San Diego: Day Two

We spent most of Day Two
in San Diego on the 59-mile
Scenic Drive.

We started out down in the area
where I used to work... although
the waterfront was always very
beautiful, the area around the
Marriott and the Convention Center
has been revitalized in the past
15 years and does not look anything
like what it did when I worked there.


The whole ballpark, Gaslamp Quarter, Downtown is beautiful
now and looks very different especially with the addition of the
Trolley System.

The scenic drive really starts around the
area where the cruise ships are docked.
Our first official "stop" was on Harbor Island
across from the Airport.

They say the 59 mile scenic drive takes 3 hours
if you don't stop at all... we stopped a few times.
Our second stop was at Cabrillo Monument (named
for Mexican Explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo who
dubbed San Diego "a very good enclosed port"). We
enjoyed the great views as well as the old and new
Cabrillo (Point Loma) lighthouses.

Old Point Loma Lighthouse was built in 1855,
but was only used until 1891 as heavy fog regularly
obscured visibility from its point high on the hill
(not so great for a lighthouse).

The New Lighthouse sits down near the ocean.

I'm a little out of order here,
we actually stopped at Shelter Island
after Harbor Island and before Cabrillo,
but I'm too lazy to move things around....
At the end of the little island sits the
Yokohama Friendship Bell
(given to San Diego by one of its Japanese
Sister Cities). They also have some very
nice looking pigeons on Shelter Island :-)

So, onword. The scenic drive took us along the
coast at Mission Bay where we sorta got off
track a little, but quickly righted ourselves
and ended up at Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial
with sweeping views of San Diego from all sides.

This is a lovely place with fantastic
views and lots of memorials to veterans
and active military who have served our
country during times of conflict.

Well, interestingly enough, La Jolla Cove is
stop #11 on the scenic drive and since this was
our home base, we decided to stay home. We had
already seen a couple of the next stops on the drive
anyway when we did our little unexpected detour,
so very little was lost and we had already been on the road
for quite some time. For a day and a half we had been
driving by the turnoff for the street below our hotel. It
is appropriately named Cave Road. And here is why.
We took a little walk through La Jolla Village and
down to Cave Road and what did we find... a cave.
Some things in life just make sense.

Here is a picture of Michael with our hotel
in the background taken from Scripps Park.
A fun little grassy park with lots of activities.
There is a great little spot with seals and pelicans
lounging about on either side of the nice sandy beach.

After the park we ventured back to our hotel
through the "secret passageway". The hotel lobby
actually sits about 10 stories above the ocean, but
our room was down right across the street from the
park and the ocean. So, we took a relaxing break by
the pool at dusk...

Well, I relaxed while Michael talked
with Justin about business...

I was dying for some Baja Lobster, so we took
a stroll up Prospect and had a fantastic meal
at Alfonso's Mexican Restaurant.