Any "don't-miss" attractions/activities -San Pedro to San Diego

We are considering a post-cruise drive starting on Jan 15, 2006 between San Pedro and San Diego. Do you have any recommendations as to what to see along the way? We have been to LAX and San Diego several times but not in between.

Walk along shoreline drive in Long Beach. Stop at the Aquarium of the Pacific, its excellent. Maybe not as good as Monterey's aquarium, but pretty good nonetheless. Drive down to Huntington Beach and walk along Main Street. You'll see why this city is know as Surf City, USA. Take a side trip to Disneyland/Disney's California Adventure if you have the time and the money. If not you could stop at Downtown Disney for dinner. Great place to walk around and some good restaurants. Free parking too for the first 3 hours. Down in San Diego walk around old town San Diego, also go over to Coronado island, walk around the Hotel Del Coronado.

I am not big on Orange County, but if you can, drive Hwy. 1 (PCH = Pacific Coast Hwy) all the way from Long Beach to Dana Point. You will go past some of the most famous So. Cal. beaches (Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Crystal Cove, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Doheney Beach, etc.) You can stop and eat lunch at the Quiet Cannon in Dana Point (Green Lantern St. west of PCH). At San Clemente get back onto Hwy 5 freeway to go through Camp Pendelton Marine Base. South of this, you can get back to PCH (Hwy 101) and go through Carlsbad (Lego Land is here if you have any kids with you), Encinitas, Solano Beach, Del Mar and then to San Diego. If you can, stop and take a walk on Torrey Pines State Beach, or drive up the bluff here to the visitors center to see some of the rare Torrey Pines. Just south of this is Torrey Pines Golf Course (a city course, one of the most beautiful in the world) and the new hotel there which is gorgeous and worth a visit if you are into Craftsmen style architecture and art. You are now on Torrey Pines Rd. North. When you pass the UCSD campus, take La Jolla Shores Dr. to the right, and follow this down to La Jolla. Check on the map for La Jolla Shores Beach. You will first pass Scripps Institute of Oceanography (their aquarium is small, but has excellent exhibits). La Jolla Shores is a good surfing and swimming beach with a good view. Continue on La Jolla Shores Dr. until it joins Torrey Pines road and keep going south. Turn onto Prospect to see the toney shopping and dining area in La Jolla, but if you want to see the famous La Jolla Cove, turn off first onto Coast Blvd. Park where ever you can and walk through Ellen Browning Scripps Park.

From here you can either go back on Torrey Pines road where it turns into La Jolla Pkwy and take this to Hwy 5 and on down to the cruise terminal, or if you have the time, drive south on La Jolla Blvd through La Jolla and then to Pacific Beach. You will be about 2 blocks from the beach most of the way, but can cut over to see lots of little pocket beaches and mini-parks along this area. Take Mission Blvd. south through Mission Beach (the quinessential CA beach town) and then turn onto W. Mission Bay Dr. Note Mission Bay on your left...a swamp until it was dregged out and made into a park in the late 1940s. Stay on W. Mission Bay until you get to Hwy 8 east, and take this to Hwy 5 south. Watch the signs for the turn off (Sassafras) to the cruise ship terminal.

If you still have time, drive out Harbor Drive to Pt. Loma and follow the signs to Cabrillo National Monument. It is the most visited National Monument in the USA. On a nice day there are spectacular views of the entire city on one side, and the ocean all the way into Mexico (Coronado Islands) on the other. A great place to watch the Navy pilots at North Island Naval Air Station, or Navy ships going into or out of port too (and to watch cruise ships if you are NOT cruising). You also drive through Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetary on your way, which is one of the most beautiful veteran's cemetaries in the country. In the winter, Pt. Loma is a good place for whale watching too (near the old lighthouse).

For anyone visiting CA who wants to know just where you can get to the beach anyplace in the state, this is an invaluable guide. I keep my copy in my car all the time:

http://www.coastal.ca.gov/access/accessguide.html

I am not big on Orange County

I take offense to that statement... :)

Whats there not to love about the OC? Beautiful beaches, million dollar homes, great schools, one of the best places around to raise a family and also home to the Happiest Place on Earth! :)

Thank you very much jstducky and Splinter, you have given some great information to research further.

jstducky, thanks again for some great ideas. I noticed that you are from Yorba Linda and that is the home of Nixon's library. Is this something we should consider. BTW, we were on the BOS for the Med trip -- let me know if I can help you on it.

Splinter, that was an excellent itinerary and I appreciate the level of detail that you provided. What about San Juan Capistrano? Is this something we should consider? I realize that the swallows won't be there during the time that we are there but it is something that we have heard about forever. FYI, we are taking the roundtrip LAX-Hawaii in Jan 2006 aboard the Celebrity Summit. Hope we can get some feedback about your trip.

Nova: wow, usually people see Yorba Linda and they have no clue where it is. Yes our claim to fame is as the birthplace of Richard Nixon. As far as the Nixon Library, is it intersting? yes. it has some fascinating exhibits from time to time. and you can see the original small little house that the president was born in. but is it worth your time to go out of your way to see, i'm not so sure. if you have the time and you're into presedential history, then yes, by all means its worth it. but if its just something to do, then i would skip it and see the mission in SJC instead. much more intersting. having said that though, Richard Nixon library is very nice with a very nice garden out in back and you can visit the gravesites of the former president and first lady.

glad to hear that you were on BOS for the Med. when did you guys go? did you do the Venice itinerary or the Greek Isles itinerary? What was your favorite port of call? did you do any cities on your own? any ship excursions? any private guides? i'm so excited about the Med. any inside tips you can give me?

additionally, nova, what islands in hawaii will you be going to? if you are intersted in volcanoes, definitely visit volcanoes national park on the big island, and if you've ever been to the grand canyon, then you'll love waimea canyon in kauai, its the grand canyon of hawaii, on a slightly smaller scale and it has a lot more vegetation!

Hi jstducky,

Thanks for the insight into Nixon's birthplace and library. We were fascinated when we visited Harry Truman's Little White House in Key West and thought that we would enjoy RN's site also, strike that "we" - there could be heel marks on the pavement from my wife being dragged there should this visit comes to pass.

We did the Greek Isles version on our BOS cruise in Oct 2003, RT out of Barcelona. It was one of the best cruises that we have ever taken as we visited so many places that we had read about all our lives -- Pisa, Florence, Rome (Vatican), Sorrento, Pompeii, Athens to name a few. We did all independent touring by either hiring our own van or by using taxis to drop us at the attraction (Acropolis in Athens for instance). I have pictures of the cruise at http://www.associationdata.org/medtrip2003; sorry no titles or descriptions. Send me a message if you want more detailed info - fthealy@earthlink.net. The one thing that you need to be prepared for is the amount of activity early in the cruise; we visited ports during the first 3 days of the cruise and those port days are very busy from early in the morning to the evening, with a lot of walking thrown in; this is after a long trip to get there. You are very thankful for the first sea day. Highly recommend spending a day or two pre-cruise.

The Hawaii cruise will take us to Hilo and Kona on the Big Island, Nahwiliwili on Kauai and Honolulu on Oahu. It is the 13-day version so we miss Maui, but most of us have visited there before. A friend and I will take the helicopter tour of the Volcano park, the others in the group have more sense I guess. We plan on renting cars for most of the ports.

TC

TC:

wow! your pictures are amazing! i loved your pictures of the forum and colloseum. just fantastic. i think we're doing the same itinerary that you're doing. the port intensiveness of it is what really attracted me to this cruise. i can't wait to go, i wish it was next month rather than 13 months from now!

As for RN library, if you liked HT's place at Key West, then you'll like RN's library. The library is really interesting for people who 1) are intersted in RN and/or 2) people who love history and especially presendential history

Let me know if you have any other so cal questions. i'll do my best to help you out!

Jstducky,

OC=

Traffic

Smog

Traffic

The John Birch Society

Traffic

Wall to wall houses

Traffic

Toll roads (we just have freeways)

The Angels

Come to America's Finest City instead. We have oceans, beaches, VERY expensive homes, UCSD, Scripps Instituion of Oceanography, SDSU, USD, PLNU, the Zoo, a huge biotech industry, the Wild Animal Park, Sea World, The Del, Old Town State Park, Torrey Pines Beach (nude!), The Old Globe Theaters, The Gaslamp Quarter, one of the greatest ports in the world (including a cruise ship port...you have one of those in OC???), both Marine and Navy bases (you got any of those anymore?), and, of course ME!

San Juan Capistrano is a very nice mission (even if it is in Orange County!), but if you go there you need to be on Hwy 5 instead of going down the coast through Laguna. You could also go to the San Diego Mission, which I think is just as nice, and easy to get to from the cruise port (via the Trolley or driving).

Jstducky,

OC=

Traffic

Smog

Traffic

The John Birch Society

Traffic

Wall to wall houses

Traffic

Toll roads (we just have freeways)

The Angels

!

You're telling me that the San Diego Chargers and the Padres are better than my AL West lead Angels and 2003 World Champs. Hm.. lets see when was it the Padres last one a WOrld Series or the Chargers ever did anything?!?!? hm...

All I can say is the study came out today that Irvine is the safest city in America. That home prices in OC are way higher than in San Diego county. Sure you have Scripps Ranch and La Jolla, but we've got Newport, Laguna, Aliso Viejo, Irvine, just to name a few. Its no wonder that in the past year in terms of home value appreciation the OC is # 3 in the nation....

I disagree with everything else you say in your statement, but we'll just leave it at that. I just needed to get my $0.02 in...

There's no other place that I'd like to live than the OC and I'm sure you say the same about SD...

I'm not disputing the fact that SD is gorgeous. It is. Mission Bay is wonderful the zoo and sea world, Coronado Island, old town... but that doesnt mean that other parts of the OC aren't just as nice...

I think the current baseball standings sum up this OC vs SD discussion:

LA Angels 34-25 (W-L) for a .576 winning percentage

SD Padres 34-25 (W-L) for a .576 winning percentage