Shouldless Days in San Diego - Part 2

I'm continuing on with my San Diego recap today! On day 2 of our trip, we decided to head east to the desert region as we were both craving warmer temps, sun, and blue skies. Phil did some research and found some cool hikes in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. So after making breakfast, we headed east. It's about a 2 hour drive but most of the drive is scenic.

We got to the park and after talking to a park ranger at the visitor center, we headed out for our first hike which was called "The Slot."

The area where our hike started was beautiful! I know some people don't love desert landscapes but I think they are beautiful!

The hike we did was short, but really cool. For most of the hike, you hiked on a narrow trail through a canyon.

Entering the canyon

 This would not be a good hike for someone that is claustrophobic! Parts of the path were very narrow and required some maneuvering to get through them.

This photo gives you an idea of how deep the canyon we hiked through was!

The next hike we did was the Borrego Palm Grove.  It's about a 4 mile out-and-back trail to a grove of palm trees. It was interesting to hike through a desert landscape and then come upon some palm trees! The palm trees thrives as there is a stream that runs through the canyon.

After we finished this hike, we headed back to San Diego, cleaned up and headed out for some fish tacos in the Ocean Beach area. You definitely have to eat fish tacos when you are in Southern CA! Unfortunately I did not snap a picture of my tacos because I was getting a little hangry at that point so dug in right away!

On Saturday morning, we woke up and were pleased to see that the cloud cover was starting to break up. We headed out for a 4 mile out and back run along the ocean. There is a path along the beach in the Pacific Beach area that is great for running. It can be crowded and it's concrete so it's not the most idea path (for your body) but you can't beat running along the ocean!! It's also worth noting that I did this run without taking walk breaks like I normally have to (due to my hip surgery recovery) and I felt just fine afterwards!  That's serious progress for me!

After cleaning up, we walked to a breakfast place called The Mission for brunch. They had a GF menu and it looked promising but we were kind of disappointed, mostly because they used soooo much rosemary in their food (which we find off-putting when it's over-used). But if you like rosemary, this is the place for you!  And the portions are huge!

Next up, we headed to a couple of places a friend of mine that used to live there recommended that we check out. First off we went to Sunset Cliffs Natural Park. It was a beautiful area and the parking was free (woo hoo!). We had fun walking along the cliff-side path.  We also enjoyed looking up how expensive the homes in the area were!

Next, we went to Point Loma which is a peninsula with great views of the San Diego area. We walked the 3 mile out and back path.  The skies were clearing up so it was a nice day to be out walking!

By this point, we had logged over 15,000 steps, so we headed back to our condo to relax and enjoy some snacks and drinks. Then we headed out for a sunset walk along the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Phil's favorite thing to do when we are by water is skip rocks. I love this picture that I snapped!

That evening, we grilled dinner and collapsed into bed as we were both so tired from all the walking/running!

The next day we headed to the Old Town area for some Mexican food before heading to the airport.

Final thoughts:  We enjoyed San Diego and loved being by the ocean. But our conclusion was that we are much bigger fans of the Santa Barbara area (see my Santa Barbara trip recap here). Southern California is beautiful but we found that we prefer smaller, more quaint towns versus a bigger city. That said, I will be heading back to San Diego this fall with my mom, sisters, and sisters-in-law and I am very much looking forward to that trip as I know we'll end up doing different things. And maybe I'll get better weather on that trip!  But if you are going on vacation with children, San Diego would be great as there are so many kid-friendly things to do in the area!

Do you prefer visiting bigger cities or smaller, quaint towns? We aren't opposed to big cities as we adore San Francisco, but for 'beach/ocean' vacations, we find we prefer smaller cities.