 times now, and I would definitely go again. Click here to see videos of the Tramway (or go to Youtube or another online video site and search for Palm Springs Tramway). Watching the video(s) will do a better job of explaining the magnificence of this attraction. At the top, there are hiking paths and all kinds of camping and other activities. It is truly a breathtaking experience that I highly recommend.

To see some of my photos of San Diego and Palm Springs, click here.