San Diego, Day 1

We left Tucson around 6am yesterday morning. Our car was packed FULL, but Ben somehow managed to get everything we own in it, even without using the roof bag.
Even though I miss Ali, I'm so glad we don't have her this time because this road trip would have been torture for her (not to mention she gets carsick pretty easily). We made pretty good time getting to California, but had to stop THREE different times at border patrol stations, where they were searching for illegal immigrants. Obviously they did not search our car because there was hardly any room to breathe in it, much less hide a Mexican. It almost seemed like it got more brown and desert like, once we got into California.

You could see the Mexico border from Interstate-8 that we were driving along. Luckily, we were able to check into our hotel early and unload the valuables out of car (also, clear out the backseat so we could actually see out of the back window). Then we went to Torrey Pines National Park and walked along the beach for a few miles. It was a beautiful day, partly sunny and mid 60s. As we were walking along the beach we saw this sign that said "Nudity Prohibited." I thought it was funny so I took a picture of it and we continued walking down the beach. HOWEVER, we quickly found out why the sign was there. Apparently we had crossed over onto a nude beach and were no longer in the State Park because we saw quite a few old men taking the "clothing optional" route and walking along the beach.


It did not take much convincing for us to turn around and make our way back to better scenery. :-) We then decided to hike our way back to our car, which was probably 3 miles total. As we made the climb, the view of the ocean was more and more beautiful.
I can't believe how clean San Diego is, for such a big city. After our day on the beach we went to Pacific Beach to get some fresh seafood (and cold beers) for dinner. A local reccomended we go to Nick's, which is a block back from the water. We got there during Happy Hour and started out with 2 pints of beer from a local brewery (Karl Strauss) and 2 oyster shooters. We sat out on the patio, hoping to watch the sun set into the ocean, but it was too cloudy to see it. For dinner we both got fresh Mahi Mahi, which was so delicious. After dinner we walked on the beach again, and then got some ice cream (no day is complete without dessert)!

We got back to our hotel just in time for me to watch Desperate Housewives, and we opened a bottle of wine we got in Sedona a few weeks ago. Our plan was to go down to the pool/hot tub afterwards. However, after being up since 5am, we both fell asleep during the show (Ben says it's because it was "so exciting it put us to sleep"). Now we are getting ready to go see the San Diego Zoo, and whatever else our day might bring (hopefully no more naked people).