My wife and I recently celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. We had planned on going to Hawaii on United Airlines and Hilton Honors points, but for the week of our anniversary the hotel we wanted to stay at was full and flights to and from the islands on points were all booked. Now, if we wanted to go out the week before or the week after our anniversary week, we could have done it. But my wife was adamant that she wanted to go somewhere nice for our significant anniversary. We both had never been to San Diego before and there were actually some pretty reasonable fares out of Chicago, so we booked a week long vacation for Southern California.
We had an early morning flight out of Chicago with a brief layover in Denver. By the time we landed in San Diego it was only 9:10 a.m. - a full day was ahead of us. By the time we got our bags, picked up the rental car and sat down for breakfast in La Jolla it was 10:30. Sure, let's just jet out to San Diego to have breakfast.
The weather during the week we were in Southern California was cooler and a bit more wet than usual. I think we may have seen 70 degrees (F) on a thermometer once. We were there during the "May Gray - June Gloom" period where it's cloudy in the mornings before the sun burns off marine cloud layers around 11 a.m. After that, brilliant sunshine was the norm for most of the week with temperatures in the mid-60's (F) for the most part. But all week long we had a lot of people apologize to us for the cool weather. My wife packed a lot of sleeveless tops, shorts and sandals, but realized after a couple days that she wasn't going to wear any of them.
We spent just three days in San Diego proper - the other part of our vacation we spent up in Dana Point, about 60 miles north of San Diego (or right about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego), and in Carlsbad, about 30 miles north of San Diego. Both are coastal communities with expansive beaches. And we had hotels near the beach in both of those cities.
Dana Point is one of my all-time favorite places to visit. I first went there about 25 years ago on a manufacturers trip, then was back five years later for another manufacturers function. More trips to Southern California for business found me in Dana Point in subsequent years and I thought if there was any place in the world I'd like to live other than Iowa, it would be in Dana Point. The Dana Point Harbor is one of the more picturesque places I've ever seen. When we were planning the details of our trip to San Diego, I insisted that we go up and spend a couple three days in Dana Point. And we're glad we did.
During our time in Dana Point, we took some time to make the short drive over to see the Mission at San Juan Capistrano. We took a self-guided walking tour around the mission accompanied by a device that was sort of like a telephone where you punched in a number to listen to a narration of what you were looking at.
The courtyard plaza of the mission featured a beautiful display of roses and flowering bushes. Now, I love looking at flowers and I sort of found it more interesting to see the different colors and smell the fragrances in the courtyard than looking at some of the recreated rooms of the mission.
The mission was founded in 1776 by a Franciscan order of Spanish Catholics. The chapel shown below at the left is the oldest continually used building in California dating back to 1778. The chapel is known as "Serra Chapel" after the Franciscan friar Junipero Serra who founded 9 missions from Baja California all the way up the coast to near the San Francisco Bay. The ornate chapel was definitely a highlight in the tour with paintings, original woodwork and a quiet reverence.
The mission also featured the ruins of the "Great Stone Church" that was modeled after some of the great churches of Europe. Construction on the church began in 1797 and was work was completed in 1806. A 6.5 magnitude earthquake in nearby San Diego in 1800 caused major cracks in the walls of the sandstone/limestone structure that were immediately fixed. However, an 7.0 earthquake on Sunday morning December 8, 1812 toppled the bell tower and the roof of the church's chapel killing 40 local worshipers and causing extensive damage. Services were moved to Serra's Chapel and were held there until the roof collapsed in 1891.
The mission's bells were salvaged and built into stone wall for continued use. The bells tolled for celebrations and for announcing the death of local residents. Depending upon the age or sex of the person that died, a combination of bell rings would tell the community if an old woman or a young boy passed away.
By the turn of the 20th century, the Mission at San Juan Capistrano had fallen into complete disrepair and dereliction. In 1910, Father St. John O'Sullivan came to San Juan Capistrano to recuperate from a stroke and chronic tuberculosis. He immediately saw the historical significance of the old mission and set about to repair the place one building at a time. The first thing he did was to replace the roof of Serra Chapel, then he oversaw the systematic reconstruction of much of the mission over the next few years. Although he wasn't expected to live much longer after he first came to the mission, Father O'Sullivan lived until 1933 and is buried in the cemetery garden near the Serra Chapel.
Of course, one of the things I wanted to see were the famous Swallows of Capistrano. The cliff swallows would begin to return to Capistrano in late February with the bulk of them coming in mid-March annually. However, one thing that we learned while we were there - there aren't any swallows at the mission. If you click on the picture to the left and look in the corners or under the apex of the roof you'll see the mud nests that swallows had built in the past. There used to be hundreds of these nests at the mission but a combination of construction projects a number of years ago that destroyed many of the nests and urban encroachment around the mission has caused the swallows to nest elsewhere. Attempts to coax the swallows back to the mission have failed so far - we heard mating calls of swallows that were being piped in via hidden speakers near the ruins of the Great Stone Church. But while we were there we read about a plan to build plaster nests on a movable wall sometime within the next year. Good luck with that...
San Diego is one of the very few U.S. Cities that I have never been to, but always wanted to visit. (San Antonio is another one - but I was just there last week for a business conference.) We've always heard great things about the city from people who have either lived there or who have visited the area over the years. The first thing we did was venture up and out to Point Loma and visit the Cabrillo National Monument. The views of Coronado, San Diego Bay and down into Mexico were spectacular.
We stayed in the historic Gaslamp Quarter, an entertainment/restaurant/hotel district in downtown San Diego. The Gaslamp Quarter has had somewhat of a nefarious and sordid past. In the late 19th and early 20th century, it was the home to a number of hard-edged saloons and bordellos. By the 1960's, it featured a number of pornographic bookstores and theaters, massage parlors and businesses that catered to the sailors that were stationed at the nearby naval base. However, in the early 1980's the city made a concerted effort to clean up the neighborhood restoring and preserving many of the buildings and redeveloping the area as an entertainment and civic destination. It had a very vibrant feel to the area, especially at night.
Just to the east of the Gaslamp Quarter was Petco Park, the home of the San Diego Padres. It turned out that the Padres were going to be in town while we were there and we took in a game one evening. (Look for an upcoming blog entry on Petco Park.) During the day and when the Padres aren't in town, the area beyond the right field fence is and urban park called the "Park at the Park". A handful of people from nearby office buildings were enjoying lunch on the park's bleacher seats that overlooked Petco Park.
And a trip to San Diego has to include a trip to the world renowned San Diego Zoo. We were able to get a small discount on advance tickets from the concierge at our hotel and we went to the zoo early one morning. First of all - if you ever plan on going, make sure you're in shape. It's a fairly hilly property and I was very sore after walking around for nearly five hours - and I'm not certain that we saw everything the zoo had to offer. Secondly, even though it was the middle of the week and school was still in session for most of the Southern California area, the place was just overrun with grade school aged - and younger - children. Excited children. Obnoxious children. Inconsiderate children. So, if you go on the weekend or through the summer, you can pretty much guarantee yourself that you'll have to put up with the kids, only more of them.
The first thing we encountered after entering the zoo was a volunteer helper who gave us a map and gave us some tips of where to go and what to see. The secret, he told us, is to go counter-clockwise around the zoo starting in the northeast corner. But he also pointed out the more popular exhibits.
Popular exhibits that included the giant panda bears. Pandas first came to the San Diego Zoo in 1987 on loan for about three months by the Chinese government. In 1996, the zoo worked out an agreement with China to bring two giant pandas and their little pandas to San Diego on a permanent basis. There are now three giant pandas at the zoo including this guy who was slumbering in the tree tops while a long line of people tried to catch glimpses of the bears.
Bears are big - not only in size, but it popularity - at the San Diego Zoo. The polar bear exhibit was one of the more popular places at the zoo. It featured a large pool where the bears frolicked and cooled off. It was feeding time when we were there and we caught this bear chomping on some lettuce that was thrown into the pool located on the other side of the glass of the viewing room at the polar bear exhibit.
Baby animals were big news at the San Diego Zoo. The baby giraffe pictured at the lower left was born less than 48 hours before our visit to the zoo. A baby jaguar was born back in March, but we didn't see it when we went by the exhibit.
There was also a baby gorilla at the zoo (above right). This little guy - who has been clutching on to his mother since he was born last Dec. 26 - was a big hit with the crowd that particular day. The 34-year-old mother gorilla - an endangered Western Lowland gorilla - gave birth to her little boy without human help. But that was hardly surprising to zoo officials - this was the sixth baby she'd given birth to.
Even the orangutans had a little gal who captivated onlookers with her adept skills at climbing and swinging on the ropes. (Pictured left) This little orangutan was just about 19 months old and was playful and rambunctious, much to the consternation of her mother who was trying to take a nap under a burlap blanket.
"Koalafornia Dreaming" was a part of the newest exhibit at the San Diego Zoo, Australian Outback. The koala bears that were on display at the zoo were part of the largest colony outside of Australia. Since the koalas only feed on eucalyptus leaves, the San Diego Zoo had their own patch of eucalyptus trees on-site. In fact, many of the indigenous foods they feed to many of their exotic animals are grown on-site.
And there were two brown grizzly bears at the zoo that we stopped and watched for about 15 minutes. These two brothers - Scout and Montana - were born in Idaho, just outside of Yellowstone Park and were transferred to the San Diego Zoo about 8 years ago after their mother began to teach them how to forage food in human-occupied areas of the park. A volunteer was on hand to talk about the two bears and he said that imprinting the young bears at an early age was dangerous, not only for people, but for the bears who wouldn't know how to properly forage for food in the wild. Although the volunteer didn't say, I'm certain the mother was probably "dispatched". (I've seen nature shows on television where adult bears showing similar proclivities had to be euthanized.) The two young cubs were sent to San Diego and set up in their own environment where they continue to live and play together.
After our time at the zoo, we explored parts of Balboa Park located next to the San Diego Zoo. (Actually, the zoo is located in Balboa Park.) The 1200 acre tract of land was placed into reserve as a public recreational area 180 years ago making it one of the oldest parks in the U.S. Ornate buildings, museums and green space are the core of Balboa Park, but we found an area that really grabbed our attention. It was the Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden.
One of our combined hobbies at our home is gardening and we are the proud owners of over two dozen rose bushes of different varieties and colors. When we encounter rose gardens in our travels, we always stop to "smell the roses", so to speak, and to get ideas for possible bushes to plant in the future. The rose garden at Balboa Park gave us a ton of ideas. The three acre tract features 1600 rose bushes with 130 different varieties of roses. It was simply stunning to see - even if we didn't have rose bushes at our home, it would have been worth the time we had looking over the garden.
For the final part of our trip, we spent some time in Carlsbad, CA, about 30 miles north of San Diego. We spent our nights at a Hilton Garden Inn just across the highway from a bluff that looked down on a long and wide beach. During check in, the manager asked what brought us to Carlsbad and I told him that it was kind of a vacation/anniversary celebration. He asked what year it was and I told him that it was number 20 for us. After coming back from dinner that evening - my wife's first In-N-Out burger experience - there was an ice-filled bucket with a bottle of champagne and a couple of champagne glasses sitting outside our door. A nice little note accompanied the little surprise thanking us for staying at the hotel and a congratulations for 20 years of marriage. I called the manager and thanked him for the very unexpected and very unnecessary gift, but my wife and I were both touched by the gesture.
Upon the long ago suggestion of a friend of mine, we spent a day in the Temecula Valley wine country. Located just east of the city of Temecula about an hours drive from Carlsbad (see map), the area is the home to around 30 wineries and growers. We were told that the topography of the area - which funnels cool moist Pacific air into the valley - is a perfect place for hardy grapes to be grown for bold and robust wines. The wines that are available from Temecula Valley wineries are some of the most underrated - and unknown - in America. It was a cool and somewhat rainy day in the valley - they were happy they were getting rain considering California is in the throes of an epic drought.
We visited a handful of wineries that day which included Calloway, Doffo, Cougar and Monte de Oro. (A couple three smaller wineries we tried to visit were closed and only open during weekends.) Our first stop was at the Calloway Winery and Vineyards. I had heard about Calloway wines - even though they aren't sold in stores. The founder of the winery - Ely Calloway - is probably more well known for his golf equipment than his wines. Calloway was in the textiles industry when a love for wine led him to Temecula in the late 60's and a meeting with horticulturist John Moramarco. Moramarco felt that the Temecula Valley had the right combination of a 1600-foot plateau, moist climate and the sun that shined through the misty clouds to grow robust grape vines. Calloway and Moromarco first planted grape vines in 1969 and within four years Calloway retired from the textiles industry to focus solely on the winery. The success of the winery showed skeptics that quality grapes could be grown in Southern California and spawned a growing industry in the valley.
After selling the winery in 1981, Calloway then invested into a small golf equipment company in nearby Palm Springs. He eventually took over full ownership of the company which became Calloway Golf. Calloway moved the company to Carlsbad and his "Big Bertha" driver became a worldwide sensation. Calloway died of pancreatic cancer in 2001. By the way - the wines at Calloway, especially the bold reds, were very good.
The Doffo winery may have been the most unique of the wineries we visited. Nestled on 15 acres at the far end of the Temecula Valley, Doffo had a small wine tasting room with an outdoor patio. The view from the winery was one of the more stunning vistas in the valley, even on a dreary day. (The above picture of the windmill in the vineyard was taken at Doffo.)
Owner Marcelo Doffo - an Argentinian by birth whose grandfather had immigrated to Argentina from Italy - not only has a passion for wines, but for racing and collecting vintage motorcycles. There were dozens of motorcycles on display around the outbuildings of the winery as well as the body of an Indy car racer and a vintage Lamborghini in a garage near the wine tasting room.
Our stop at the Cougar winery was the last of the day (we were getting a little lit up from all the tastings) and we learned that this little family winery was the first in California to import and plant Italian Estate grape vines such as Lambrusca, Sangiovese, Sagrantino, and Aglianico. They have expanded to include more Italian grape vines to supplement their signature wines. The white wines we had at Cougar were very good, as well. We took a quick look around the facility and found the barrel aging room that was part of a small dining area for the on-site gourmet delicatessen. On some evenings, they have live music in the tasting room at Cougar.
One of the funny things about our trip to the Temecula Valley wineries - at each place we visited they were trying to get us to sign up for their wine club. We were sort of interested in some of the Calloway wines until we told one of the Calloway guys that we were from Iowa. He looked at a list and found that they couldn't ship wine into the state. Iowa law says that only a licensed wine carrier can only deliver wine into the state - and that ain't Fedex or the United States Postal Service. To stem any attempt other wineries made to get us on their wine club list, we immediately told them we were from Iowa and we couldn't take part in their wonderful wine club offerings. That worked.
In a nutshell, that was our trip to San Diego and Southern California. Oh, you'll read about many of the restaurants we went to including a trip to the Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, eating fish tacos in San Diego, and a quest to find what was called the best burger in California. (It was a major disappointment.) Other than the cool weather, it was a great trip and it was fun to go and do and see an area that we weren't overly familiar with. I'm sure that we missed some places in San Diego that we needed to see, but we'll just have to save them for the next time we make it out to Southern California.
Congratulations on 20 years!
Posted by: Jennifer F. | June 12, 2015 at 07:23 AM