This story resumes immediately after crossing the border back into the United States from Tijuana. If you want to see the first part, it’s in a separate post.
After arriving back in San Ysidro, my friend Nathan and I jumped on the trolley to head back to San Diego. It’s about a 45-minute trip back, so I used this time to edit some pictures and assure my family back home that I made it back from Mexico. When we eventually reached the station in San Diego, we were debating going back to the hotel before exploring the city. But after looking at the time, we realized that if we called an Uber immediately, we could possibly make it to the Sunset Cliffs in time for the sunset. Our Uber driver arrived and asked if we were trying to see the sunset. We told him we were, and he told us to stay longer after the sun went down. He explained that the sky was its most beautiful about 15 minutes after the sun goes down, but most people leave before then and miss out. (The Uber drivers we had on this trip were all very helpful). So we get to the Sunset Cliffs, and it’s a beautiful area with cliffs overlooking a beach along the Pacific. The sun was just getting ready to set, and there were crowds of people ready to watch it. The cliffs start glowing as the sun sets, making this the perfect place to watch the sunset.
After the sun set, many people got up and left, but we decided to stay longer like our Uber driver recommended. And that was great advice! About 15 minutes after the sun went down, the sky was bright orange and perfect for pictures. It’s sad that most people who come to Sunset Cliffs miss out on this. We climbed down to the rocks along the water for some really cool photo opportunities. From here, we headed back to the hotel to make plans for the rest of the trip.
Not wanting to spend the rest of the day in the hotel, we decided to go see the famous Gaslamp Quarter which is most popular at night. The green trolley goes right to the Quarter, and the nearest trolley station was about a little over a mile away, so we decided to walk there. The walk was longer than expected and went through some sketchier areas, but we made it there fine. The trolley took us to the middle of downtown San Diego where the Gaslamp Quarter is located. We started walking down the Gaslamp Quarter and quickly realized why it’s more popular at night…. it’s just a bunch of bars and night clubs. And the streets were PACKED! The smell of alcohol and weed was very strong, and these two Christian guys in t-shirts and jeans didn’t really fit in with the rest of the crowd. The good thing that came from this stop is that we found a gift shop and took care of all the souvenir shopping we needed to do. On the walk back to the hotel, we witnessed a drug deal and then decided to stop at In-N-Out, which was still packed around midnight. We got back really late and made plans to get up somewhat early the next morning to make it up to La Jolla.
La Jolla:
The next morning, we got up and checked out of the hotel since we were leaving that night. I had to find a place to store my carry-on suitcase so I didn’t have to carry it around with me all day. (Tip: download the Bounce App. It shows you places around the city where you can store luggage. It includes reviews, so you can be sure you’re leaving it in a safe place.) We called an Uber to take us to the place I left my suitcase and then take us to Torrey Pines State Park in La Jolla. We started talking to our Uber driver and found out that he was from Iran. He was understandably very hesitant to tell us where he was from, but he was one of the nicest guys I’ve met. I told him I wanted to go to Isfahan someday, and he was so excited someone from America knew about Iran and specifically the town he was from. I love how I can immediately connect with someone because of my love of geography! We finally reached the park and realized it’s very popular, so the line to get in was forever long. Our Uber driver just dropped us off nearby so we could walk. What we hadn’t expected was that there’s a hike to get to the hike… and it’s all straight UPHILL! I mean, I was exhausted just trying to get to the beginning of the hike! I thought I would die about halfway up and was starting to prepare my will, but we finally reached the top. (Tip #2: DRIVE TO THE TOP! It’s like $20 per vehicle, but it’s worth every penny! I never wanted to climb that stupid hill again.)
It definitely got better after that though: the hike was beautiful! If there’s one place I’d recommend you visit in La Jolla, it’s Torrey Pines! The views are awesome. We hiked to every high point in the park to get the best views. My favorite part of the park is the area called Razor Point. It gives the best view of the beach (in my opinion). Then we headed down to the beach, and it was just an amazing place to visit. The cliffs coming down to the beach make it very photogenic. Then there are some rocks you can climb up on along the water, and there are natural tide pools on top. Then we wanted to escape the crowds, so we headed the direction opposite the parking lot, and there were much fewer people that direction.
We decided we wanted to find the gift shop before leaving and thought it would probably be near the entrance. After walking along the beach and making it back to the starting parking lot area, we saw the sign pointing to the visitor center…. UP THE STUPID UPHILL TRAIL! If this park wasn’t one of my favorite places in San Diego, I would’ve completely skipped it, but I thought it would be cool to get a souvenir so we started going up that ridiculous trail again. I had hoped that the visitor center would be close to the bottom, but nope… About halfway up, this time I really was about to die. I had recovered from the first hike up, but I knew there was no recovering from the second time up. Breathing my final breath, [slightly exaggerating by the way] I finally saw the sign for the visitor center ALL THE WAY AT THE TOP AGAIN! We finally reached the top when I had no energy left in me and walked in the visitor center, and…. it was so disappointing! No gift shop. A complete waste of time considering the walk up to it. If you want to see some stuffed (dead) animals, then maybe you’d find it interesting, but I wouldn’t recommend climbing that mountain to see it. (Tip #3: Skip the visitor center unless you go there first.)
After making it back down the mountain, we called an Uber to take us to the center of La Jolla and then decided to get lunch somewhere. We heard about a taco place in the area that was popular (and were still dreaming of the tacos in Tijuana) and decided to walk about a mile to reach it only to see that the line to get in wrapped around California, so we decided to stop at a deli nearby instead. After lunch, we decided to go see La Jolla Cove. This is one of the places I remembered visiting with my family back in 2008 and wanted to return to. It’s a cool beach you can visit with some sea lions that come to rest. You can get up close to them, but you’re obviously not allowed to touch.
Then nearby, there’s a sea cave that you can go down into for $5, so we checked that out too. It was definitely cool to see once, but I would never have to go back. It’s just a tourist trap. There’s a long line of impatient people waiting to get the perfect picture, and it’s really hot and humid while you’re standing in line. Once we finally made it to where we could snap a picture, we turned around to head back up and got behind this one guy with his little kid that wanted to loudly count out all 145 steps back up to the top.
At this point we had really seen everything we wanted to see, but it was too early to head to the airport. We picked up my suitcase and then went back into downtown San Diego to see the USS Midway where my grandfather served when he was in the Navy. This was another cool place to watch the sunset, and we saw some sea lions here too. We took one more walk through the Gaslamp Quarter, dragging my suitcase all over the city before finally heading to the airport.
The flight to Charlotte was fine, besides my sinus issues that hurt really bad when landing. But that last flight back home was a different story… We made it all the way to Pensacola and couldn’t get permission to land because of the fog. So we circled and circled the airport. The pilot told us we had enough fuel for another 45 minutes, but after 40 minutes of circling, he announced we still couldn’t land. We then flew to Montgomery to refuel and sat there at the airport for a long time before finally heading back to Pensacola. So far, the last flight itinerary that actually went according to plan for me was on my way back from the Amazon in 2018. (And if I remember correctly there may have even been a delay then). Traveling can be very unpredictable and sometimes frustrating, but if you focus on the negative it will ruin your whole trip. I prefer to look at the positive and not let experiences like this get to me. I still love to travel, even with all the craziness involved sometimes. Overall, it was a great, but busy, weekend visiting San Diego and Tijuana!
Thanks for reading! I’ll be sharing another post soon.
Tyler's Travels 