1. Balboa Park - the real highlight of SD. This enormous park is not only a lovely and large park but it also contains a ton of excellent museums and general arty goodness (including a replica Globe theatre). We didn't have time to see it all but we did go to the SD Museum of Art (a small collection, so not overwhelming and some classic pieces), the Photography Museum (a selection of stuff by recent SD artists, a lot of it interesting and thought provoking) and the Timken Museum (a tiny museum with a few pieces by famous names and a strangely large collection of Russian religious pieces). All the museums are housed in historic buildings in various styles and from different periods and the overall effect is oasis like.
2. San Diego Zoo - a very good zoo (considered by some to be the best in N. America). The layout is confusing but in some ways the better for it - makes the experience a bit less structured and a bit more safari. The biggest draw is the pandas (including a 10month old!) but they have also have lots of different monkeys, a very impressive jaguar and a lone polar bear and a couple of animals we have never seen before despite having done a lot of zoos including a strange yak type thing which lives at ridiculous altitude in freezing conditions in the Chinese mountains the proper name of which I have forgotten! It is not a depressing zoo either and seems to take research and conservation seriously so you can assume the animals are well cared for. Not a cheap day out ($37 for an adult) but fun. Not as good as Oz Zoo though!
3. San Diego Old Town - the historic part of the town, less than 10 miles from Mexico and a bit like Mexico-lite for tourists. Having said that I really enjoyed it (and didn't have to take my life in my hands crossing the border!) - the old buildings are carefully preserved and in some pedestrianised parts there are almost no signs of 21st century life (the buildings mostly house olde style shops and restaurants). We had dinner in a beautiful courtyard with Mexican dancing and yummy fajitas and margharitas. A really atmospheric evening out.
4. Gaslamp Area - the centre of SD nightlife, there must be around 100 restaurants and bars in the small downtown area known as the Gaslamp area. It doesn't retain much historic gas lamp feel but it is a great place to eat and drink. They make a lot of craft ales in SD - we sampled a fair selection and so were more than ready to enjoy a steak at the Gaslamp Strip Club (named after the steak not strippers despite the cool and retro boudoir like interior). Be warned though it is a cook your own steak place so you need to make sure you get your timings right if one of you likes your steak alive and the other likes it cremated (any guesses?) A really fun night out area.
5. Beaches - after leaving SD we decided to drive back up towards LA via Orange County (largely inspired by my brief obsession with The OC television program - sad I know!) It doesn't quite live up the the drama and glamour of the TV show (at least not on an end of trip budget!) but the beaches are great. We visited Laguna, Newport and Huntingdon beaches. Laguna has the cutest associated seaside town, and Newport the friendliest sea (perfect for body boarding!) but the best beach is probably Huntingdon which has a cool surfy vibe too it. The only disadvantage of Surf City, USA is that the sea is awesome for surfing but absolutely vicious for the 'swimmer'. I put that in speech marks because I was mostly trying to avoid drowning rather than swimming. SD also has its own beaches and Coronado seemed nice but it was too grey to really enjoy so I would recommend the OC for a beach break if you are ever fed up (as if!) of LA.
I have also seen a few films since I last wrote so here are some brief reviews Twitter style.
Kick-Ass - the geeks really are taking over Hollywood. Silly and funny. Can't wait for Scott Pilgrim now.
Get Him to the Greek - it's all about Russell Brand, so of course I loved it! Some great comedy from P-Diddy too. Really!
Sex & the City 2 - fabulous! The clothes, the interior decoration, the locations, the positive friendship message and Liza! Anyone who doesn't enjoy this is a misery. (Paul refused to watch it!)
On a Chicago bound flight now (final week - sob!) after a couple of days in Pasadena and Santa Monica (districts of LA). No top 5 for those days which I must admit were mostly spent watching the World Cup and the NBA finals! I would say that Pasadena is a really nice area to base yourself in LA but only if you have a car as it is a bit of a way from the bright lights. The Pacific Asia museum in Pasadena also has a small but interesting collection of (mostly) ceramics.
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