Why I heart San Diego.

So...

This weekend I went to San Diego. I usually go there about 3 times a year, and would go even more time allowing. It's such a beautiful seaside community, a community being something more than just a simple city, like Los Angeles. San Diego's essentially a big city with the heart of a small coastal town. The people are beyond friendly, plus, with two major colleges in the area, there is a large population of young adults, particularly in the hip Pacific Beach area. There is also a large military presence that adds to the uniqueness of San Diego, and TONS of pristine beaches, parks, hiking and biking trails and other outdoor-centric activities.

SD additionally has one of the best, most accessible and cleanest downtowns I have ever been to. In most cities Downtown is either an overgrown business park or a dirty, dingy place to be avoided at all costs. In San Diego, it is a four-star destination, an urban hotspot, updated to preserve the historic brick buildings, but with a contempory flare, and full of shopping, theaters, great eateries and other attractions. At night, in the Gaslamp district, the people watching makes for a journey onto itself, particularly if there is a convention in town, like the annual San Diego International Comic Con. I love walking the streets and just not knowing where I'll end up. In Downtown San Diego, you can do that while feeling perfectly safe. And if you ever get tired, they have bike-taxis that will take you back to your car or hotel for between 5 to 10 bucks.

The San Diego Zoo is located not far from downtown and is simply one of the best zoos in the world and hands down the best in the US. To say it is HUGE is an understatement. You could easily spend the day there and still not see everything. You can get lost in the "lost jungle," as they call the area where the tigers, hippos and various exotic monkeys are housed. Tired of the lush foilage, visit the Arctic region, where polar bears riegn supreme and, for the kiddies, there's a mysterious polar bear cave they can explore and crawl around in pretending to be a bear themselves. There is a kid's section of the zoo that has a bug house and, near that, is a reptile house the adults will enjoy too, where the Zoo keeps all kids of venomous snakes you can get up close and personal with, like the spitting King Cobra and a Santa Catalina rattlesnake, which is found only on one island in all the world and is extra special for it's lack of rattles (ironic because it is, after all, a rattlesnake).

I love the way the shopping and dining blends seamlessly into the Zoo, such as the treehouse cafe or the African bazaar, which is modelled after a trading village and is nestled in between thick vegetation so that, for a moment in time, you might feel like you have stepped into another world. If you don't feel like walking, you can always take an air tram from one side of the Zoo to the other, the kind like they used to have at Disneyland. The air tram is a "cool" way to get an overview of the zoo and downtown San Diego at large. There's also a fun double decker bus that zips you around and affords a unique perspective on most of the popular animal denizens.

Other things I recommend doing in SD are checking out Balboa Park, Seaport Village, Coronado Island and also taking a haunted history of San Diego tour, where, at night, a tour guide will show you around various macabre parts of the city.

One thing I strongly advise against doing, though, is going to Tijuana, the Mexican town on the other side of the California border. For one, it's a shithole. It's disgusting and, unless you are into donkey shows, there is absolutely nothing to do there except walk around and look at the same thing over and over. Seriously, it feels like the same three people selling crappy trinkets on the same block no matter how far you walk. It's a deja vu nightmare. And then, when you do decide to get the heck outta dodge, you have to wait 3 to 4 hours in the same line to cross back over the border with Mexican citizens visiting the United States. There is no separate US citizens line, even though Mexican citizens make up like 85% of the line. If you are driving, expect at even longer wait.

IMO, if you want to see a much better border town go to Nogales just outside of Tucson, Arizona. It's quieter, cleaner and the architecture is much more visually arresting.

There is literally so much more to explore in San Diego, though... so much so that it would be impossible to blog about it all in one post. It's definitely one thing I will miss about Southern California.