Every major city has its detractors. Name a city, any city, and someone will have a complaint about it.
New York? Too many people
New Orleans? Too much humidity
Los Angeles? Too many cars
Seattle? Too much rain
Philadelphia? Too many Philadelphians
The point is, no matter what city you name, there will always be someone who will vow never to return there.
Except San Diego.
Everyone loves San Diego.
It is the one place you’ll never hear anyone trash. Indeed, the single criticism we’ve ever heard about San Diego is that it’s an expensive place to live, but that’s more emblematic of the city’s popularity than anything.
I mean, how can you NOT love it?
With coastal views like this:
Beach side boardwalks like this:
City parks like this:
And sunset views like this:
What’s not to love?
Hell, even the city’s regular sidewalks can be photo-worthy:
We figured we’d love it for all the reasons everyone else does, but we found plenty of other reasons to be happy during our one month visit. We spent most of our time surrounded by friends – old and new, we appreciated the diversity of cultures, foods, and activities available throughout the city, and we took advantage of our proximity to other places we wanted to visit.
Our time in San Diego will be the subject of several upcoming posts since there’s a LOT to talk about. And, truth be told, we may have kept busier than usual because, apparently, we pissed God off and he decided to plant a family with 4 kids in the campsite next to ours for the entire month.
FOUR kids.
For. A. Month.
One of the kids realized he could spend all day ringing the little bells on the family’s bicycles. All. Day. “Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding……..” Another has only one volume option on her control panel: “LOUD.” She spent all day yelling “Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!!!!!!!!” If whining were an Olympic sport, she’d be the Usain Bolt of the wailing world. If we actually wanted to defeat ISIS, all we’d need to do is park this family’s RV next to ISIS HQ and, I promise, within 24 hours, they would all say “to hell with this” and just go home. No holy war is worth this amount of racket. You’re welcome, U.S. Government. I just ended the war on terror.
It was like being parked next to a live action Public Service Announcement about the benefits of birth control.
And the crazy thing is (by the way, I know none of this has anything to do with San Diego…. I’m just venting) the mom was completely zen all the time. Her kids could be hanging upside down naked from the power lines while playing the trumpet and would she care? Nope!! Did. Not. Care. While the rest of us were in our RVs mainlining gin and slamming our heads into our kitchen counters in a feeble attempt to end our own suffering, she’s all….
Now imagine her holding a cocktail in her right hand while scrolling through her Instagram feed with her left hand.
It was truly remarkable.
Sigh…
Alright… now that I’ve got that off my chest, and, more importantly, now that we are no longer parked next to her and her merry band of tiny terrorists, let’s discuss some of our favorite stops on the San Diego tourist circuit.
Cabrillo National Monument
Cabrillo National Monument is a “must see” place when visiting the area and we thought it was well worth a visit. In fact, we went twice. The park, which is located on the Point Loma Peninsula, honors several unrelated people, events, and time periods, while, at the same time, offering panoramic views of the Pacific, the coastline, and Mexico.
The Monument is named for Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Spanish explorer who became the first European to explore the west coast of the United States back in 1510. The monument includes a prominent statue of Cabrillo as well as an interpretive center dedicated to explaining the explorer’s mission and findings during his travels.
I would tell you more about all of that but we visited during spring break which meant there were a ton of people there and it was pretty difficult to read the displays. If you’re interested in learning more, here’s NPS’s page about him.
Also located at the park, but completely unrelated to Cabrillo is the Old Point Loma Lighthouse.
Because San Diego has always been such a crucial port, and because of the rocky coastline that surrounds the area, the lighthouse, set atop a 400 foot cliff, played an important part in the city’s history. The light operated between 1855 and 1891, when it was replaced by a new lighthouse at a lower elevation (to avoid being obscured by fog).
In addition to being incredibly picturesque, the lighthouse offers some interesting educational exhibits about the history of lighthouses, the different types of lighthouses, and the keepers of this particular light.
The Cabrillo National Monument also preserves several artillery batteries left over from World War II.
The Point Loma Peninsula was particularly strategic to the United States as it was the last line of defense from a feared Japanese assault on the west coast.
The exhibits detailing the lives and work of the young men stationed there during war time are well worth a read.
Finally, the park overlooks the New Point Loma Lighthouse buildings which house Coast Guard officers and their families.
In addition to being an absolutely drool-worthy place to call home, most of you will, undoubtedly, recognize that this is where Maverick and Viper had their pivotal conversation which, basically, prevented World War III. Thanks Mav!
Sunset Cliffs
Sunset Cliffs, a park located just north of Cabrillo National Monument, is so pretty, it’s ridiculous. The cliffs are as enormous as they are dramatic.
The park is under heavy construction at the moment but you can still take in the incredible views from the overlooks…
and, with a bit of effort, you can get down to the beaches where you’ll be joined by some of the fearless surfers who take to the waters in the area.
Also, as you might have guessed, it’s a pretty spectacular place to catch a sunset.
Balboa Park
Balboa Park is a 1200 acre park located in the middle of the city. The land that makes up the park was set aside way back in 1835, but was established as a city park in 1870. It really became famous however, in 1915 when it hosted the 1915–16 Panama–California Exposition and then again, in 1935–36 when it hosted the California Pacific International Exposition. These events led to the construction of several architecturally distinctive buildings, gardens, and public areas, that make the park so beautiful.
In addition, there are numerous museums, theaters, restaurants, and the San Diego Zoo.
We spent a couple hours there one afternoon, wandering through a number of gardens, checking out the very cool architecture, and watching some buskers perform.
It’s certainly a pretty park and worth a visit though it wasn’t our favorite experience of our time in the area. I think it’s just that San Diego offers a ton of beautiful parks that feel less touristy, and we were drawn to those over this one.
Speaking of avoiding tourist traps, if you need to eat while in the area, but want to avoid the overpriced tourist stops, check out Hachi Ramen. We had some of the best ramen we’ve ever had at this small, unassuming, lunch spot located just a few blocks from Balboa Park.
Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial
We visited the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial our very first day in the City.
We’d met up with an old friend from grad school (more on that next post), and he took us up the mountain to show us the views and give us a sense of where things were from a high point in the city.
As you can see, the views go one forever and it’s an excellent place to get acquainted with the area.
The monument itself is made up of hundreds of plaques commemorating veterans who have served their country over the years. The plaques are purchased by family members who provide a photograph and inscription to be included on the monument. There was a big First Amendment controversy (25 years worth of it) over a huge cross being part of this memorial, but in 2016, a private group bought the property which ended the argument. You can read more about that whole kerfluffle here.
In the meantime, the monument is very nicely done and, if you’ve just arrived in San Diego and are looking to get the lay of the land, this is a good place to start.
La Jolla Cove
One piece of advice we received again and again was to visit the community of La Jolla.
I have no idea why though. As you can see, it’s a total dump.
La Jolla Cove is a beachfront section of La Jolla that includes a public beach as well as an area of rocks on which hundreds of seals tend to chillax in the sun.
The city has built some walkways for visitors to observe the seals from a safe distance, but, as per the usual, some people are morons and get too close and stress the seals out.
Responsible visitors observing from a distance:
Dumbasses:
Luckily, the park rangers were not shy about giving said dumbasses an earful.
Torrey Pines
Even if you’re not familiar with this area, you’ve probably heard of Torrey Pines because it is home to a rather famous golf course. The golf course wasn’t located there by accident. It’s a stunningly beautiful piece of real estate and the state park makes it accessible to everyone.
There are a number of hikes available in the park. The most popular includes several overlooks from which to take in the gorgeous cliff-side views.
Visitors can then make their way down to the beach and follow it back to main parking area (assuming it’s low tide. At high tide, parts of the beach are inaccessible.).
There’s plenty of space to lay out on the beaches. The areas in front of the lifeguard shacks were busy, while the areas farther down the beach were pretty quiet.
Up Next….
I have a lot more to talk about, but this article is already getting a bit long, so I’ll save the rest for future posts. Coming up, we take trips north to Los Angeles and south to Tijuana, hang out with old friends from home, and make new RVing friends on the road. Let’s just say: there were shenanigans.
A Word About Facebook
Finally, I know there are a bunch of people who connect to these blog posts through the link I put up on our Facebook page. I will continue to put the link up there, but as time has gone by, Facebook has become more and more unreliable as a means of sharing these articles. Because I set up a public “page” for my blog rather than just using my personal account, Facebook treats my account as a business and tries to get me to pay them to publicize my posts. In other words, when I post a photo or a link, Facebook shows my post to a percentage of the people who have followed my page and then helpfully sends me offers to pay them in order to get them to show the post to everyone else. As time has gone by, I’ve noticed they seem to be showing my posts to fewer and fewer people while sending me more and more offers to pay them (they actually tell me how many people they’ve shown a post to and then offer to show it to however many more for $2.00 or $3.00 or whatever…)
I am unwilling to pay Facebook to show my posts to people because a) this website is simply a hobby for me and not a business; b) the people who have followed the page have already indicated they want to see what we post by following the page in the first place; and c) I’m pretty sure Facebook doesn’t need my money since they make plenty of money selling everyone’s data to terrible people.
Put more succinctly:
Hey Facebook!!!
Anyway, if you are one of the people who clicks through these links and want to make sure you actually see new blog posts, you can subscribe via email instead (see sidebar). I don’t sell or share my email list with anyone, not even Cambridge Analytica! You’ll just get snarky commentary about annoying children, oblivious mothers, and idiotic tourists delivered right to your inbox without Mark Zuckerberg chasing me around like this newspaper delivery kid in Better Off Dead….
Until next time….
Where we stayed: Mission Bay RV Resort, San Diego, California
Lol! Totally laughed out loud on the Bitmoji to face book!!! Ahhhhh……San Diego. Truly one of our favorite spots, too. Your brother would pack and move there in a heart beat and as I’m reading this in frigid “spring” weather out east, it is tempting to me, too. La Jolla and Coranado are our two favorite places there. Love the light house and the monuments you outlined in this post, we will need to look for those next time. Can’t wait to read more about your travels there, living vicariously through you at the moment!!
The weather there is truly something special. Even our “crappy” weather days were decent when compared to everywhere else during this seemingly endless winter. What a difference the sunshine makes. It so clearly impacts everyone’s mood and makes us so much happier, wherever we are. It’s why we enjoyed Tucson so much this winter. Even if it’s chilly, as long as the sun is out, we’re good. I feel for you guys on the east coast. Winter is rough, and this winter has been downright ugly for you. We actually never made it to Coronado. Oddly, it was on our list from the beginning but we just never made our way there. We already have plans to return to SD though, and it will be at the top of our list when we do.
LOL!!! Not sure we’ll ever get to the CA cities but if we do you certainly make a case for stopping in San Diego.
It is interesting how different the coast is from the rest of California and how easy it would be to spend months exploring the state and never touch the coast. The diversity of environments available in this one enormous place is unreal. We tend to gravitate toward cities and busier areas, but it’s certainly not for everyone. As cities go though, we think San Diego is a particularly beautiful and fun one.
Oh, Laura, your rant was beyond funny! I read it aloud to John so it was even better:) And…we so understand exactly what you were going through. We stayed at Mission Bay for the month of December which, if you recall, includes Christmas. Our last two weeks were a revolving party of families with children. All enjoying being as loud as they could be. It just amazes me that parents can be that inconsiderate. Families can have fun without yelling as conversation. Now you see why after eight years of parks we were ready for a part time break. I must admit it is nice to sit out back with no one else around. We are so enjoying the quiet, but looking forward to returning to the road soon.
San Diego is wonderful as long as you don’t have to drive! Too much traffic for us. Biking most places was easy and made life so much nicer. We added backpacks for grocery trips. Glad you are having a great time…when not home!!!!
I think it’s just a particularly bad combination of factors that made this all so unpleasant, but it never ceases to amaze me how many people can relate. We wouldn’t mind the kids making noise so much at a spacious state park, but when you’re in these parking lot type campgrounds where everyone is right on top of one another, it’s not good. And, obviously, there’s a difference between people who are full time and who are familiar with the standard etiquette and folks who just come out on weekends and want to relax. In this particular case, they seemed to be full timers who had no clue about the standard etiquette or just didn’t care. That was a rare combination. We’ve encountered plenty of other full-time families who were perfectly fine, even in close quarters.. It is just incredible to me how inconsiderate people can be. I mean, this stuff isn’t rocket science, and yet, we all seem to have these stories…. So yes, I can totally understand the desire to have a quiet, peaceful, home base after many years on the road. Sometimes, you just need a break from all the craziness.
“Hanging upside down from the power lines while playing the trumpet,” hahaha!! We’ve all been there! Parked next to them, I mean. I seriously cannot imagine a MONTH parked next to that, though. Nice that you went on plenty of field trips and found lots of fun things to occupy yourselves instead of turning into The Crazy Mean Lady Next Door.
We spent six weeks in and around San Diego several years ago when we were stuck there for trailer repairs. Found plenty of fun things to do, and the weather was great, but honestly, I don’t have a big desire to return. Except that we have family in the area, so return we must. (There are some beautiful county parks on the outskirts with more space between sites. and plenty of greenery and peace.)
Your message to Facebook….OMG you are the funniest thing ever.
Yeah, after many years of having a job that was all about confrontation, I am happy to avoid it and just shame people on my website instead. 🙂 We probably could have moved sites if we wanted to, but given the number of spring breakers in the park, we had few guarantees that things would get any better, so we just accepted our fate, ground our teeth, and made ourselves scarce. I’ll be interested to hear why you were not crazy about San Diego. You’re wrecking the whole premise of my article, you know… I say “everyone loves San Diego!” and here comes Laurel saying “Nope…” You’re a blog post wrecker, Laurel. 😉
Oh no!! I didn’t mean to be a blog post wrecker. But since you asked…we truly have enjoyed our visits to San Diego. But there are just so many places we like so much better! There are just too many people in southern California and way too much traffic. We like to get out and do things, and it’s a total pain in the ass to have to deal with bumper-to-bumper traffic going 85 mph ALL of the time (or 5 mph in gridlock). It’s a fun idea to be able to bike places (like if you’re staying at Mission Bay) but we could never stand being stuffed in there like sardines with horrible neighbors. I would totally become The Crazy Mean Lady Next Door.
Like you two, we love visiting cities with our RV. But we enjoy most cities that are very walkable or bike friendly. San Francisco, Portland, San Antonio, Austin, Savannah, and New Orleans are a few of our favorites.
Of course, NONE of those are winter destinations. Nothing is perfect, but we prefer Florida/Texas/Arizona/California desert in the winter (and actually, we’ve had good luck with the Central California coast in winter).
Wow, I hope you really wanted to know my thoughts…:-))
Of course I really wanted to know your thoughts on this! I feel like we agree on as lot of things, so it surprised me when you said you were not a huge fan of San Diego, but your explanation makes sense. When I was initially looking at the map, I expected we would be walking and biking all the time, but when we got there, it became clear that to do the things we really wanted to do, we would often be driving, or at east using Uber or Lyft. It is definitely not as easy to bike and walk there as it is in some other cities. I expect we’ll have an easier time in Boise, Bend, and Portland later this summer.
Ok, I will take back what I said about you being a blog post wrecker. Maybe just a blog post clarifier???
Sounds like you had a great time there, except for the screaming monsters next to you. Isn’t it wonderful when you find the perfect jumping off place for so many adventures? Maybe we’ll get there someday.
So true! Not only did we enjoy the area right around the park, but we had access to entirely different landscapes and attractions in every direction. We stayed a month and honestly could have stayed two or three more and never run out of things to do. It was just fantastic.
Too funny about your neighbors. The wonderful surprises of RV living. Lol. Glad you enjoyed SD as much as we did!!
Never a dull moment doing this, that’s for sure! And yes, San Diego did not disappoint at all. It is one of our top spots, no doubt about it!
A Whole Month! I think I’d lose my mine and would certainly become the Nasty Lady Next Door if we had neighbors like that for a whole month. At least the blog gives you a place to vent to like minded people, we all understand.
We love San Diego very much and visit regularly, but I have one big problem with it…..traffic. When we leave after a long stay there we both breathe a sigh of relief. The older we get, the longer we are on the road, the less we enjoy hoards of people and traffic.
It’s interesting because we definitely noticed the traffic – it’s so much worse than so many other places we’ve been recently – but we didn’t find it overwhelming. Having spent so long in the DC area, where traffic is unbearable all day every day, San Diego didn’t seem that bad to us. There were clearly identifiable”‘rush hours” and as long as we avoided those, we didn’t find it that stressful. On the other hand, when you’ve spent months in places where the traffic report takes 5 seconds, because there’s nothing to report, San Diego can certainly be a kick in the pants. Anyway, now that we are in a quieter place, we are enjoying the peacefulness and the lack of stress involved in traveling around. It’s all a balance for us. Just when we get tired of something, we change it up and go in the opposite direction. Perhaps at some point, we will avoid it completely, but at this point, as long as we seek out that balance, we do ok.
And yes, if not for my ability to vent on this blog, there would be dead bodies lying everywhere around our RV…. 😉
Love the Facebook comment, they are pissing me off with how they decide to do what they want with newsfeeds and I miss stuff even when I tell them I want the most recent, I guess they use the advertising dictionary vice webster’s. Sounds like you are having fun and enjoying some of the best weather in this country, even though it is expensive area overall.
Yeah, overall, I have found myself using Facebook less and less. They have really messed things up recently. The problem is, it’s still a lifeline to a lot of our friends and family, and we connect with a lot of RVers through our page, so I hesitate to get rid of it. It’s a tough call, but if they keep making it harder rather than easier to connect, we will eventually just abandon ship. In the meantime, we love Instagram, but have noticed they too only show us a minimal number of the posts we want to see. It’s frustrating.
Again, you had me laughing out loud. So glad you solved the terrorist problem. We haven’t had any problems with kids, but yappy dogs. The yappy dogs in a trailer next to us who yapped the entire time. I especially loved the message to Facebook. San Diego looks lovely and we hope to get there soon. Safe travels!
We have, luckily, avoided most yappy dogs, but some of our friends at Mission Bay had to report problematic dogs to the front office…. It’s the same thing: close quarters make it ever more important to try to be considerate of your neighbors. Unfortunately, with issues like these, one inconsiderate neighbor can make life unpleasant for a whole lot of people. I think you guys will really enjoy San Diego whenever you get there!
We love San Diego as well…great city to walk & bike, kayaking the coves in La Jolla. Looking forward to your review on Mission Bay. We stayed at Campland on the Bay, not impressed! Very tight spaces. And the kids….terrorizing the CG wth no supervision. It seemed the parents kick them out in the morning & lock the doors!
And agree with your FB comment. I am getting tired of the constant post promotions….I am not a business, just trying to connect with people!???? FB
So our campground was basically next door to Campland and we heard many stories about how terrible it was. We never actually went over there, but there were times we could hear the commotion carrying across the water into our park. It sounds like my personal version of hell, to be honest. Of course, the whole time we were dealing with our neighbors, all we could think of was “wouldn’t you all be happier over at Campland???” We were actually amazed that anyone with kids would choose MB over Campland. MB is just a big parking lot while Campland seems to be built for families. And I can’t imagine it’s more expensive than MB. So I’m not sure what the draw is…. Anyway, I did post a review of MB. Short version: If you can go for a month in the off season, it’s a great base to explore SD from. Otherwise, it’s crazy expensive and hard to justify.
Wow, the photos of SD are stunning! I had sort of planned to avoid the city when we’re in the area this coming December (too crowded, expensive, potentially annoying neighbors) but your posts will probably convince me to change that plan, if only for a quick visit. I don’t think we could handle a month in any city.
You all should definitely check it out, but you might be happier at Sweetwater Summit Regional Park or one of the other county parks in the area. If you’re not coming for a month, MB is prohibitively expensive ($70 to $90 per night). We stayed at Sweetwater on our way into the city and it was great – spacious and green and with reasonably easy access to the city’s highlights. There’s also a popular park called Santee Lakes. We never visited it, but I remember reading good things about it. Might be worth looking into.
Awesome tips — we will definitely check out the alternatives you suggested. They sound like they are more our speed.
You never fail to disappoint with the comedy. I laughed too damn hard about the tiny terrorists. We have 4 of them next to us right now. I just don’t understand how they can make so much noise and their happy hippy goddess mama’s are just so chill. I’d be that hamster mom that eats her young.
I mean, at least if these terrorists had a plan, a goal, a cause…. I could understand it. But their cause just seems to be to annoy me. I don’t get it. Stand for something, dammit!!!! 😉
So annoying of Facebook to want $! I usually see your posts that way, but am subscribing now. So there, Facebook! 🙂
That’s right, Facebook! What you got now? You got nothin!!! Bam!!! 🙂
Haha – thanks for the entertainment, laughs and solving the war on terror. I enjoy San Diego, but the traffic, people, and cost usually has me wanting to move on rather quickly, but that scenery is hard to beat.
Now I’m glad I never started a public page with FB ????
Yeah, we didn’t find the traffic to be too horrendous (we’re used to worse), but we still haven’t looked at our accounts to assess the carnage from a month in San Diego. I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest it’s gonna be pretty ugly. Luckily, hiking is free and we’re gonna be doing a lot of that over the next couple months. Time to balance all that spending out. As for Facebook, yes, do yourself a favor and just stick with your personal page. The blog page is endlessly frustrating.
As usual a blog full of laughs … thanks for that! I am having the same issue with my blog and Facebook and I am in total agreement with your comments 🙂
I feel like everyone who started a blog page is in the same boat. It would have been easy for Facebook to divide the market between pages that were associated with actual businesses vs. pages that were associated with personal blogs, but I guess they just figured it was easier to lump everyone in together. The end result, though, is a lot of people may just walk away from the platform altogether. Dumb….
Ugh to inconsiderate parents with loud, obnoxious kids. I’ll bet they were from Ohio!
Actually, they were from Oregon if you can believe it… Crazy, right??? You would think anyone sent by God to make me pay for whatever it was that I did to deserve this would be from Ohio, but alas, Oregon! Go figure!! 🙂
Wow, that’s how you vent! Big laugh! Impressive humor but had we been their neighbors, we will pack and move out 🙂 We enjoyed SD as well for the weather and the many things to do and see and the beach! If you come back try Santee Lakes or Sweetwater Regional Park, any little terrorists will be kicked out 🙂
Glad I dont have an FB page.
Yeah, we considered moving sites, but there were so many kids throughout the park, we just didn’t have a lot of confidence that we would see much improvement by moving. We actually did stay at Sweetwater Summit right before we got to Mission Bay and we loved it. Much quieter and green! However, had we stayed there the entire time, I doubt we would have been as active and motivated to go see everything. It’s just a trade-off, I guess.
As usual, I’m late to the comments party. OMG Laura, you are a comedic writer par excellance. You SO remind me of Irma Bombeck, God rest her soul. Not only are you funny, but you’re an excellent writer and photographer (asuming you ARE the photographer) as well. It’s a joy to read your posts. We WILL meet some day, and you will “hook-up” on our property here in Quartzsite (ya, still here…don’t ask ). I promise.
Ooooh – Quartzsite has got to be getting toasty by now! We’re near the Arizona/Nevada border and I noticed the forecast for next week is high 90’s and even 100! Crazy. I hope you all get to hit the road again soon. And yes, we would love to meet up when we’re in the same place and compare notes. Thanks for all your positive reviews!! I really appreciate the feedback and am glad you like these posts. I sure like writing them and connecting with nice people out on the road!
Actually, the weather has been quite tolerable but, your right, it won’t be long…and “toasty” will seem cool. “We” have a surgery coming up over in California. Otherwise, we’d already be up north. We’re supposed to be in NW Wyoming in early June. Hope we make it.
I hope so too!! Wyoming in the summer should be incredible! Fingers crossed!
I love your sense of humor! I laughed so hard when I read this, I couldn’t even stop to tell Sean what I was laughing at. We can’t wait to be grandparents, but don’t particularly like being parked near other people’s kids. 🙂 We’re going to San Diego next January/February. Where did you stay and would you recommend it (sans neighbor kids of course)?
Hey! I think it just depends what you want. If you really want to explore the downtown area, the sites I talked about in this article, the breweries, etc, then Mission Bay RV really is ideal. It’s right in the middle of everything and it’s just a great location. But – it’s a parking lot. You would probably have better luck in January / February than we had because it won’t be spring break. But, it’s still going to be close quarters. If you want to be away from all of that and a bit outside the city, you’d probably really like Sweetwater Summit Regional Park. Depending on where you’re going in the city, it’s about a 20 or 30 minute drive. But, in the meantime, you’re in a nice, green, quiet, county park. Also, be aware, the only way to make Mission Bay affordable is to stay a month. At that point, it’s $35 per night. Less than a month and you’re looking at $70 per night. Which is crazy.
I enjoyed your post, Laura. It made me want to visit San Diego again, until I read all the comments. I have forgotten how bad the traffic is in Southern California. The traffic comments remind me of a story a friend shared with me recently about her experience living in L.A. Mia, now a resident of Portland, shared that she was getting panic attacks from being stuck in traffic for long periods of time. She recalled getting a call from a close friend one day, also stuck in traffic. Mia asked her friend how she was coping. Her 29 year old friend replied that she was great!—she had her music to listen to, her little ice chest nearby filled with snacks and drinks, and she was wearing an adult diaper!
Ughhhhh. You paint quite a picture!!!! And after living in DC forever, it honestly doesn’t surprise me. I was lucky to have a pretty easy work commute, but knew many others who spent 3 or 4 hours each day in their car. Just insane. We just didn’t see SD traffic as being THAT bad, but perhaps it was because our campground was centrally located. Perhaps if we were coming downtown from the suburbs, it would have been worse. I don’t know. What I do know is wherever we end up settling down eventually, we will never deal with a crazy commute like that. If we can’t afford to be within walking distance of what we need or where we have access to good public transportation, we’ll find somewhere else. No adult diapers, thank you very much!!