San Diego, California
Originally posted on September 26th, 2019For the last weekend of summer, Jaxon and I went to San Diego. I absolutely loved it! I finally get what all the hype is about. The weather was beautiful, the company was great, and pretty much everything went according to plan. Our AirBnB was beautiful, too! It was a separate garage converted into a cute little living space located close to University Heights. We were walking distance from bars and restaurants, and we definitely took advantage of that! Honestly, it was the best location we could have asked for.
On the first full day, we went to breakfast at Atypical Waffles, where I had a waffle sandwich that was extremely delicious! The coffee was just ok, so definitely skip that part. Jaxon had one with bacon covered in brown sugar, which was also quite delicious!
From there, we headed to La Jolla where we watched the sea lions, walked along the coast, and dipped our toes in the cold Pacific Ocean water. We even saw a couple baby sea lions napping and playing and everything in between. It was adorable! And everything I had hoped it would be!! I think I told Jaxon no less than 20 times that I wanted to live there.
When we were sunburnt and had walked enough, we stopped at the famous Taco Stand. We stood in line for probably about an hour and ordered a California burrito, fish taco, shrimp taco, and churros. I would have to say that the burrito and churros were fantastic! But the tacos (ironic considering the name of the place) were average and not worth the wait or hype. Harsh, but true.
Since we were so wiped out, we took it easy that night. We cleaned up and went to Red House Pizza. Highly recommend! Great food and perfect portions! Our nightcap was some ice cream at Stella Jean's. We got the mango sticky rice and the s'mores flavors, and man oh man was that ice cream good! I may or may not have hogged the s'mores one (sorry Jaxon!). And that was it for Saturday!
Sunday was an early day, since we wanted to catch as much of the day as possible. We packed up, took a couple polaroid selfies, and headed to Little Italy for breakfast! We ate some really amazing chicken sandwiches at The Crack Shack, right under the flight path of landing planes! So cool seeing them that close right above us! It honestly felt like a plane was going to crash into us based on how close they were to us.
From there, we wandered around Little Italy, which at this point was crowded with people drinking coffees, getting their Sunday brunch on. We could hear groups of old Italian men catching up in their native tongues, sitting around tables and drinking espresso, shouting and laughing with each other. It honestly took me back to my trips I've taken in Italy. Huge waves of nostalgia for sure.
We made sure to check out the city admin building and to check out some of the boats that were part of the museum there. There were submarines, battleships, and boats that looked something like what the colonists sailed on to the New World. A neat, quick stop!
We eventually made it back to the car to make one last pit stop: Balboa Park. Quite frankly, the place took my breath away. For me, the place looked like a hybrid of Spanish architecture with some Mayan and Middle Eastern influences. It was lush, it was huge, and it was stunning! There were so many museums located in this park, and we wished we had more time in the city to stop by in each one. But unfortunately, we were only able to walk inside the botanical garden and admire everything from the outside. Next time, though!
And with that, we had to start making the five-and-a-half hour journey back to Phoenix because Jaxon had to catch a flight that same night. Overall, it was a perfect weekend with a fantastic guy in a beautiful city. I highly recommend checking out San Diego if you have a chance! I know I'll definitely be back in the near future!