One Week in San Diego, California
When my cousin came from Iran, my family decided to spend a week in San Diego.
When my father offered to pay for my mother and I to go with San Diego with him, just so he wouldn’t have to sleep on his sister’s couch, we jumped at the opportunity. My father never pays for vacations, so this is a rare, joyous occasion.
Now this unfortunately happened to coincide with the surge of Omicron, but my family basically probably already had COVID (my father did, that’s confirmed) in the time before going, so we headed cautiously but carefully. From Baltimore to San Diego, the journey took eight hours getting there (we had a layover in San Antonio) and only five hours coming back.
We went to visit my aunt and uncle, who live in La Jolla, and to see my cousin, who was visiting from Iran with her year-old son Ryan. So, naturally, a lot of the places we visited were with them. Here’s what we did during our brief time there (outside of sitting in their apartment and catching up, of course).
Packing wise, if you’re going to Southern California in the winter, like we did in January, make sure to bring long sleeves and a coat. The temperatures drastically shifted during the time we were there, and my mother and I ended up being freezing quite a bit of the time. The temperatures all remained in the sixties, with one day being very warm and sunny at seventy degrees, but at night it gets so cold.
Old Town, San Diego
Handmade Mexican pottery.
The Governor’s House / Museum
We ended up going to Old Town a grand total of three different times during this trip. The first time we went with our family and just walked around on a Sunday night—the hotel and museums were all closed, but the shops were open. My mother and I wanted to look and resolved to come back, as our relatives aren’t into shopping, and so we continued onwards to watch the restaurants.
The restaurants in this area are all Mexican and they have little bonfires next to each of the tables—at night it’s really cute, but very crowded. You can also see old women making tortillas by hand, so you know those bad boys are fresh. Sunday night they also had live Spanish music on the main Fiesta de Reyes stage, which was nice to hear some classics.
We went back the next morning to get some shopping done. My mother and I went ham, although we wished we could’ve bought the handmade pottery that I posted above. It would’ve been too heavy for our luggage, alas. We did buy smaller bowls and plates to bring back for my sisters, and my mom bought a handmade purse. My souvenir was classic Mexican-style tiles that I got for $2.50 each. I use them as coasters for my candles and tea at my desk at home.
The third time we can back was on the last day, after my mother and I wandered La Jolla Coves for an hour. We met my father, cousin, and aunt outside the Governor’s House (my mother and I finally got to explore it on this day), then walked to Casa de Reyes for lunch. I got the Bandera de Mexico and thought it was merely okay. My mom liked her steak burrito, while my relatives all got fajitas. I introduced my cousin and aunt to a Mexican horchata (a drink made of rice and cinnamon), because they don’t explore much outside of Iranian food.
Old Town was my mother’s favorite area. It was really nice to walk around and go in and out of the shops, plus the live music was a bonus. Don’t know if I’d eat there again unless it was a cheap taco or churro, but it was nice to experience the ambiance.
La Jolla Coves, Beaches, and Torrey Pines
La Jolla Cove is famous for its sea lions. They nest right on the rocks and beaches next to the sidewalk.
La Jolla Coves
My uncle served as a tour guide for the first full day we were there, as he had to work during the actual week. He first took us to the beaches where University of California San Diego had their dorms and oceanography institute, and we walked along the length of the beach for awhile.
This beach was particularly crowded, as it had a lot of surfers and people going into the deep water to snorkel. We couldn’t understand it, though, because that water was actually pretty cold. California’s water isn’t warm at all.
My uncle was raving about a place called Black Beach, said he took everyone there and it was his favorite place. Turns out it’s a nude beach. Thankfully, he didn’t take my conservative father to a nude beach, but we instead drove five minutes down the road and went to Torrey Pines, which overlooks Black Beach.
You can go parasailing there on a good day, but it wasn’t windy enough when we went. I saw some nudists in the distance, but, thankfully, I dd not see anything. I probably would’ve cried if I did.
The next stop was La Jolla Coves. It’s hard to find parking on the initial stretch of the walkway, so if you find a spot, take it. We walked along the sidewalk to the park section, where vendors set up their stands. Lots of ice cream, elotes, churros, and art stands were set up here.
The sea lions can be found opposite to here, as they like to lie along the rocks and beaches scattered throughout the area. They bark a lot, so over the people’s chatter, you can just constantly hear the sea lions.
The first time we went, I bought a churro from an old man who didn’t speak English. Buy that man’s churros—he fried them fresh right in front of you, and it was the best churro I had the entire trip.
After La Jolla Cove we drove up to the mountain monument with a giant cross. It’s a veterans’ memorial with a cross, but you get an entire view of San Diego as a city from up there. We FaceTimed my cousin’s husband in Iran there, as it was his birthday, and then drank in the views before heading back to the apartment for lunch. We ate almost all of our meals at my aunt’s house, as she cooked traditional Iranian food the entire visit for us and provided the chai and snacks wherever we went.
My mother and I did end up returning to La Jolla Coves the final day we were there by ourselves, while my father went with my relatives to Costco. In Southern California they sell a particular kind of Iranian kabob at Costco, which you can’t find anywhere else in the country.
My dad ended up packing our suitcases full of meat and goodies from the Iranian market because things were so much cheaper in California—back home one bottle of pomegranate molasses is $8. Here it was $2.
Anyways, we went specifically for the shops. We thought it was going to be like a boardwalk, where you find a bunch of cheap touristy things, but that was not the case at all. La Jolla is a rich people area, so it only had fancy coffeeshops, restaurants, and designer stores. My mom eventually found a shirt and walked away victorious, but just know it’s a rich people area.
The view from the mountain.
The sea wall you can walk on.
Balboa Park
The main section before the museums.
The Japanese Friendship Garden.
Balboa Park was my pick for the trip, but, unfortunately, we did not do our research and went on Wednesday.
Almost everything is closed on Monday through Wednesday, so we did not get to experience many of the wonderful things inside of Balboa Park. I wanted to go because of the Spanish-Islamic fusion architecture that can be seen throughout the park, which is absolutely gorgeous to look at. Go just for the architecture—trust me, it’s worth it. The bell tower and church alone I could gawk at for hours.
Balboa Park is right next to the San Diego Zoo, but it actually has eighteen museums inside of the park. About thirteen of them are free, including the Photography museum I wanted to go to, and the paid ones are the big ones like the San Diego Museum of Art (which I really wanted to go to but it was closed). There’s also botanical gardens scattered throughout the park, which were also closed.
My family spent three hours just wandering this park and that was with everything closed. We did pay admission for the Japanese Friendship Garden, which was pretty peaceful and pretty with its rivers and pagodas.
I think it was worth the admission, but go in March. They have an entire grove of cherry blossom trees that bloom in March.
Something also unique about Balboa Park is that they have an entire village of houses owned by countries. My father showed us the House of Iran, but because of COVID, all of them were closed.
Typically they have the flags outside of the homes and have antiques/art from that country inside of their respective house. It’s a really cool concept, but COVID ruined that plan.
We ended our trip to Balboa with a churro from one of the churro guys standing there. I got one covered in strawberry cream and stuffed with caramel, and it was a little too sweet for me. My mother then had us leave because she was scared of the homeless people. That’s the thing about Southern California: I’ve never seen so many homeless people out and about before. Not even New York City is this bad.
The art center at Balboa Park.
San Diego Zoo
We never could have been able to afford the San Diego Zoo because of its lofty price tag. Sure, it goes to a great cause—the SDZ is a leading research zoo and a lot of their animals are rescues from unfortunate situations—but $60 a person is very steep. Thankfully my cousin happens to work here; she moved from Baltimore two years ago, and we actually met her this trip at the Iranian restaurant Darband in downtown San Diego. But she got five of us in for free, which was a pretty sweet time.
All in all, I think the San Diego Zoo is worth going to once. It’s one of the biggest zoos in the country and is definitely one of the most impressive ones I’ve been to. The only rival I can compare is the National Zoo in Washington D.C., which is pretty local for me. And the National Zoo is free, so there’s that added perk. But we spent five hours in this zoo and we still didn’t see everything.
It was a bit annoying at times because you really have to go back and retrace your steps due to the layout of the zoo. Like we had to go back and see the tigers because they’re on a random path, and we ended up missing the gorillas and penguins because there was just too much to do and we had a small child with us. You can bring your own food and liquids, so my aunt packed us lunches and we ended up eating halfway through the zoo.
The food is overpriced and greasy, I can tell you that. But it’s a nice zoo! My recommendation is to go to the Fennec fox in the Australian outback section—they’re so cute. I also liked see the California condor because they’re dying out almost completely, so it was special to see them during my lifetime.
Definitely also go to the safari if you have the time—it’s separate, about thirty minutes away, but it’s definitely worth it. It has the only platypus outside of Australia. Go for the platypus. Please.
Coronado Island
The courtyard of the famous Hotel del Coronado.
Hotel del Coronado.
We went to Hotel del Coronado the day that my cousin and his girlfriend from Los Angeles visited. We were meeting with another one of my Iranian relatives, whose sister met us the next day actually, and he wanted to meet outdoors, so we drove to Coronado Island. Coronado is where the ultra-rich live—you really have to have money in order to live on this tiny island. Half of it is also a military base, so you actually can’t go to that part of the island.
There’s a really big beach with the famous Hotel del Coronado along it. We walked through the sidewalk sections, which were crowded with people eating and taking pictures, then stopped for gelato along the way.
My one relative stayed in this hotel once, which is apparently one of the most expensive hotels in the country (my dad claims world but I doubt that). We met our cousin in the courtyard, where we sat for hours and just talked.
My mother and I wished we could’ve spent more time here, however, because there were a ton of cute little shops on the main strip of the town.
I saw some bookstores that looked expensive that I wanted to poke through, but I didn’t get the chance unfortunately. We took a tour of downtown at night after, which we’d repeat on our last night, which was meh. It’s a city environment, which I’ve seen many times before.
We returned to the apartment after this and my cousin from LA bought me tacos and burritos, my first California Mexican meal (we went to Old Town to eat on the last day). They were absolutely divine, 10/10.
Laguna Beach
We drove almost all the way to Los Angeles to visit another one of my Iranian relatives who lives in Irvine. We stopped at Laguna Beach along the way, which has that nice small-town American beach vibe outside of the fact that you have to be filthy rich to live there. There’s this nice walking path along the water, so we walked along it for an hour and absorbed the views. The water was very blue and pretty to look at, while the sand was pretty soft.
After walking along the path, we drove the Iranian market Mission Ranch around Irvine. It was in there, with the Iranian pop music blaring all around us, my dad went nuts. Our suitcases were almost completely full after the time he was done.
I picked up some dried fruit rolls, chai, and spices to make Uzbek and Turkish food. All the signs in that shopping center were in Farsi and the air stunk of beef kabob—that’s how you know you’re around a lot of Iranians.
We then visited my relative, who had a nice house on a mountain. That was that day in a nutshell.
Miscellaneous Joys
Here’s a random list of things I liked.
In-n-Out. It was worth the hype. My entire family loved it too much.
Darband Fifth Avenue. A cute Iranian restaurant in downtown San Diego. The food was very good, but it was also very informal service.
The churro man at La Jolla Coves. He had the best churros.
