I believe it was on a Tuesday, we headed to Legoland at 9 am hoping to get a jump on things and make it our last day, and head to San Diego the next. We discovered that in October Legoland didn’t open until Thursday. So, we regrouped and headed to San Diego a day early. We popped in some MXPX – South Bound and did the same.
We had looked at going to sSeaWorld, or the San Diego Zoo but neither are ranked #1 in the US in their category and, while I am sure they are amazing they didn’t fit our budget or criteria. I kinda wish we had gone to the San Diego Zoo. First world regrets, I guess. When we go back we’ll have to stop here.
Mission Bay
Our first stop in San Diego was Mission Bay, it was off I 10 and my youngest had to pee. haha. The island and play areas were nice. I could spend a week or two there just playing and relaxing. I don’t think there was overnight camping, but day camping with an RV and a boat would be wonderful. For our time schedule we stopped for lunch at a picnic area and headed on.
Chrystal Pier Hotel and Pier
From Mission Bay we headed to Chrystal Pier.It was beautiful and scary. This particular pier has rental cabins and allows people to drive vehicles on it. The creak boards and sound of death (waves crashing) below made the pier a heart pounding experience for my water phobic wife. Once we made it to the end of the pier we watched groups of sardines swim and play. I could have stayed here for days.
Pacific Beach Park
After the pier we took some time to play in the water. This beach was a little steeper than the ones in Carlsbad and the waves were a little less predictable. We nearly lost our stuff to a wave and continued moving it back as time progressed. As far as the water goes, it was nice, but some combination of circumstances made the water sandier than others. I may have been tossed once or twice in the wave, but the sand seemed to ebb and flow more here than where we had been in Carlsbad. There were wash stations on the way out which made it easier. After a few hours of play we moved on.
North San Diego Bay
We headed to North San Diego Bay to look at all the ships. Growing up land locked in CO (for me) and KS (the wife) no one in my family have really seen the larger boats, yachts, and ships up close. This was our chance. We took a second to see the start of India which was on the way to the uss midway museum. We parked near the midway, took some photos and hurried to the Coronado ferry. While there are other ferries we will be taking in our journey, this was our first ever.
Coronado Ferry
I’m sure as ferries go this is probably normal to small. It was a good chance to see the bay and all the activity that goes on in the water. A round trip ticket would get us to Coronado in time to check out a couple of places and get back to the truck before parking expired. Not knowing much about Coronado Island we knew there was shopping and something historic but it wasn’t on our list. Once we arrived at the island we had just enough time to go to the bathroom and turn back around and miss our next boat! Worried about a parking ticket we debated on what to do next. we could wait for the round trip boat to return and guarantee that we would be late, or we could take the smaller ferry to the convention center and walk (book it!) to the truck with a small chance of being late. We decided to take the smaller ferry to the convention center.
Stay tuned …