Page 108 - 2014 Travel Guide to California

The whole downtown region throbs
with excitement day and night, and is now
the center of San Diego’s nightlife scene.
There’s talk of a new football stadium
downtown, along with additional water-
view hotels. The urban core continues
through established neighborhoods
including Bankers Hill and Hillcrest, the
always-hopping heart of the gay, lesbian
and transgender community.
The Great Outdoors
The Pacific Ocean casts its spell over San
Diego. Surfers, swimmers, boaters and
anglers all find room to play in and on the
water. Mission Beach has a boardwalk and
Belmont Park’s roller coaster. La Jolla
Shores offers a mile-long beach with areas
for kayakers, divers, surfers and swim-
mers. Bright orange Garibaldi and other
exotic fish draw snorkelers to La Jolla Cove,
while harbor seals have taken charge of the
nearby Children’s Pool. Mission Bay Park is
a 4,235-acre panorama of blue water and
green lawns with manmade channels lined
with hotels, marinas, several playgrounds
and miles of bike paths.
East and north of the center city, the
landscape changes dramatically. Lakes and
reservoirs offer freshwater fishing and
106 2014 T R AV E L G U I D E T O C A L I F O R N I A
serene areas for putting about in motor-
boats. Pine trees shelter campgrounds in
the Cuyamaca Mountains and Cleveland
National Forest. Julian, a classic mountain
town, is a popular spot for lilacs in spring
and apple pie in autumn. Beyond the
mountains, the Anza-Borrego Desert State
Park provides hiking trails through palm
canyons and fields of cacti. It’s possible to
see all these wonders during a long day’s
drive, but golf resorts and B&Bs
throughout the region offer shelter if you
care to commune with nature.
Heritage & Culture
Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez
Cabrillo discovered San Diego Bay in 1542
but sailed on north, leaving the Kumeyaay
Indians alone in their warm, food-rich
home. Today, members of the region’s sev-
eral tribes are reaping the riches of their
heritage at casinos in San Diego’s East and
North counties.
Cabrillo’s arrival is now commemorated
at Cabrillo National Monument atop the tip
of Point Loma overlooking the bay. Euro-
pean settlers returned in 1769, building a
fort and mission church at Presidio Hill, a
gorgeous swath of lawns above Old Town
State Historic Park, which contains many of
TRAIL RIDING is a popular
activity in San Marcos,
North County, San Diego.
San Diego’s oldest buildings. Today’s down-
town evolved in a burst of development in
1867, leaving behind the collection of his-
toric homes in the vibrant Gaslamp Quarter.
San Diego’s most impressive Spanish-Colo-
nial buildings were constructed in Balboa
Park for the 1915-1916 Panama-California
Exposition; its tiled California Tower has
become a treasured landmark and several of
the exposition’s ornate buildings house the
park’s museums.
Family Fun
With the San Diego Zoo, Safari Park,
Legoland and SeaWorld at hand, families
find plenty of excitement. Downtown’s New
Children’s Museum is an eco-friendly play-
ground for all family members. Its
multicultural, bilingual exhibits make
learning fun, and the adjacent one-acre park
gives kids a place to burn energy. Teens
enjoy exploring fighter planes and flight
simulators at the USS Midway Museum, a
1,001-foot-long aircraft carrier berthed at
downtown’s Embarcadero. For inexpensive
entertainment, try bicycling at Mission Bay
and Coronado, fishing off piers in Imperial
Beach and Ocean Beach, stargazing from
Mount Palomar and spotting cactus flowers
in the Anza-Borrego Desert.
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