San Diego - Wild Wild West - USA 2022 - 8
06/07.03 - San Diego
Because of my back pain, I change the agenda and go directly to the hotel. It will be a bit early, but maybe I'm lucky and the room is prepared.
Of course, I'm not. They pretend to be fully booked (which is not true, as I still find out), and the rooms will be ready in 1.5 hours at the earliest. Since the hotel is near the marina, I take a walk and have lunch there. Originally I wanted to walk at the Mission Beach Boardwalk, but here I have at least the car with my stuff in the garage of the hotel.
At 2:20pm I'm back, but have to wait another 30 minutes, which is then pretty much the official check-in time. In the meantime, 6 or 7 parties are already waiting. Finally, the check-in begins.
I will see if I leave for the planned sunset shots on Coronado Island, but it is probably better not to sit and give the back a chance to recover. The plan for tomorrow is just short stays in the car and a few walks. I'm hoping that will work out.
Of course, the pain has not gone in the morning. Sitting straight on a chair is no worse than lying or walking, just sitting in the car and driving long distances is a problem.
But that shouldn't be an issue this morning. First stop is Chicano Park [↗], which is a 15-minute drive. Fortunately, all the traffic jams are in the opposite direction.
Chicano Park is an area with many murals on the pillars of the San Diego-Coronado Bridge. Since it is a Mexican-American barrio, most of the murals are related to Mexico. I park a block away, but there are also options right on the streets that cross the park. Since I'm here around 8am, there's not much going on yet. The challenge is more about the sun and not getting too many distractions in the picture. There are still more columns being painted. At least one is scaffolded right now. Since the area is so big and there is so much to see (don't forget to turn around every now and then, since the columns are painted from both directions), I stay here for about three-quarters of an hour.
Next stop is Balboa Park [↗], another 15 minutes drive away. Now, this is more of a park as we understand it, so with lots of greenery. But there are also many beautiful buildings in the middle of the park, which house almost all museums - from classical art to space or automobiles to comics. Unfortunately, they are all closed on Mondays, but I knew that beforehand. Most of the buildings are from the early 20th century, but the style is more historical.
I park in the large central parking lot next to the Air and Space Museum and begin a walking tour. It's not too crowded on this Monday morning, it's warm enough to wear just a shirt, and I enjoy the walk even though I feel every step. I try to just ignore it because there's not much I can do, and I don't want to take pain pills while I can stand it.
I take quite a few photos, but they are more like I-was-here photos, and I doubt they will make it into a portfolio.
Unfortunately, the greenhouse, the most photographed object in San Diego according to a description next to it, is scaffolded. I stay here for two hours, but you can spend the whole day here, even without visiting the museums.
Last stop for the morning is Old Town [↗], the place where the first Europeans settled in what is now California. Nowadays it's a State Park, but I already know it's more of a shopping place than a museum. But it's only 10 minutes to get there and parking is free, so I just give it a try.
When I get out of the car, I am afraid that it is total junk. The stores in the area only sell stuff that is most likely cheap imports from Mexico or China (like wrestling masks). But when you enter the State Park, it gets better. It's still very touristy, but the crap isn't as visible anymore. Instead, pottery or homemade candles are sold here.
After strolling through the area, I decide to eat fish and chips in a Mexican restaurant, which is still inside the State Park - very tasty.
Now I take a break at the hotel to stretch a bit and then drive to Sunset Cliffs Natural Park. If I am already in California, I should have been at least once at the sea. The Sunset Cliffs are also not far from my hotel. As the name implies, this is not really a beach area, even though you can walk down at various spots. But you can walk along the cliffs and enjoy the view. I won't stay until sunset, though. There is no real foreground and the sky is completely clear. So it would just be the sun sinking into the sea. I walk around for about an hour and leave.
The next morning I wonder what to do. Originally I planned a bigger detour, but with my back problem that's not the best idea. On the other hand, I don't like to just drive to the next hotel either. Additionally, I would be there way too early to check in.
So I leave the hotel at 10am and drive to nearby Shelter Island to visit the Friendship Bell. It's a quick 5-minute stop and then I continue on to Cabrillo National Monument [↗]. This is close to where I was yesterday afternoon, but since it already closes at 5pm, it wouldn't have worked out to stop by there as well. Since it's a National Monument, I can visit it for free with my annual pass. Whether one is otherwise ready to pay 20 USD for it, everyone must answer himself.
I drive first to the lighthouse - or to be exact: I drive to the parking lot near the visitor center and walk up to the lighthouse. The lighthouse looks nice and you can see some decorated rooms where the lighthouse keeper lived. From up here you also have a nice view of San Diego and the ocean, but at this time of day it's not really worth taking a photo, and in the evening when the light would be good, the area is closed.
The second place to visit is the tide pools. A road heads down to another parking lot and from there a short trail leads to the tide pool area and then along the cliffs. I walk down to the pools or what can be seen now. The tide is still too high and only a small part of the area is not underwater. I do have an app that I could have used to check, but waiting another two hours or so would not have been an option anyway.
On the way to the National Monument, I passed the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. This is a typical military cemetery like you may have seen before. Quite large and beautifully situated with nice old trees. I take a few pictures and drive on.
Now I want to drive north to La Jolla [↗]. This is officially a part of San Diego, but still, it is a place of its own. It is not too far away and about 30 minutes later I am there. I drive straight to the beach and find a parking spot without problems. It is 1pm on a Tuesday and there are still quite a lot of people. I don't want to be here on a weekend when even the locals come here to spend the day at the beach.
I head to La Jolla Cove first. This is the place not to miss and the reason most people are here. A small colony of seals (about two dozen animals) make their home here and are used to people trying to photograph them. Fortunately, everyone keeps some distance and no one tries to touch them. I change my lens and am able to get some nice close-ups.
From here I walk along the beach for about a mile. This is really a beautiful beach. You have cliffs, normal sandy beaches and finally some tide pools. In the meantime, the tide has already receded and more areas are above the waterline. I try to find something, but the only living things are shells. After a while I leave this part of the beach and walk a bit further to the next area with more pools. Here I find some anemones. Gray colored, this kind is hard to distinguish from the gray stone of the pools, but I managed 🌝. Let's see if you can see them well on the pictures.
I've been here for 1.5 hours now and found what I was hoping for. Meanwhile, it is also late enough that the hotel should be ready for check-in when I arrive.
