I awoke this morning refreshed after an uninterrupted night’s sleep, and then my friend and I took the dog and went for another walk to the beach.  On the way back to the house, we stopped at the Villa Nueva to pick up some fresh croissants. At home, we enjoyed a hearty breakfast, then headed out for a day of sight-seeing.  I had made a list of the standard tourist attractions that I wanted to see, and my friend made sure we saw them.  Just so you’re convinced I really was there, here’s the skyline of San Diego from Coronado Beach:
We first crossed the bridge into the city proper and in the photo below, we’re looking at the USS Midway Museum.  The museum is a real naval aircraft carrier that was converted into a museum and educational center; the non-profit organization incorporated in 1992 and after raising funds and publicizing its mission, opened the museum in 2004.
I took this photo from the car as we drove past:
At this time, we were on our way to Point Loma and the Cabrillo National Monument.  If you look at a map like this one, you’ll see that we were heading for the spit of land to the southwest of the City that creates San Diego Bay; you’ll see Coronado Island due east.  We drove through the ecological reserve and parked at the Visitor Center (the small entrance fee was waived today, for some reason), then walked over to see the statue of Cabrillo (it’s an iconic sight, by the way).  According to the National Park Service website:

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo led the first European expedition to explore what is now the west coast of the United States. Cabrillo departed from the port of Navidad, Mexico, on June 27, 1542. Three months later he arrived at “a very good enclosed port,” which is known today as San Diego Bay. Historians believe he anchored his flagship, the San Salvador, on Point Loma’s east shore near Cabrillo National Monument. Cabrillo later died during the expedition, but his crew pushed on, possibly as far north as Oregon, before thrashing winter storms forced them to back to Mexico.

From this vantage point, we could look at the city sprawling in the distance:
and there in the haze to the south is Mexico:
We stopped in at the Point Loma Lighthouse but didn’t climb it:
This national monument also encompasses more than 600 acres of native habitat and is a well-known stopover for birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway.  On the west side of the park are the tide pools, which my friend said her kids enjoyed visiting when they were young.  According to the website, “A myriad of marine plants and animals, including lacy red and slimy green algae, sluggish sea hares, leggy octopi, darting fish, and the always entertaining hermit crabs, live in this rocky intertidal area.”  We didn’t walk the trail down to the beach but gazed down at it from the heights.

Then it was time for lunch.  Near Point Loma is a retail area with both stores and restaurants that was converted from a federal facility.  Here we stopped at Tender Greens, one of those wonderful locavore, farm-to-fork restaurants where I enjoyed a Happy Vegan salad, consisting of farro wheat with cranberry, hazelnuts, quinoa with cucumber, beets, green hummus, tabbouleh, and tender greens.

After lunch, we headed for La Jolla, which I also wanted to see because I kept hearing about it.  Of course I wanted to see the beach, so we drove along the shore road, parked on a side street, and got out to stroll along the waterfront near Cove Beach.  Everyone comes to see the seals, though it’s quite obvious from their smells that their diet is mainly fish.  Here they are sunning themselves:

I tried taking a closeup of one seal:
And here are some others that blend in with the rocks (look closely):

On our way out of the city, we drove by the world-famous Scripps Institution of Oceanography.  As you may already know, it is part of the University of California at San Diego, which we also drove by.  My friend’s son graduated from UCSD a few years back, so she knows the area well.  In fact, on our way back to Coronado, we stopped at the son’s condo, where he and his wife are living as they renovate it.  They were busy painting and working on the bathroom, so we went out to get them some sandwiches to fortify themselves, then we headed back, stopping first to shop for running shoes and then dresses at the Ross discount store (yes, I bought a dress).  Dinner that night was at Miguel’s Cocina; I had the portobello mushroom fajitas, which is a signature dish — mmm!

Then we sped along to the airport, which is only a ten-minute drive from my friend’s house in Coronado, and I boarded the red-eye for the flight back to the East Coast.