What a trip! 350 miles from Phoenix is the beautiful California Coast and the stunning city of San Diego. We met daughter Jessica, her husband Joel, and precious 8-month-old granddaughter, Callyn (Cali) in Cali 🙂 She & Me left Diggs behind this time and traveled light as Joel had secured us a hotel three blocks from San Diego Bay. Some say the drive from Phoenix to San Diego is boring, but we found it fascinating passing though the Sonoran Desert dotted with immense solar and wind farms, crossing Imperial sand dunes, traversing 4,000-foot high mountains of boulders, driving alongside vast stretches of the U.S. / Mexico border wall, marveling at thousands of acres of diverse agriculture in El Centro including, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, melons, onions, carrots, sweet corn, spinach, and hay. We even posed next to life-size dinosaurs at the Pilot truck stop in Gila Bend.

Border wall with Mexico in Imperial Dunes, California

In San Diego we enjoyed visiting with family, walking downtown, meals in sidewalk cafes as inside dining was still prohibited, the spectacular San Diego Zoo, and the seals and sea lions basking on the rocks in La Jolla just north of downtown. We’ll let our photos do the talking…

View toward the bay from our hotel.

Margherita Pizza in Little Italy

Callyn AKA Cali, Calico, Cal-Cal. She was so well-behaved and a joy to sightsee with.

Incredible breakfast at Cafe21 in the Gaslamp Quarter. Just to make you hungry, shown above… SHRIMP CORN CAKE (Poached Egg, Shrimp, Potato, Corn, Mozzarella, Cilantro Cream Sauce), BREAD+JAM (Crumpet, Butter, Azerbaijani fig & wild blackberry jam preserves), C21 FRENCH TOAST (Crumpet, Maple Syrup, Fruit)

San Diego Zoo. Disappointed that they no longer have Pandas.

Harbor seals napping in the sun at Children’s Pool in La Jolla. That’s Me on the seawall.

Sea Lions basking on the rocks at La Jolla. The coastline is incredibly picturesque.

She & Me

Lamborghini Huracan / Top speed 200+ MPH / 0-60 in 3.5 seconds / Scenery for guys 🙂

She & Me on Pacific Beach. The icy Pacific Ocean water temperature was 58 degrees. We’re Floridians and don’t go in the water if it’s below 80 degrees 🙂

On the way back to Phoenix we stopped outside Yuma to see the border wall up close. Then we visited the Territorial Prison on the Colorado River in Yuma. This is the prison mentioned in the movie 3:10 to Yuma where outlaw Russel Crowe was being sent by train from Bisbee, AZ.

There is so much more to see and do in San Diego. We had two full days to explore and one was rained out so we look forward to returning one day to see Balboa Park, The Maritime Museum, The USS Midway Aircraft Carrier, Old Town, and on it goes. California gold!