San Diego - First toes in the sand

​Great friends, sunshine, food, toes in the sand, ocean, Top Gun and beers is how I would sum up our first stop in San Diego. We have spent 4 nights in this Oceanside city with beautiful sunshine. This place is perfect for a late autumn family holiday as it is family friendly, the weather is hot but dry and the nights are cool.

Over the past few days we ate amazing food (see separate food post) and meandered around the city. On our first day we wandered along the pretty seafront to visit the USS Midway, an old warship steeped in history and huge! you could easily spend a whole day there although (much to the disappointment of my husband) we contained it to a few hours.

Right around the corner from USS Midway is the actual bar in which the piano scene from Top Gun was filmed. Now, being slight bit fans of the film, this caused no end of excitement. We even saw "Maverick"...

North of the City is Coronado National Park where you can get stunning views of the coastline and go for hikes. We spent a couple of hours there hiking the coastal path and taking in the breathtaking views. Coronado beach is also a great place to go for sundowners and watch the sunset, which we of course experienced. Well, it would be rude not to partake in a Gin and tonic!

My big recommendation though is for the Bilbao park, right by the zoo. It is huge! There are artists villages, gardens, open spaces, shops, museums and concert areas. There is also a United Nations village where each member has a little cottage. It is open from midday until 4pm on Sunday's and you can look inside all of the cottages, try food, hear music and generally hang out. Ian particularly enjoyed getting a "proper" cup of tea in the English one. You could easily spend several days up at the park and not run out of things to do. Great with older kids.

On our final day, Thomas had his highlight and finally got his toes in the sand and the ocean for the first time. He loved it! Watching his puzzled little face trying to figure it out and laughing was priceless.

The little man is doing really well with his jet lag. we have progressed to 5.30am wake ups but continuing to shift. He's sparked out in the evenings, which has been good for us enjoying some nice meals with our friends and some beers. Hopefully it will continue to shift each day to his usual 7.30am starts. We haven't had to alter our usual busy itinerary too much yet and he is fitting in to being a travel bug well. So far so good.