Forget June gloom – San Diego in June is the perfect time to visit, even if the weather is a bit overcast. There’s beautiful beaches, baseball and a boatload of other things to do!

San Diego, California Highlights for Saturday, June 3:

• Beach and biking on Coronado Island
• Gaslamp District
• Petco Park – Padres home game
• Seaport Village
• Little Italy
• Balboa Park
• Old Town

We are deal travelers and when you see direct flights for $208 from DC to San Diego, you jump all over them! Every year for Mike’s birthday we go to a city with a baseball game in town. Last year we went to a Yankees game (New York City), two years ago we went to a Phillies game (Philadelphia), three years ago we went to a Orioles game (Baltimore) and this year we had the luxury of a Padres game in the beautiful city of San Diego.

In order to minimize the number of days off from work, we took an afternoon flight on Friday to San Diego. We picked up our rental car from Hertz that I found through Priceline, name your own price for under $100. It was very easy to take the courtesy from the airport. We drove around San Diego before finding a place south of downtown to carsleep. It didn’t feel like the best area, but we locked our cars, put back our seats and slept well. Our goal was to get our Saturday started early.

We succeeded! We were up before 5 am and made the short drive over the Coronado Bridge and onto Coronado Island which is nicknamed the “Emerald City”.

There are beach spots along Ocean Boulevard that are marked next to the Coronado Inn and the rest are parallel parking spots. Luckily, we didn’t have any issues since we arrived so early. We were so excited to walk along the beach on the Pacific Ocean and explore around the famous Coronado Inn.

While Mike went for his run, I checked out some of the neighborhoods and walked to Panera Bread to get a coffee and bagel. After Mike’s run, we got in the car and drove to the other side of the island, which is also closer to the ferry, to rent bikes from Bikes & Beyond. We rented bikes for about two hours and took in the island’s well thought out bike paths. Of course the bike shop also provides a free map and recommendations. The bike ride takes you by gorgeous homes and a golf course. If you have time and are interested, it may be worth checking Groupon* or Goldstar as there were also bike rental tours available for good prices.

Lastly, don’t leave the “ferry-side” of the island until taking in the beautiful views of San Diego and the skyline along the water.

From Coronado, we drove to Balboa Park and left our car at Inspiration Point for free. We then walked a little over a mile to get our tickets for the Padres game at Petco Park. The baseball tickets were a little pricey, but the park is amazing!!

Since it was within a day of Mike’s birthday, he actually got free chocolate ice cream (which I ate of course)! Make sure to take in the park – see the dog park, the statues and the view of the Coronado Bridge. (If for any reason you come when there isn’t a game, I read you can see the Coronado Bridge from the Central Library up the street.)

Petco Park in East Village is next to the Gaslamp District, which is the perfect area to walk around. There are tons of restaurants and it has a great atmosphere. Don’t miss the famous “Gaslamp Quarter” archway sign. From the Gaslamp District, we walked a short distance to Seaport Village. This area has lots of cute stores, it’s on the water and there are interesting people to watch.

We saw a street performer stick multiple swords down his throat (after building up the hype for a good 20 minutes)! It was insane! We also saw people dressed up like Star Wars characters. If you continue along the water, you’ll make it to the U.S.S. Constitution ship and “the Kiss” statue. The Kiss statue is really cool and the National Harbor in Maryland actually has a small version of this statue now too.

If your feet aren’t hurting too much, I would recommend a walk through Little Italy. It’s another quaint area with lots of restaurants. We walked from here back to our car in Balboa Park. This was quite a hike, but if you’re looking to take in more of the city, it’s a good way to do it. Once back in our car, we drove to Old Town. Thankfully, this area had a free parking lot. We wandered through the markets, listened to the music and I tried some inexpensive warm tortillas from a street vendor.

Oh, and I should mention, we were exhausted by the end of this day and found a great place to park our car and sleep for the night where we could hear the trains go by.