Hey Guys! We spent two very full weeks in the San Diego, CA area and we still didn’t see it all, but we got in as much as we could.

But first, let’s talk about the drive from Tucson to San Diego. It’s not one that I will want to do again any time soon. Not too far after Yuma…just past the CA border you get to this area of well…wind and heat and hills. There wasn’t anything at all for miles and miles. Except the intense heat (we crossed in April and the temp got up to 95) and the wind that tried to blow us off the road every so often with a mighty gust.

The conditions are bad enough that California put in pullovers every few miles for radiator water and call boxes. Because, yeah…there’s no cell service here either. Along with the radiator water, call box, and hill percent grade warnings there was a sign that urged motorist to turn off their air conditioning…you know…so maybe your vehicle will actually make it through this little slice of the H word. I was a nervous wreck by the time we got though all 20 to 30 miles of it and if we ever decide to go back to San Diego, we are definitely going to need a different route.

When I was planning this area I had a hard time finding an RV Park that fit us. I don’t want something right downtown in the middle of all the traffic. It needs to be a safe area, kid friendly, and not cost $90 a night. I stumbled onto the Sweetwater Summit Regional Park in Bonita, CA right as I was about to give up on seeing the San Diego area. Guys, this is a great park! Look how big our yard was! And…fullhookups for right around $30 a night! Score! We were only half an hour from the coast…so not too far away from the touristy stuff we had planned, but far enough away that we weren’t stuck in the middle of the rat race everyday.

We had some pretty cute neighbors here too. We had ground squirrels as neighbors at Catalina State Park back in Tucson as well, but these guys were twice the size! Just as fun to watch though. We also had tons of rabbits as neighbors here. The little jerks liked to get up on our steps at night and do their…potty business. So, there were rabbit pellets all over the steps and our mat for the first few nights. We stopped it by putting our steps in every night. Take that rabbits. We heard rumors of rattlesnakes, but we never saw one. And ants…we heard rumors that there are legions of ants just waiting to invade your RV, but we didn’t see any of those either. We got lucky.

All National Park units tell a story. Some, like Cabrillo National Monument, has more than one story to tell. Cabrillo National Monument tells three different stories. The stories of exploration, guidance, and protection. One of the stories told at Cabrillo NM is about it’s namesake, Juan Radriguez Cabrillo who set sail in New Spain in 1542 to explore and claim new lands for the King of Spain. Cabrillo was the first European to set foot on the west coast of what is now the United States.

Another story here is the story of the Old Point Loma Lighthouse which operated from 1855 to 1891. The lighthouse was in the perfect spot as long as the weather was good, but if there was any fog…the lighthouse couldn’t be seen. So, a new lighthouse was built closer to sea level in 1891. The old lighthouse has been preserved and is set up in the fashion it would have been during the time when the longest serving keeper and his family lived there. Robert Israel worked as the lightkeeper for 20 years. He was on duty 24 hours a day 7 days a week so he had very little time to spend with his family.

The last story we learned about was of Fort Rosecrans. Point Loma is a natural protective barrier located at the entrance of the San Diego Bay. Due to its strategic location Point Loma has had an important part in coastal defense since 1797 when the Spanish built Fort Guijarros at Ballast Point. Today, at Cabrillo NM, you can explore a bunker from WWII where many soldiers spent countless hours watching for enemy ships, planes, and submarines.

The boys really enjoyed this Junior Ranger book. It had them exploring different sections of the NM in order to answer questions. They like the interactive booklets that make them get up and explore more than the ones that just have them find answers in the visitor center museum.

We spent over four hours exploring the USS Midway. We’ve been to a few different battleships, but this was our first aircraft carrier. The USS Midway was built in 1945 during WWII in 18 months by women. Most of the women had never even picked up a tool before they were drafted to work in factories and plants to help with the war effort. You are looking at the first ship that was too big to go through the Panama Canal. At the time, it was the largest ship in the world. Our favorite thing about touring the Midway was hearing all of the personal stories from the Veterans who were volunteering as guides. Hearing someone recount their time and experience as a crew member made it more personal…more real…for us. It was different than just reading a sign about what this room was used for or what that lever does.

Let’s talk foodies! It is San Diego…they are kind of a foodie town. We took Alex out to lunch one day and he got a surf and turf burger (bottom left picture). He ate it all! We found a little taco shop that served Tijuana style street tacos (bottom right picture). It was originally started in Tijuana. You know you’re in the right spot to try ethnic food when there’s a language barrier. We got the family pack and it ended up being more than we could eat for only $40! Thanks to a cousin (waves at Dev) we found Hodad’s. I think the picture (top middle picture) tells you everything you need to know. The only one who finished their burger here was Charles. Those burgers were huge!

I think I’m going to have to break this area up into two posts. We did more touristy things here than we usually do. There were sooo many pretties in San Diego! I’ll share some with you now and some with you in the next post too! If I’m being totally honest here…I have enough pictures of pretties to do an entire post on just flowers. Ha!

Ok Guys! That’s it for this post…stay tuned for San Diego part two and watch out for Nicholas’ Pizza Street post and a new Zoo Review!

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018