Great weather too. It's been hazy each morning but has burnt off quickly as the days have progressed. But after talking with a few locals, I understand they pay for the privilege with what they consider to be higher rents than in other cities. I'm not sure if that's true or not. Everything's relative right?
There is a huuuuuge military presence here. So we kicked off our tourist trail by checking out the Midway Museum on Sunday (21 April). The kids liked the pilots' ready room, the war room (with its radar controls), the chow line and the showers (the short navy shower is particularly relative for us, currently living in an RV) but their absolute favourites (which they couldn't be pulled out of) were the cockpits of the retired planes in the hangar area.
We've also checked out the San Diego Natural History Museum where, like in various other museums of the type, dinsoaurs rule! (Which is just as well, because little boys LOVE dinosaurs!)We watched two great 3D movies - one on bugs (after which Indy was crying because - spoiler alert - the butterfly gets eaten by the praying mantis) and one about reefs. Both very cool. It's always funny looking over at kids when they're wearing 3D glasses and they're trying to reach out and grab the jellyfish on screen.
We have camped in a few different places - one night in Chula Vista at an RV park, the next night in the Sweetwater Regional Park, and last night in a car park on Shelter Island (beside the America's Cup Harbour). Tonight we're in an RV park again; this time, we're north of Sea World on Mission Bay.We've been out to the Cabrillo National Monument and have driven around a lot of the suburbs to get a feel for various areas. Our take is that Chula Vista and south, plus Logan Barrio further up have a really strong Mexican flavour. Coronado looks so upmarket that we didn't want to park our dirty old second-hand RV there(!). Shelter Island was a yachties hang-out and for some reason every cocker spaniel of note in the world had gathered there for the annual cocker spaniel's convention. Really, I mean cocker spaniels - I'm not being euphemistic.
The area between Mission Beach and Mission Bay reminds us a lot of Manly in the sense there's ocean on one side and bay/harbour on the other. But construction seems limited to three levels so there's lots of little quaint places, probably with upmarket price tags but without the fancy schmancy feel.
And the beach was lovely - beautiful white sand stretching really deep up to the houses on the shoreline and in front of those is an awesome bike/walking track. Just a couple of blocks away and you're on the bay instead and the bike/walking track is extending along that side too. Nice!
And the San Diego Old Town is really fun. Lots of vibrant colours and sounds (eg. mariachi) reminiscent of mexico, quaint little shops, lots of historical displays - cool.
