Our winter stays have been the most challenging to date as we are looking for a desirable city with a perfect climate, 55-75℉ or 15-25°C. We are not interested in beach resorts but really need the big city. Our winters to date have been spent in Tel Aviv, Mexico City, Seville, San Miguel de Allende and New Orleans. It is interesting that in our search for the perfect climate we have overlooked San Diego which is known for its perfect weather. Well, we are finally here and the weather is perfect.
Beautiful morning to leave New England as they are already experiencing snow and cold. Our plane had to be de-iced. We arrived at our new home in the heart of the Gaslamp quarter mid afternoon. The Gaslamp quarter district is a lively downtown neighborhood noted for its nightlife. It is called the Historic Heart of San Diego, Victorian architecture mingles with modern skyscrapers. As you can see in this photo our corner top floor unit affords us a lovely city scape view from the floor to ceiling windows. We can even see the planes fly by on their approach to the San Diego airport’s single runway landing strip.Huge TV in Living room and both bedrooms.Master bedroom has ample closet and bureaus as well as an ensuite bath with lovely rain head shower.Guest room with adjacent bath awaits family and friends.Good size kitchen with counter top seating. This is our apartment complex which takes up a whole city block. Our unit is the corner one above the unit with the lights on. The building has a courtyard pool with gas BBQ grills and a gym on the third floor which we have access to. There are also three parking levels below ground where we have two parking spaces.
This is what was happening when we arrived. A lively Holiday fair which they close the street down for. As you can see we have a plethora of restaurants and bars of all different ethnic cuisines right out side our door.Dancing in the streets to a live jazz combo.
Many vendors/artisans come out to sell various goods and food. The market is every Thursday night and Saturday and Sundays until Christmas. We so enjoy living in such an active environment and after years of living in the heart of Boston we embrace the city noise which instead of keeping us awake lulls us to sleep. Historic Heart of San Diego. Gaslamp district.The tented area in the background is at the end of our block and is a massive convention center. There were 30,000 people attending an International Hematology Convention the first week we arrived. We will be trying many of these restaurants while we are here.On our first full day we took a walking tour of our Gaslamp neighborhood. It began at this Historic House Museum which is right across the street from us. The Saltbox style 1850 home was built in Portland Maine and shipped to San Diego. The two hour walking tour focused on the historic buildings in the Gaslamp neighborhood which has 50 gaslamps. Originally the area was called New Town and housed respectable merchants, gambling halls, bars and brothels. The building above was a home of ill repute and in 1912, 138 women were arrested and shipped out of town by train. In 1885 Wyatt Earp operated three gambling halls here.After our tour we wandered the area to orient ourselves.There are many beautiful large yachts along the seaport.The Rady Shell is an outdoor concert venue at Jacobs Park. Our first visitor; Kathy Lloy Collins arrived on November 10. Kathy and Sandy’s relationship began as nursing colleagues working together in the ICU of New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham but quickly evolved into a friendship that has lasted close to 40 years. We took her to dinner at Ruth’s Chris steak house along the waterfront then watched the Boat Festival of Lights.It was fun watching all the different types of boats go by.
Her only agenda was to see Coronado Island and the Hotel del Coronado. So we took a ferry across.Coronado is a California resort city on a peninsula in San Diego Bay.Median price of a home here is $2,297,500.The area is famous for the grand Victorian Hotel del Coronado which opened in 1888 when Grover Cleveland was president. It was at the time the largest hotel in the world and one of the first to install electricity. When it opened the room rates started at about $2.50 per day and included three meals. Today they start at $350 a night.The hotel was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.It served as the backdrop of famous films such as Some Like It Hot in 1959. Marilyn Monroe stayed in the hotel’s exclusive Presidential Suite at the time of filming.Beautiful San Diego sunset.It was chilly in the evening so Sandy bought this cute white quilted jacket in the gift shop. A nice and practical souvenir to remember our visit. We had a great lunch overlooking the ocean before we left. We will definitely be back with other guests.For Kathy’s second full day visit we went to the Midway Museum walking along the Martin Luther King Promenade and we thought this quote sums up perfectly the turmoil in our world today.The first stop to the Midway Museum ship is a statue by Seward Johnson called “Embracing Peace” which depicts one of the most famous and iconic moments in the history of the United States reflecting the joy of the American people upon learning WW2 has ended. It is inspired by the spontaneous celebration in NYC Times Square in August 1945. The USS Midway is an interactive museum located at the Navy Pier and housed on the aircraft carrier Midway.Photo taken from a bow porthole window of the ship.The museum features a flight deck, exhibits and a collection of aircraft, including fighter and attack jets.It was voted the #1 “Thing to Do” on Trip Advisor SD.The user friendly self guided audio tour fills you in on what life was like on board the ship. We spent three enjoyable hours here. It starts with an amazing and very moving short film in the theater. It is staffed by many military vets from many wars. We ended the day with a great meal at Callie Restaurant that was recommended by Kathy’s daughter Andrea. One of the best meals we have had in the recent past and that is saying a lot. Each dish was mouth watering. We will be back for sure but must book way ahead as they are always full.No trip to San Diego is complete without going to the World famous San Diego zoo so this was our adventure today.The SD Zoo is a 100 acre plot located in Balboa Park. It’s one of the world’s largest zoos with over 4,000 animals and more than 800 species of rare and exotic creatures. The zoo is known for its naturalistic habitats, unique animal encounters and conservation efforts.
It is a rare site to see such an active koala during the day as they are nocturnal. All the others were asleep in the eucalyptus trees. This guy was scarfing down the leaves.Both Greater and American Flamingos.
Sleepy leopard.Can’t remember this guy’s name.Red Panda. Most of the Giant Pandas that were on loan have been returned to China.We decided to rent a car for a month and our first outing was to La Jolla.Jim wanted to have lunch at La Valencia Hotel where he stayed many years ago.After lunch we walked along the La Jolla Cove and enjoyed watching the seals and pelicans.On Kathy’s last day we decided to do a walking tour of Balboa Park. Our tour guide Jennifer met us at the Founders statues and gave us the history of how the park came about. We used Get Your Guide Tour Company and Jennifer was an excellent, knowledgeable and funny guide.Statue of Kate Sessions who was a nurserywoman and “mother’ of Balboa Park.Balboa Park is a 1200 acre historic park that has open spaces, natural vegetation zones, gardens and walking paths. It contains several theaters, museums and restaurants as well as the zoo. This is the California Entrance GateThe architecture is Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission Revival and Pueblo Revival.Alcazar Garden is a formal garden in the park created as a replica of the ornate gardens at Alcázar in Seville Spain. It has 7,000 perfectly aligned annual pants.Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park is a reproduction of the one in London.The shows range from Shakespeare and classic musicals to first run new plays.This majestic Moreton Bay Fig tree was only a few years old when planted in 1914 making it more than 100 years old. San Diego Museum of ArtAfter our walking tour we visited the free Timken Art Museum and especially enjoyed the beautiful Holiday installation of 1,000 exquisite beaded ornaments that two women have hand crafted. The following paintings were some of our favorites.Equestrian portrait of Tommaso of Savoy-Craignan 2015 by Kehinde Wiley who is widely known for President Barack Obama 2018 National Portrait Gallery painting.Interior of the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam by Dutch painter Emmanuel De Witte. Our next destination for the spring of 2024.Castine Harbor, Maine by Fitz Henry Lane American artist from Gloucester Mass.Mrs Thomas Gage by John Singleton Sargent.Our Munich Germany host was Allison Quaid who was from the Bay Area. Her parents live in San Diego so through her we connected with them for a lovely dinner. It was delightful meeting this very interesting well travelled couple. This is one of the perks of living our Nomad life enjoying these connections with people all over the world.Thank you Kathy for finally being able to spend time with us on Retirement travel life. Sorry to send you back to stormy Boston.
What a beautiful picturesque experience walking through your eyes. I love San Diego. When I married moved there for 8 years. So many memories….had the privelege of staying a week at the del with great sunt/uncle in the 60’s. We are so looking forward to our time with you in February.
Boston is not stormy – it is sunny and 40 degrees. Great job on San Diego. Roxy and I were there many years ago, but only for a day or so – nice to see all the things we missed – thanks! Joe (jbtwich@hotmail.com)
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