Locations often have a brand image that’s communicated to
the outside world. Until recently, my
mental image of California was, “Sunny California”: year-round warm
temperatures, blue skies, shining sun, and (yes) happy cows. It turns out that a rather large portion of
California, notably San Francisco, is a far cry from my hyped expectation.
BUT the hype does exist! It’s called Southern California and
it is spectacular. Ali, Jake, and I
spent the weekend in San Diego. We arrived
Saturday morning and promptly headed straight for the beach. The white sand beaches went on for
miles. Jake had plenty of new friends to
sniff and surf to keep him cool. If it
weren’t for our growling stomachs, we may never had left.
We stayed in a part of town known as the Gaslamp district,
which has grown-up around the new Padres ballpark. Our first hotel room had a nice view of home
plate but we traded up for a view of the harbor and Navy ships docked at the
San Diego Naval Base. The hotel was on
one end of Market Street and a long strip of restaurants, shops, and other
goodies. We were never board. We had awesome bagel sandwiches for
breakfast, fresh fish tacos for lunch, and small plates for dinner.
Living in a city can be a challenge for people with large
dogs but in San Diego, Petco owns the baseball stadium and has a convenient
park in the stadium that is open daily for visitors (and their pets).
We’re not 100% sure yet but San Diego might dethrone
Napa/Sonoma as our #1 weekend getaway destination!