The Beaches of San Diego
When we visited San Diego for the first time we fell in love with the city and the beaches.
We made it to the West Coast, baby!
When we started our travel adventure back in July, we mapped out a plan through September, but after that, we had no agenda. While we were visiting friends in Las Vegas, we decided - why not head out to California after this?!
And a plan was born!
We already shared how we traveled through the Mojave Desert and Joshua Tree National Park (our 8th National Park that we’ve been to now) as we journeyed toward California, so now it’s time to share what we’ve been up to on the coast of beautiful California.
We visited San Diego for the first time in 2012, when we took our kids on a family vacation, and James and I immediately fell in love with the place. It’s so beautiful, and the beaches are just incredible. It’s definitely unlike anything you get to experience in or near Oklahoma. So when we thought about how close we were, we knew it needed to be our next destination.
After a whirlwind travel schedule of being on the go and not sticking in one place very long since August, we decided we’d take a little longer here. We booked a week and have already added more time because we don’t want to leave. Haha! When we first arrived in town, we went straight to the ocean. This is the Torrey Pines area and Del Mar beach.
One of our favorite beaches out here is Mission Beach. It’s nice because there’s a huge FREE parking lot, so it’s easy to park. The beach is huge, with plenty of room, and there are shops and places to eat, plus a cool little amusement park right by the beach.
There’s also a nice big boardwalk at the edge of the beach so you can walk, skate, or ride a bike. All in all, we really enjoy it here. We’ve been a couple of times and have loved lying in the sand and listening to the waves. It’s also pretty funny to get to watch the birds fight over food packages they manage to get hold of.
We saw a man and his son pulling seaweed up onto the beach from the water's edge, and we weren’t sure what they were doing, so we asked why. They showed us little sea creatures living in the seaweed. It’s hard to see them in the seaweed itself, but they’d put them in the mask, and you can see - the little starfish were all in that. They pull them out and put them in the water to try to save them. So cool!
We aren’t much for driving at night, but since we’re on the West Coast, we knew we needed to spend an evening at the beach and watch the sunset. We went out before sunset to spend some time in the water, look for shells and such, and have a great time.
One of the things I always look for is a sand dollar. Well, we found a couple and then quickly realized how to look for them and where to find them, and we found TONS of them. I was so excited! The tide was low, so the water was far out, making it easy to spot them. We had fun seeing how many we could find and trying to grab the ones we spotted before the waves would crash over them. 😂
It got a little chilly toward the end, and I was afraid I'd have permanent goosebumps. They seriously didn’t go away for probably an hour. So worth it. It was so much fun and so beautiful once the sun was setting.
There is much more to tell about San Diego, so stay tuned. If you want a fantastic place to visit, this is it. And we’re excited to share all kinds of great things to do and see here.