San Diego, Part 1: The Beaches

My first stop on the California coast was San Diego and I did not want to leave. The weather was perfect, the water warm, the beaches free, the palm trees plentiful, the sunsets consistently amazing, and they have acai bowls. If you haven’t heard of it, acai is a Brazilian fruit that is frozen and blended with juice and topped with fruit. It’s fantastic and I had no idea they had them outside of Brazil. I was stoked. I spent a week walking the beaches, reading, swimming, exploring, hiking in Torrey Pines State Park, exploring the piers… just relaxing. It was delightful.

I spent probably half my time in San Diego on some beach or another so I’ll start there. I spent most of that at Ocean Beach, Mission Beach/Mission Point, and Imperial Beach – which is actually its own town and not a part of San Diego – but I also visited beaches at Torrey Pines State Park, La Jolla, Coronado, and others. The water and air temperature was in the low 70s when I was here, which was perfect. After some cold nights in Utah, San Diego was just what I needed.

Pier at Imperial Beach, Imperial Beach, California

Pier at Imperial Beach, Imperial Beach, California

Sunset at Mission Beach, San Diego, California

Sunset at Mission Beach, San Diego, California

Sunset at Mission Beach, San Diego, California

Sunset at Mission Beach, San Diego, California

Sunset at Mission Point Jetty, San Diego, California

Sunset at Mission Point Jetty, San Diego, California

Underwater reflection of Imperial Pier, Imperial Beach, California

Underwater reflection of Imperial Pier, Imperial Beach, California

Wave breaking over me at Ocean Beach, San Diego, California

Wave breaking over me at Ocean Beach, San Diego, California

Wave breaking over me at Ocean Beach, San Diego, California

Wave breaking over me at Ocean Beach, San Diego, California

The power of the surf, underwater at Ocean Beach, San Diego, California

The power of the surf, underwater at Ocean Beach, San Diego, California