If you have time to drive to the outskirts of San Diego, make the trip to La Jolla! It became a highlight of our 4-day trip seeing sea lions and seals up close and in their natural habitat.
San Diego Highlights for Sunday, June 4 (Day 2):
- Mission Beach
- Bird Rock Coffee Roasters
- La Jolla – sea lions, seals and an outdoor market
- Torrey Pines State Park and Beach
There’s nothing quite like waking up and realizing, you’re in California! We’ve found that carsleeping is surprisingly comfortable when the seats go back and the temperature is just right. We woke up pretty early again (before sunrise at 5:41 am) and drove to Mission Beach. The parking lot was desolate with the exception of trash and the world’s largest seagulls! These seagulls were the size of large cats! Strolling along the boardwalk as the sun went up was a perfect way to start our day.
It was a direct shot north from Mission Beach to Bird Rock and the Bird Rock Coffee Roasters. I enjoyed their regular coffee and the coffee house had a nice ambience. I was thrilled to have a bathroom to freshen up in too! Unfortunately, when I returned to the car I was convinced I had locked the keys in the car. I didn’t know how I did it, but I was in straight panic mode! Fortunately, for both of us, I ended up having the keys and there wasn’t a need to call AAA on our vacation! We then continued through Bird Rock until we made it to La Jolla (pronounced like “hoya”).
La Jolla should not be missed! Within a second of overlooking the ocean, we could hear and see sea lions! There were tons of sea lions relaxing, jumping in and out of the water, and cuddled up together. We enjoyed roaming onto the rocks (the ones that warn you not to get too close to the sea lions) so we could get some great pictures of the sea lions. We also saw lots of people swimming in the water. We walked down some stairs to get up close to the beach area where the swimmers were entering and exiting the ocean. As we went to go back up the stairs, a huge wave started coming and I literally jumped up to grab the rail and try to avoid getting my shoes wet! I was lucky I didn’t get slammed into a rock and made it out unscathed.
We continued south along the water until we made it to the Children’s Beach (or Seal Beach). I couldn’t believe it – there were so many seals! There’s a staircase to walk onto the beach and stand behind a rope to enjoy a view of the seals. There’s also a walk way to view the seals from above.
They are funny to watch as they shimmy their way into the water. They look like they’d be fun to play with! Our good friends from LA drove down to meet us here and it was great to watch their 2-year old take in the animals.
Funny enough, she seemed most amused by the seagulls. We got great refreshing drinks at the Living Room Coffeehouse. This place had cool artwork displayed. We then walked up to La Jolla Elementary School to the Open Aire Market. The market had lots of clothes, crafts and food. Plus, with a 2-year old, it also had a nice sized jungle gym for her to play on. Our friends told us we couldn’t come to California for our first time ever without trying Mexican food.
We found a great hole in the wall (it literally had 4 tables) called Don Carlos Taco Shop that was delicious!
Shortly after lunch, we parted ways and drove north to Torrey Pines State Park. It was quite confusing at first to find parking, since some of the parking includes parking spots on the main thoroughfare. Luckily, we improvised, turned the corner at the intersection following the Torrey Pines State Beach and found a neighborhood with free parking for the day (instead of paying for access) with a minimal walk to the entrance.
The beach part of Torrey Pines is pretty. It’s a narrow beach. After passing the toll booth (which is free if you walk on), we continued up a steep road with switchbacks where you can see the actual torrey pine trees the park is named for.
There’s also a wonderful visitor center to get suggestions on where to hike. We found this to be extremely valuable, because there are some paths that aren’t accessible along the beach during high tide. I’d recommend wearing pants so you don’t brush up on anything when you’re on the trails.
From here it’s about a 2.5 hour drive to Joshua Tree National Park (west entrance). We absolutely LOVE national parks and couldn’t miss the opportunity to take a detour here during our 4 day trip to San Diego. One big tip is to make sure you fill up on gas when you have the opportunity and definitely before entering the park. Since we drove in the evening, we parked at the Wal-Mart (58501 Twentynine Palms Highway) about 15 minutes from the entrance to carsleep and felt safe. Check back soon if you’d like to read about our 100+ degree day at JTNP!
Make sure to wear your walking shoes, because the zoo is a bit spread out, yet relatively easy to traverse and see everything without really having to retrace your steps. Also, there’s an indoor wildlife area where you actually leave the entrance to the zoo as if you’re heading to the parking lot and enter the botanical gardens which you don’t want to miss. Some of the highlights included the:
didn’t want to spend $15 or $20 on parking for a few hours. Once you arrive to the park, there are kiosks as well as the normal will call area where you can buy tickets from a salesperson if you don’t find a good deal for tickets ahead of time. 
As with any baseball park, make sure to spend time walking around to check out the statues, different views of the city and other nuances. The night we went the Frank Robinson statue was unveiled as part of Heritage Park. It’s also fun if you can spot or get a picture with Slider, the pink bird looking mascot for the Cleveland Indians.
We did this because it’s a small parking lot that tends to fill up fast. It’s definitely worth walking along the boardwalk and stairs to get relatively close to the waterfalls to take some pictures. There are also lots of nice trails (paved and unpaved) to walk along. If you’re on the unpaved paths, make sure to bring your hiking boots in case it’s muddy. I love my 
beautiful big rocks and like the woman at the Visitor Center told me, has a feel like something out of Jurassic Park. Take a big loop around after jumping from big rock to big rock at the overlook. Take some goofy pictures peeking out from behind the rocks or like you’re falling off the rocks. Well, there you have it, our weekend in Cleveland and Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Treat Yourself to Travel 