05 January 2015

San Diego, CA - Or where to say 'Good-Bye' to the year 2014

Which location is relatively close to Sunnyvale, CA (AKA not more than 1.5 flight hours away), has a high chance of nice weather at this time of the year, is not super expensive and offers interesting things to do?

The answer to all these questions for us was San Diego, CA and we decided to spend the last days of 2014 including New Year's there. We met our good old local friend Diogo and his wife Kathy for dinner one night and the next day we visited the tip of the Point Loma peninsula with Diogo. This is also a beautiful place for whale watching between December and March.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer, was the first European who set foot at Point Loma in 1542. Today large parts of the area are utilized by the U.S. Navy.

San Diego skyline and Cabrillo National Monument

Old Point Loma Lighthouse

We had a very relaxing time just walking around and absorbing the city's impressions.

Coronado Bridge and some kind of arts


Making fun of myself

Musician at Balboa Park

Many things we saw were simply entertaining, fun or just strange, some were concerning. I had looked up some statistics about homelessness in the U.S. when I travelled through the nation in fall 2014. Our visit to San Diego reminded me of the data I had come across as we walked by homeless people near the Metropolitan Transit Station, Chicano Park below the highway bridges and dozens of tents set up along National Ave.

Chicano Park below the bridge

11 comments:

  1. Love the pictures! I have never been to San Diego, obviously bucket list material! Have a great 2015!

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    1. Thanks, same for the two of you! This has been my third time in SD and we keep discovering new things every time. And it hopefully won't be the last. Next time we will probably rent a car though to also get to the outskirts. Let us know as soon as you are planning to check this off your bucket list!

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  2. San Diego... not a bad option if you ask me. Ok, in Germany you could have gotten on a plane to Paris, London, Rome, Barcelona or where ever but the weather is certainly much better where you were headed. Very eclectic set of pictures.

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    1. Oh yes, Europe has more variety closer by for sure. But you are right, the weather is often a gamble. As for the pictures: thanks and more to come. ;-)

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  3. San Diego is always a good idea! Way better than a 1.5 h flight to Florida as we can do. After 3 times in Florida we are done with it! Never ever again! But San Diego - I might be a little envious. Glad to see you had a good time there! The photo of the seagull is brilliant and I also like the last picture a lot. Happy new year to you two!

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    1. Happy New Year to you and Markus as well!

      I can't really speak for Florida as I had only briefly touched its northern area on my trip. You probably know better. You had been to both, Florida and San Diego.

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  4. I actually got a bunch of really nice pictures of Florida, but it is definetely not our favourite state anyway.

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    1. True, I remember your pictures. Well, been there. Done that. Now you can focus on those few remaining and more interesting states you have not seen yet.

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    2. 2015. Our time here is almost over :-( But we are thankful for all the wonderful places we have been to so far.

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    3. Yes, I know. And we have not really seen each other a lot, especially not the last 2 years. Before you guys return to Germany, we have to met. I might even hop on a plane to the East Coast for that.

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    4. Oh yes! We have to make plans!!! You and Guido are always invited to come. Or we can meet each other somewhere. You know, Hawaii in April/Mai or Chicago in October for a long weekend? Or we simply have to stay here for longer. We will see :-)

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