Carless by Choice in San Diego
San Diego has multiple things to offer and we wanted to try and experience all of them. We had seven days and no car. The no car was a choice, but it feels important to mention. Stringing together the bus and trolley was great, but it was not quick. But hey, we were on vacation so we had tons of time, right?
One of the places that Elexa wanted to check out was La Jolla. Just as a quick disclaimer, I did no research on any of these places. I like to just show up and experience them. This is what I saw and experienced there, so just take all of this with a grain of salt.
This neighborhood was situated within walking distance from the beach, and if you didn’t know already any neighborhood that is located next to the beach is going to be bougie. This one was no exception. But how do I know this, well I’ll tell you a secret, if you can find a thrift store and you have the time to venture in, you will know. We found a Goodwill, and this place looked like a cute little boutique. The racks of clothes contained brands that could be compared to Nordstrom rack. I don’t know pop culture or fashion, so this one is coming from my wife.
The real destination in La Jolla for me besides the beach was PopUp Bagel. If you have never heard of it, just know that the minimum amount of bagels one can order are three, oh and they come with a literal container of cream cheese. The bagels are made fresh, so fresh in fact that we were told that we would have to wait eight minutes for the next batch to come out. Oh, were they good, especially when you rip them up and dip slash scoop each piece in your personal container of cream cheese.
On another day we ventured up to Balboa Park. There is tons of stuff to do there, but we went without a plan which can be the best way to find hidden gems. We walked our ten minutes to the bus stop from our hotel and hopped on. Our drop off bus stop turned out to be one of my highlights of the trip. I know weird, but it genuinely was. Hint, this is one of the hidden gems I was talking about.
The bus stop was situated across from the Natural History Museum.
As a side note, I thought Balboa Park was going to be a forested area like the forests of Washington state or New York, essentially a lot of trees.
Okay, back to the bus stop. We exited the bus in the proverbial middle of Balboa Park and there were really no trees.
Instead cacti were the trees. These things came in every size. The ones that drew my eye and impressed me the most were the ones that were twenty or more feet tall with gnarled cacti branches weaving every which way.
This was a popular spot as we soon found out. There were multiple people out with their easels painting, they ended up all being part of a painting group. Elexa and I spent a good forty-five minutes, sitting and enjoying, taking photos and videos, and sketching.
After our intrigue wore off the draw of coffee and caffeine tugged at us. Thus we went looking for coffee. We didn’t have to go far and eventually found the cutest square that housed multiple pottery studios and boutiques, and most importantly coffee. The paving stones of this Spanish-style square were painted a rainbow of colors lending to the artsy feel. It can be the smallest touches that are right under one’s feet that elevate a place.
Daniel’s coffee cart sat at the back of the square and we immediately made a beeline for it. We ordered and found a black wire table with no seats that was sitting in the sun. So we moved it a couple of feet over to one of the seating areas on a wall in the shade. Elexa and I love to people watch. People watching for me personally makes me feel as if I am engaging in learning from humanity as a whole. So, that’s what we did as we drank our coffees in this cute little square, we people watched and talked.
Afterwards we ventured over to the Natural History Museum and the botanical garden building, which were both amazing.
Again thank you for reading, supporting the blog, and I'll see you in the next post dear reader.
-Abe
