Cali Post Two: In La Jolla/San Diego

We took the Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles to Interstate 5 to San Diego. I don't know if it was the most direct route, but it's gotta be the most scenic. The highway wends along the coast for much of the way. On one side, you have the ocean; on the other, you have mountains with houses etched into the side overlooking the view.

It was night when we finally made it to La Jolla, which is just a few minutes from downtown San Diego and right on the ocean. Somehow we ended up on the Miramar Marine base (former home of Top Gun). OK, wrong turn. We finally found our hotel smack in the middle of La Jolla. La Jolla is kind of like a West Coast Blowing Rock, with lots of little boutiques and restaurants.

I found a good radio station, KBZT - they were playing Pixies and I'm now glad to see I can listen online. We headed to San Diego and checked out the downtown. There are a lot of storefronts in downtown, and for a Sunday night, there were a lot of people out and it was pretty impressive. We got lost again, somehow ended up damn near the international border, and when we made it back to La Jolla, we hit Roppongi for tapas.

With the light of Monday morning, we were finally able to check out the beauty of La Jolla. The beach was a block from the hotel, and we headed down a long walkway/platform that lead into the surf and provided spectacular views of the cliffs and the water.

Seals played in the shallow surf and turned to look at us when we called to them. Better than going to the zoo, in my mind.

On Monday we went back into San Diego and Old Town, the birthplace of California, and now home to an odd blend of genuinely valuable historical sites (a one-room schoolhouse and various adobe estates among them)  and good old-fashioned commerce (some cool Mexican folkart and Day of the Dead stuff). We were interested in both.

Old Town includes Bazaar del Mundo, which the AAA book mentioned has most of the attraction of border-town Mexico without the annoying two-hour wait at the border. When you're done, you're still in downtown San Diego.

Then, it was time for the long drive to Vegas. I mean Vegas, baby! Hell yeah!