A Rainy First Day in San Diego

We planned our San Diego trip just a few weeks ago.  There was no real reason behind it.  Call it an anniversary trip as we will be celebrating five years on the 18th.  Call it a "babymoon" as it is the last time we'll travel without kids at least being on our minds.  Or say we saved up a lot of vacation time to travel for adoption, and now we have to use that before the end of the year.  Call it what you want, but we have been so ready to get away and just enjoy each other's company.

We woke up a little after 3 a.m. to catch an early flight.  Besides an incredibly rude stewardess and a quick Houston layover, we had an uneventful time getting here.  We arrived in California, the first time for both of us, around 11 am their time.

After we got our car, we headed to our hotel.  It's close to the airport on a little stretch of land called Shelter Island.  We are staying at Humphrey's Half Moon Inn and Suites.  Deciding on a hotel was difficult for us.  Mark wanted to stay on the ocean; I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on lodging.  This place was a compromise.  It's not on the ocean, but it does overlook a big marina with lots of sailboat yachts.  Our room wasn't ready when we arrived, so we headed over to the hotel restaurant to feed our starving bellies.  Nugget becomes pretty active when s/he's hungry.

I'm not much of a foodie, but my sister is.  Check out her blog all about great food you can make at home.  She has asked me to document my food experiences.  For lunch we both got grilled jerk chicken paninis on ciabatta bread with pesto, goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and arugula.  It was very, very good.

Our room still wasn't ready after lunch.  I vetoed Mark's vote to take a nap in the car, although the weather was very inviting.  San Diego typically doesn't get much rain, but it had been raining since we got here.  Not very hard, but enough to make you walk, head-down, quickly in between destinations.  The temperature was in the low 60s, but the rain and wind made it feel very cool.  

We headed to a part of town known as "Old Town."  This is one of the oldest settlements in California.  Today it is mostly filled with museums, haunted houses, artist's shops, cheap souvenir shops, and lots and lots of Mexican restaurants.  We bought plastic ponchos and quickly walked between shops.  This is supposed to be a cool part of town, but we weren't in the mood for museums, had just eaten, and the weather wasn't great for appreciating the character of the area.  We spent an hour or two here and then headed to the Gaslamp district, a trendy part of downtown.

We had a Groupon for a Segway tour of this part of town.  Neither one of us had been on Segways before, but we were not that excited to be riding them around in this weather. The tour was rain or shine, so ride we did.

Here's Mark learning how it works:

It took a few minutes to get used to how the Segways worked.  The first time, I felt like I was going to die by way of concrete faceplant.  But I didn't, and we were ready to go in no time.


The Gaslamp district looks like most any big city's downtown area- lots of tall buildings.  Our guide pointed out some interesting things, like the convention center that holds the big Comic-Con conference every year.  They are possibly expanding it (and it is already HUGE) just for that one conference.  We saw the most expensive real estate in San Diego, fancy lofts that have a helicopter landing pad on top.  He pointed out an area that had a great Farmer's Market, and told us the history of how the area came together.  It's called Gaslamp because the streets used to be lined with streetlights that actually ran on gas.

Before too long we came to PetCo Park, where the Padres play.  Mark's a huge baseball fan and we always like to check out ballparks when we travel.  PetCo park is awesome!  It is right in the center of town.  The outfield area extends way past where most parks end.  There are gates that keep things closed in during games, but when there's not a game you can ride right up to the outfield.  There are residential lofts inside the park.  There is a hill where you can watch away games on the big screen.  You can also watch home games from the hill for just $5, and you can even bring your pet!  The park has only been there for a few years and it was controversial to build since there were a lot of historical buildings on the site.  They ended up lifting one huge brick buildings on hydraulics and moving it several feet over!  They incorporated another building into the park.

From the park, we rode over to the bay area.  I hadn't really realized how much of the city revolves around the water.  The bay offered pretty views, even through the clouds.  It had mostly stopped raining at this point and we even got to see a bit of the sunset.  There were boats everywhere, and pretty views of the city.

Our guide said that in clearer weather, you could see Mexico- just 13 miles or so away.  He also said it hasn't rained like this on a tour for about a year!  Gotta love the Miller luck.  We continued our tour along the water.   I guess this is usually a happening area, but there weren't many people out tonight. We saw lots of military boats, some of which we'll tour later this week.

The tour ended just as I had lost all feeling in my fingers and toes.  We tipped our guide and hurried to the car to warm up.

Back at our hotel, our room was ready.  I am very impressed!  The room is modern and our view is delicious.  The resort has a tropical feel.  There are lush greens, brightly colored fish, and palm trees everywhere.  It's a little oasis in the city.  I'll try to get some pictures at some point.  We made our way to the hot tub to warm our bones, but I couldn't spend too long in it as I didn't want to cook Nugget.

After cleaning up, we headed just down the street to a seafood restaurant called Brigantine.  Mark found online that they are known for their swordfish tacos, and they did not disappoint.  I am not much of a seafood fan, so I just got a salad.

After a long day we were ready to come back to the hotel and crash.  Mark is sleeping beside me as I blog, and as I look at the clock I realize how good that looks.  More tomorrow!