Checked into our hotel early evening, which was in the Gaslamp District, for our four-night stay.  It was a perfect spot to explore the city and walk to the Padres game on game night.  The street our hotel sat on closed at 12noon until early morning because of the foot traffic.   There were multiple bars and restaurants up and down the street, however we were there during the week so not many bars had live music.  We would highly recommend this area if you are going for a visit, great town!

Day 2 – We ventured over to the Liberty Public Market, again a smaller version of a public market what we are used to.  Within the market was Stone Brewing, we shared a few appetizers for lunch while Mike ordered he’s usual type of beer flight – IPAs and a Stout.

After lunch the rest of the day/night was planned for San Diego Sea World.  We found that there wasn’t too many similarities to Orlando’s Sea World.  The shows were a lot better in San Diego than Florida, however the rides and rollercoasters weren’t as good.  The turtle exhibit had so many more different types in the tank, which we really enjoyed!

In the evening they had a water pirate show and a small parade prior to the fireworks show.

Day 3 – We headed over to the coast to the Cabrillo National Monument.  On the drive in we passed a very large Navy cemetery that reminded us of Arlington National Cemetery but on a smaller scale.

High on the hill sat Old Point Loma Lighthouse which is no longer a working lighthouse.  A newer lighthouse was built near the Naval Base at the bottom of the hill near the where the tide pools are.  The best viewing times for the tide pools is early summer, we visited in the middle of August so it wasn’t a favorable time and it happened to be low tide too.  There’s a museum with so much history on the area and how people navigated here many years ago.

The Petco Park and the Padres game was our next stop in the early evening.  We really enjoyed this stadium a lot, it definitely ranked on our top 5 list!  A lot history, many different vendors – even Mr. Softee!!  We always walk the stadium concourse and check everything out prior to first pitch.  This tour took us a little bit longer than others because there was so much to see.

Day 4 – This was a must-see item on our list, the San Diego Zoo!  We can totally understand why this is ranked as probably the world’s best zoo.  So many exhibits to see that we spent well over 6 hours walking the entire zoo, we didn’t want to miss a thing. 

At the entrance there is a large lion sculpture that stood around 25-30 foot high, a pretty amazing site.  Several different bird exhibits that you can walk through with many types of birds we have never seen before. 

One of the exhibits had long snouted crocodiles, a Gharial, again something we’ve never seen before.  Another had a white tiger, I believe we may have seen on of these in Las Vegas many years ago, they are beautiful animals.

Lorraine’s favorite part of the zoo was getting to see Koalas.  They hang in the eucalyptus trees in groups and sleep most of the time.   We have never seen a live koala and they had plenty for viewing.  They are probably the cutest animal ever. 

If you are in San Diego this is a must, just an amazing zoo!

This last photo collage is mainly buildings in the Gaslamp District along with a few really pretty flowers.  On our last morning before our drive to our next stop, Arizona, we decided to spend a few hours on the Coronado Beach to take in our last California rays.