Since I've been trying to make this summer adventurous and memorable, I planned a bunch of things to do each weekend. However, yesterday, I left it on my calendar as "Spontaneous San Diego Road Trip."
How does it make sense that a trip can be spontaneous AND planned? Well, you set aside the date, ask people if they can go, and then... go! We had a list of places we could go or wanted to see around San Diego... but really no details after that (well, we knew what we wanted to eat). We sort of just got there with no addresses other than the city and figure out what we wanted to do.
It was another early day for me, waking up at 6AM. Thuyet and Julie got to my house around 7 and we headed out to Amy's where we'd meet her and Agustin. Agustin was supposed to be at my house as well... but he had a wild partying night (aka hot mess) and needed more time.
Our first stop was at St. Malo, Oceanside, one of Agustin's "Let's go here!" places because he saw on on Morgan Beck's blog how pretty it was. To be honest, we had no idea what to expect or where to even go. Cue Agustin's "Are you sure? This doesn't look like the beach" with my "You're the one who told us about it!" But eventually we found this little street with really cute "Snow White" cottages that were for sure millions of dollars. There were even security guards walking around, which Agustin was quick to point out in his fake tour guide voice. Memorable moment: "To your left, there is a black guy..." "Agustin, your window is open."
Next we decided to go to Old Town, mostly because the thought of Margaritas and breakfast burritos were tempting (Also, Agustin was quite possibly still drunk and everyone else was sleepyheads). After a few wrong turns (MapQuestion!!! I think we turn right.... Follow that car!..umm turn around) we parked alongside the street, and walked around the block to get breakfast at Old Town Mexican Cafe, but ended up not getting Margaritas because for some reason, they didn't want to get drunk in the morning (what????). When we finished with lunch, we became tourists and walked around the streets, wandering through Mexican stalls and stores and alleyways.
In Old Town, there's even a very historical area where you can see replicas of Old Town buildings (bank, schoolhouse, stable, hotel, saloon, etc) way back when (very museum-like). By then we walked way too much in the sun and just wanted to sit down like the old people we were.
Our next random place was all the way on Coronado Island, the very rich fancy part of San Diego. Note: to get there, you have to take the bridge to heaven (Agustin's words). We got very very luck with parking (across the street in a fancy residential area) and proceeded to walk to the prettiest beach I've seen in a while. There weren't that many people and the people who were there were hot (and godlike according to Julie)! (helped because the beach was right next to the super fancy Hotel del Coronado where beach villas are thousands of dollars a night). Note to self: SUPER hot (but beautiful) sand! Memorable moment: nothing to do with Shamu's.
Since the girls didn't really eat at breakfast, we were hungry and after we were done with the beach, it was already around 1 so... Carne Asada fries time!! One of the main reasons to go to San Diego is always the best Carne Asada fries at Rigoberto's. Mmmm I'm reliving the fatty goodness just looking at the pictures.
We went to fancy neighborhoods. Nice beach. Mexican old town. Guess what I wanted to do? Go to the historical San Diego Mission! All California students had to learn about the history of the California missions in fourth grade and I've been wanting to road trip to some missions for a while now. (Everyone looks really excited to learn and have an educational adventure in those pictures right?) It turns out the Mission was a really nice and pretty place to walk around and relax for a while, helped by a great breeze. Agustin was glued to his phone *shakes head*
After that brief Mission pit stop, we went to Balboa Park, the museum and park mecca of San Diego, which houses cultural organizations, 15 museums, outdoor amphitheater, the zoo, and other gardens. I think by then we were all pretty exhausted from being out in the sun all morning/day. At Balboa Park, guess what, more walking! Towards the end, we just rested in the shade by the amphitheater listening to them performing a soundcheck (and having many impromptu photo shoots)(I'm not a creeper!)
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After Balboa Park, it was around 4:30 and everyone was pooped. We wanted to go to Phil's for legendary barbecue or Extraordinary Desserts but.... no one was hungry. So, we decided to just start heading back since we wanted to leave and get home early anyway, since it was a Sunday. But before leaving just like that, I wanted to go to one more stop I read about on yelp- Sunset Cliffs. The sun wouldn't set for a couple more hours but the view was still amazing and pretty breathtaking. We got to go out on the rocks and actually see the water crashing all around us. There was even a group on another part, diving into the water Survivor style.
I think it was a mission accomplished! It was a fun, tiring, and pretty random day trip. We ended doing a lot and going to a lot of places, even if I probably couldn't remember what we did if I didn't take these pictures. I'm excited for whatever adventures come our way!
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