Just a note that the platypuses are at the zoo’s Safari Park in Escondido, not the zoo in Balboa Park. It’s about a 40 minute drive from downtown.
OP here. It’s our last night in San Diego. We’ve had a fun time, without a car, and we’ve been very active.
We got in Sunday. My glasses broke on the plane, which wasn’t great, but fortunately I can see fairly well without them. We went to Old Town (via Uber) and had great Mexican food, then walked around the Old Town area and Ubered back.
Monday we walked to Balboa Park, walked around fair amount, and went to the zoo for many hours (Great zoo). Then we walked down to the Gaslamp Quarter, had happy hour, and then walked up to the top of the steps by the convention center to watch the sunset. There happened to be an optometrist right on our way, and he fixed my glasses in under 5 minutes, and charged us nothing. Husband’s phone said we walked over 11 miles that day. I think we may have Ubered back to our place, but I can’t remember.
Tuesday we rented bikes, and rode them from downtown to Coronado. I got a flat, but fortunately it was right in front of the restaurant we’d decided we were going to have lunch at. After lunch, we decided to just walk the bike to a bike shop to have it fixed. During that time we went to Moo-time ice cream shop. We took the ferry back from Coronado, and road back to our place. It was probably a little less than 30 miles via bike. The ride around the bay/to Coronado was fine, but not as great as I was hoping it would be.
Wednesday we rode bikes to Point Loma/Cabrillo National Monument/Sunset Cliffs (We survived Hill Street, which we were quite impressed about). We stopped and visited with @Marilyn and her husband for a little while (her home and back yard are lovely). We rode back into the city and had our “fancy dinner” that night. We went to Water Grill. We spent Over $200 on dinner/wine, and both of us agreed it wasn’t worth it. My husband had to send his Chilean Sea bass back because it was undercooked (mine was fine, but not great). I think we rode a little over 25 miles, including a fair amount of up hill.
Today we went to the Midway museum (spent 4.5ish hours there - a couple too long for me). Then we went to Little Italy and walked around. We were planning to go to Juniper and Ivy, but we were starving at 3 or so, and that place doesn’t open until 5. We had a very good lunch, and went to Extraordinary Desserts after.
The place we stayed Wyndham/Worldmark near Balboa Park) is in an area I wasn’t really comfortable with after dark, but it was nice inside, and has a roof-top deck with nice views. It was cheap, and it worked out fine, but I wouldn’t stay here again.
Tomorrow we head home (late flight), and may head back to Balboa park for part of the day.
It was so nice to meet @1214mom and her husband, and I am wildly impressed with their energy! They got a great overview of the best of San Diego and caught some decent weather. Check out the desert garden and Palm Canyon in Balboa if you haven’t already seen them.
Sounds like a great time, thanks for the trip report! I’m sorry your dinner at Water Grill wasn’t great, I only had drinks on the 2nd floor. I agree with @Marilyn , I wish I had your energy. SD is so great!
@Marilyn, thanks for the suggestions for today. We will check them out.
Thanks to @Marily and everyone else - the suggestions on this thread and others related to San Diego were helpful.
Later today we head back to Christmas chaos/countdown. but I do feel less stressed when we take a trip in December.
@1214mom - I’m so glad you had a good time visiting our city!. It sounds like you were very active. Sorry your dinner at Water Grill wasn’t good. We have only ever had drinks there. The next time you visit you should head north to La Jolla, Torrey Pines (for hiking) and Del Mar to see other areas. I’m glad the weather cooperated for your visit.
Thanks @showmom858. If we come back we will likely rent a car for at least a couple of days, and drive to some of the places you mentioned. We checked a lot of places off our list, but Torrey Pines and La Jolla are two we are sorry we missed.
We love to hike, but we stuck to “urban hiking” this trip.
Today we walked to balboa Park, went to the botanical building, the small art museum, a couple of the garden areas, and had lunch at Prada. It was pretty good, and of course the weather is great today.
Now we are sitting at the airport waiting to head back to the East Coast.
Winter here we come.