San Diego

21 January 22, 2007

This was the day to start the exploration of San Diego. We thought it was appropriate to start with some history of the area. So, we began with the Old Town State Park in the oldest part of San Diego. This park is designed to preserve the history of the settlers who came here in the early to mid 1800’s and showed the transition from a land controlled by Mexico to one eventually controlled by the United States.

We toured the buildings and the history exhibits and learned about the life of the high born and the average citizen of the period. Then we headed into the surrounding area and selected one of the many restaurants specializing in Mexican food. We had an excellent lunch which inspired us to continue the exploration.

We headed out towards Point Loma to the Cabrillo National Monument and the preserved lighthouse on the point. Enroute, we took a small detour to drive by the area made famous by the America Cup races in San Diego. This Shelter Island area has huge yacht clubs and marinas. A great place for boating recreation.

We arrived at Pt Loma in time to visit the lighthouse before sunset over the Pacific Ocean and to observe some of the Gray whales very close off shore as they continued their annual migration of 12000 miles. This was a great way to mark our western most point of the trip.