After the usual whirlwind season of Christmases, my husband Josh and I escaped the nasty cold spell in Middle America and flew to sunny San Diego, where we met up with Josh’s parents and reunited with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend, a native Australian who dragged him “Down Under” with her when he finished college.
It was a people trip, in other words.
You heard San Diego, so maybe you’re expecting a whole portfolio of gorgeous oceanscapes and landscapes and all the other “scapes.” While I did have my camera out everywhere I went, it was focused on people and came secondary to experiences—though sometimes, taking photographs turned into an experience all on its own, like our daily coordinated jumping pictures, courtesy of my new tripod and remote shutter and many random strangers who were sometimes entertained by us and sometimes just confused.
Anyways, since my San Diego stories are better than my San Diego pictures, that’s what I have to share with you this time. I figured I’d try doing what the Internet does with literally everything, and break our trip down into a neat little listicle for you (minus the little). Without further ado, here are a few of my favorites from San Diego, some pictures included.
My San Diego Top Seven
OR
The Ultimate Definitive List of the Best Things to Do in San Diego in January with your Family-in-Law in 2018
(I think titles like this are what makes you more visible in search results. Can you hear me now, Google? Yahoo, nobody cares.)
1. Whale Watching Kayak Tour
La Jolla | Everyday California
When I signed us up for a whale watching kayak tour, I had zero hope of actually seeing a whale, but I figured paddling out on the ocean would be its own rewarding adventure—and that it was. The gentle bay we pushed off from had crystal clear waters, and by a stroke of divine luck, the day was sunny and calm, the water perfect. We leisurely paddled out for about 15 minutes in tandem kayaks, spotted a little seal poking its head out of the water, paddled on a while longer. Nick and Claire (the Aussies) accomplished an impressive feat when they switched seats a couple hundred yards from shore because the tour guide in training had put them in backward. Oops.
Even after the water turned a dark, inky blue, I was perfectly content to just be on the water, to coast along and suddenly find myself a very long ways away from land. I’ve been on the ocean before, but it feels a whole lot bigger when you’re sitting in a little kayak, when you can reach out with your hand and touch the water.
And then I heard someone shout. I followed the pointing fingers, and there. A great black spine arching over the water, disappearing, arching again. Let me tell you, when you see a whale 500 yards away whose tail is twice as big as the kayak you’re in…like, dang. That’s a feeling you can’t manufacture at SeaWorld. That’ll get you thinking about your place in the universe, and not in a contemplative, stargazing kind of way.
Even if you have a waterproof case for your camera and you aren’t afraid of losing it to the infinite depths (like yours truly), you can’t take pictures of feelings like that.
Well, maybe you can. Maybe that’s how you get a job with National Geographic.
The whale waved at us with its tail as it dove back down again, and I watched with a look of stupefied rapture on my face.
“That was a little one,” our guide said. I found this information to be positively hysterical.
We hit the paddles again in the direction our guide thought the whale was moving, keeping our eyes peeled for the telltale waterspout that foretold a whale’s surfacing. Five or so minutes later, I spotted it and screamed unnecessarily loud, and we all stopped paddling.
We watched. We paddled. We waited. We spotted it again—three or four times in all, I think. It, or maybe they, would surface every five to ten minutes, take a breath and flip up their tails before diving again.
There are so many ways this experience could have been lessened—a little bit of wind or fog, which San Diego had in spades on other days of our trip, might have made it miserable or impossible to actually see the whales. We were extraordinarily lucky, but I would absolutely recommend taking a chance on this if you’re ever in San Diego during the winter.
2. Hot Air Balloon Ride
Carlsbad | Sky’s the Limit Ballooning
Coming in at a close second, or perhaps tying for first place, is my mother-in-law’s surprise treat for all of us: a hot air balloon ride. This one has always been on my theoretical bucket list, and it didn’t disappoint—though it wasn’t exactly the quaint, floating adventure I imagined.
For one thing, these whimsical-looking balloons are gently launched into the air by roaring, steroidal flamethrowers. For another, our balloon was not so whimsical-looking. We rode in a giant advertisement for Hendrick’s gin.
Then there was the take-off, which happened in brief bursts of chaos. The first passengers had to load in while the basket was still horizontal, and the last had to mad-dash scramble over the basket walls after it tipped upright and before we started lifting off. All of this only added to the experience, in my opinion, adding a bit of wonderment and terrifying, mystical science.
And then we were in the clouds, and above the clouds, drifting through the heavens, and it was simply marvelous.
Loading into the baskets, space shuttle style.
We covered around eight miles, the only steering mechanism being the roaring flames and the ability to rise and sink and follow the air currents. As we lowered toward our landing, we floated over houses the size of small villages—but, from the vantage point of the heavens, we felt much richer than they.
Our landing was as clumsy as the takeoff as we skidded to a halt and the ground crew piled on to hold us down. We toasted our safe journey with a shared bottle of champagne.
Cheers!
3. Rock Climbing Gym
San Diego | Vertical Hold Indoor Rock Climbing Gym
There are adventures to be found outside and in in San Diego—rock climbing probably isn’t something you’ll find on most lists of touristy things to do in the city, but it was one of my favorites. Credit goes to Josh for planning our trip to the Vertical Hold climbing gym, which was perfect for us as one-time climbers—the belaying equipment was very user-friendly and easy to learn, and their bouldering room (where you can climb without ropes) was crazy fun.
I came so, so close to making it up this pesky yellow route with a major overhang…
We climbed for most of the morning, and I declared several climbs to be my last before deciding I could try to push through just one more route. All four of us kids left wanting more—we all added ‘more rock climbing’ to our list of things to do in 2018. Even the parentals got into it—Dale and Sharon were total champs.
4. Escape Rooms
San Diego | Quicksand Escape Games and The Entrapment
If you’d like to get a thrill while keeping your feet firmly on solid ground, escape rooms are a pretty good way to go.
Nothing like being locked in a room with your family-in-law to raise your blood pressure, am I right?
(Just kidding—love you guys!)
If you’re not familiar, escape rooms are basically themed puzzle rooms. You get locked in a room for an hour and have to solve a series of puzzles to get out. We ended up doing two escape rooms in San Diego—we enjoyed the first one so much that we signed up for another. And, even with four escape room rookies on our team, we totally crushed them both.
At Quicksand Escape, we played a group of mobsters trying to rob a 50s-style diner, following clues our recon man set down for us to reach the loot. It adhered to the more common type of escape rooms in that the puzzles were mostly non-linear. With multiple people digging up clues and solving puzzles simultaneously, you get a lot of chaos that adds to the fun. It was about perfect for our group of six, with enough going on to keep everyone busy, but not so much that you miss out on half of the mysteries being solved.
At The Entrapment, we were led into a dark, haunted mansion where our friend had mysteriously disappeared. This room was unusual in that it was a linear puzzle—you could really only solve one thing at a time, each puzzle leading to the next. On the one hand, I really enjoyed being a part of every riddle and puzzle that was solved. On the other, this didn’t work quite as well for a group as large as ours—there wasn’t as much for everyone to do. I’d highly recommend it for a group of two or three, but six was probably too many. Still, it was one of the most well-designed and immersive rooms I’ve ever done.
Though not particularly unique to San Diego, escape rooms are always a good thrill, and I recommend planning some downtime afterward, preferably at a bar, to rehash the adventure with your crew, especially if you did a nonlinear room and weren’t a part of every puzzle solved. It’s always fun to relive the puzzles and excitement and put together some of the pieces you might have missed out on.
5. Foodie Tour
North Park | BITE San Diego
Food is always one of the best parts of vacation. You get a free pass to ignore calories in the interest of trying the local delicacies.
A food tour in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego introduced us to a whole smattering of local flavors. We tried pizza, pretzels, burgers, tostadas, beer, wine on tap, with just a wee bit of walking in between to keep us from feeling too guilty about it all.
North Park had a nice local feel to it, much more so than the more touristy areas of San Diego we spent most of our time in. We made some new friends—one couple who was on the tour with us bonded with the Brummers over the horrors of 4D theaters at Disney World, and we became instant best friends with a bartender at the pizza place who was very into the beer he was serving to us.
Good food and good atmosphere make good company even better, and that’s what we’d all come to San Diego for in the first place.
You know it’s a good time when the hat gets cocked sideways…and when Josh starts decorating tables with math.
6. Tide Pooling
Point Loma | Cabrillo National Monument
The most land-based scenery we took in during our trip was at the Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma. The hilly peninsula gives you lovely views of the San Diego Bay and Pacific Ocean—a welcome sight on our first day of adventuring, especially for us land- and winter-locked Midwesterners.
We started the day by wandering along an easy walking trail that took us along the bay-side edge of the point, where our daily jumping-photo tradition was conceived.
The coolest part, though, was on the other side and closer to the water—the rocky beach, where tourists flocked at low tide to peer into the pools left behind, looking out for little bitty hermit crabs, which were literally everywhere (and were probably crushed under clumsy feet by the hundreds), real crabs, which were a little more scarce, and even more interesting things, like one elusive octopus that squoolshed between cracks and around rocks in a creepily fascinating manner (Claire gets the credit for spotting that one). You could really lose yourself in all the little things here, let yourself be captivated by all the tiny, teeming life on the edge of the great wide ocean.
Here’s a pro-tip, though, which we lucky to learn without suffering too much ourselves: go early. We had no trouble getting in and parking by the monument in the morning and were lucky to snag a spot by the beach about two hours before low tide, but things were looking pretty dire by the time we left. We passed about a mile-long line of cars waiting to get in as we were leaving. San Diego would have lost its luster real fast if we’d have gotten stuck in that mess.
7. The San Diego Zoo
Being from Nebraska and having frequented the Henry Doorly, I’ve got pretty high expectations of zoos. Since San Diego and Omaha both claim to be the best in the world, depending on which authoritative ratings list you’re looking at, I prepared to be wowed.
I was…mostly wowed. Omaha remains firmly rooted on my #1 spot among the five or so zoos I have visited in my life, and by my authoritative rating system, I’d say it has a far better claim to ‘Best in the World’ as well, but I’ll give San Diego it’s due. It was cool, and definitely worth visiting for a day.
It has pandas, the usual assortment of monkeys and big cats. It has giraffes and a large colony of flamingos that were more entertaining to us at the end of a long day of walking than they objectively should have been.
Most importantly, it has an exhibit of cheetahs and their best friends, who are puppies—and although I never got to see the puppies and cheetahs actually play together, which may have single-handedly launched San Diego to #1 on my list, I did see them happily doing their own thing in the same space. I’ll take it.
Honorable Mentions
- Disc golfing at Morley Field
- The Ocean Beach Dog Beach
- The USS Midway Museum
- A sunset cruise around the San Diego Bay, with one very funny (and punny) tour guide who was all about the banter, and one not-so-funny tour guide who told precisely one joke but knew all sorts of things about the Navy ships we passed by
Some things I would not recommend doing in San Diego
Running three miles. At the very least, you should not let Claire, who runs all the time, set the pace. But also you should just not run because you are on vacation and who does that.
Also, don’t wear shorts on a windy, foggy day to the beach just because you are coming from a Kansas winter and think 50 degrees sounds pretty dang good. Fifty degrees is not good. Fifty degrees is pretty dang cold, unless you are smart and wear pants.
Puppilogue
Author’s Note: This post was originally published on my former photography-related blog, backroadsbrummer.com, which no longer exists.
Those balloon pics are sweeeet. Good stuff, Lacey!