San Diego
A weekend family trip to San Diego.
Destination: San Diego, California
Dates: May 25-26, 2019
Places Visited:
- San Clemente State Beach
- La Jolla Coves & Children’s Pool
- Gaslamp Quarter (Downtown San Diego)
- Cabrillo National Monuments & Old Light House
- Point Loma Tide Pools
- Historic Old Downtown
Food Stops:
Stay: Courtyard By Marriott, Union Station/Airport
Story:
We started Saturday late morning around 11:30 am. It was a group of 4 adults, 4 senior citizens and 2 infants (less than 6 month). As expected, we had to take breaks in between to feed the infants and make them comfortable. We took a pit stop at San Clemente State Beach to have lunch. San Clemente State beach is a scenic beach with lots of parking spot (paid parking). This place has a small cafe serving snacks, coffee, etc. There is a railway track going next to the beach. You need to cross the railway track to access the beach. It was a beautiful sunny day. We stayed there for about 2 hours and then started for our next stop at La Jolla Coves. It took us around 1 hour 40 minutes to cover the distance of 60 miles due to heavy traffic (it was a Memorial Day weekend, so traffic was expected).
We reached La Jolla around 6 pm. As expected it was difficult to find any parking spot near La Jolla coves. Luckily I found one curb side parking near Children’s pool. Children’s pool is small area where you can easily spot sea lions. There were lots of them. You can go near to them and get photos.
After spending around 2 hours, we went to our Hotel, which was around 15 mins drive from La Jolla. After checking-in and relaxing and getting babies fed, we dressed up for downtown (Gaslamp quarter). Gaslamp Quarter is a very energetic area in San Diego. People enjoying everywhere. You can hire pedicab in downtown to take a tour. It costs around $15-25 per person. Downtown has bar on wheels kind of thing. If you are in a big group, you can hire a pedicab, peddle it while drinking. Its fun to ride on these pedicabs. They are decorated with lights and play your favorite music as well. Gaslamp Quarter has variety of cuisine which one can try, including the famous Ghiradeli’s outlet. Have dinner at any of your favorite cuisine and grab some late night desserts.
Next day morning, we got a quick breakfast at Starbucks and then headed towards the picturesque Cabrillo National monument and Point Loma tide pools. On the way to Cabrillo National Monument, you can see Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, a landmark cemetery honoring members of the armed forces. Cabrillo National Monument has an entry fee of $20, if you have cash, you might be able skip the long queue on weekends. Once you enter the park area, you can park your car in the huge parking lot just next to the visitor center. There is a statue of Cabrillo near the visitor center. It also has a shop for collecting souvenirs, a theatre playing movies on the history about the place and Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and his exploration. There is an old light house on top the hill. You can see the bedrooms, kitchen, living room, but no access to the top of the light house. There are couple of view points, near the light house with breath-taking views of Pacific Ocean and islands. There is restroom on top of the hill, which is one of the most scenic restroom I have ever seen. While returning, take a left turn following the sign for Point Loma. A narrow road will took you to multiple vista points and ending at a small parking lot. From here there is a small trail to the tide pools. We spent almost half day at this beautiful location.
After feeding our infants, we headed towards Historic Old downtown. There is small heritage county park which has 5 houses build in 1887 along with a synagogue. You can see the history of San Diego in this small park. From here we had a lunch stop at Tandoori House. A small Indian cuisine restaurant with finger licking food. I can easily give a 5 star rating to this place.
Around 5pm, we decided to see the US Mexico border. The route was clear and was just a 20 min drive to the border area. Though, we weren’t able to reach the exact point as shown by google maps, but we were able to reach close to the border. We started for Woodland Hills from Us-Mexico border around 6.30pm and reached home safely by 9pm.
It was our first long trip with our 4.5 month old baby girl, and I must say, we enjoyed the trip and also got some lessons on how to handle kids during long trips. This was a preparation for many more trips with our baby girl.
Tips for people with Infants:
- Choose a good hotel
- Plan for relaxed trip, no running spot to spot
- No long hikes
- Prefer places stroller accessible
- Keep you car ready for breast feeding
- Keep good amount of baby food
