Staycation in San Diego

This past weekend, @davidmassena and I decided to head down to San Diego for a little staycation. We live about 2 hours north of San Diego, and in the 6 years that I've lived in California, I have never spent more than half a day there. My goal this year is to travel every single month, and with work being so busy for me right now, I didn't have much time to go out-of-state, so we thought that San Diego would be the perfect little weekend getaway.

We drove down Friday night and checked into our hotel, which was in the Gaslamp Quarter. The location was amazing, although the hotel was a little rundown, but we were only sleeping there so it did the job. We decided to grab some dinner as soon as we got there, so we went to Garage, which was a cute little restaurant/bar on 4th street. They only had one vegan option on the menu, which was a Beyond Burger, which we both got. It was great, and their fries were amazing. We also got a few drinks to wake us up a bit before heading to the club.

We got to Bassmnt Nightclub around 10:00pm. We went to see a DJ that we both like, Bear Grillz. The club was super cool, and I would definitely recommend checking it out if you're ever in San Diego. They host different EDM artists every night, and I believe it is an 18+ club. There were many different rooms, including the main room with the dance floor where the DJs perform, a lounge area with couches, the bar room, and another room with a wide open dance floor and VIP tables, where the house DJ performs all night. We grabbed a few drinks, and stayed in the main room watching Bear Grillz all night and dancing the night away. We had a really great time, and we honestly both head-banged so hard that our necks were killing us the next morning. We left the club at 2:00am and walked back to the hotel and went straight to bed. Hotel check-out was at 10:00am the next morning, which we weren't too thrilled about considering how tired we were from the night before, but we rallied and headed out for a full day of fun ahead of us.

After checking out of the hotel Saturday morning, we headed over to Cafe Gratitude, one of our favorite vegan restaurants, for breakfast. I got the breakfast wrap, and David got the breakfast tacos, which were both delicious.
When we were walking back to the car, we found bike rentals and decided that it would be fun to ride around the waterfront. We used the phone app to rent the bikes, and it was great because you could drop off the bikes anywhere on the sidewalk whenever you were done with them, since they are always GPS tracked by the app. Plus, they were only $1 an hour to rent! We hopped on the bikes and rode around waterfront park, all the way down to the USS Midway, and back. The weather was beautiful, and it was the perfect way to get the day going.

After riding around for an hour, we drove over to Balboa Park. If you have never been to Balboa Park, the best way that I can describe it is San Diego's version of Central Park. There are lots of empty spots to have picnics, walk around, play sports, read a book, etc., but there are also many attractions and activities within the park.

We started out by walking through Palm Canyon, which is a short little through a shady canyon filled with palm trees, as the name suggests. Then we walked around the Spreckels Organ Pavillion, which was beautiful. We walked over to the Alcazar Garden, which had a great view of the California Tower.

We stopped by the Old Globe Theater, and the Museum of Man, which we ended up going inside and spending a good hour in there. Then we walked down to the Botanical Building, Lily Pond, and all the way down to Bea Evenson Fountain. Then we decided that we had seen a good amount, and that we wanted to go explore other parts of San Diego. We had been there for about 2 or 3 hours total.

Next, we drove back downtown to the USS Midway Museum. David had been before, but I never had. It was really cool, especially since I had never been on an aircraft carrier before. I love museums, and I have to say that this was one of my favorites. I couldn't believe how huge it was, and how many planes could fit on one ship. We walked through the front of the ship, the hangar, and the flight deck. We spent about an hour on board of the Midway, and then we headed out because there were still a few more things that we wanted to do before sundown.

Next, we were pretty hungry, so we drove to North Park and ate a late lunch/early dinner at Soi 30, a Thai Restaurant. The food was great and there were a ton of vegan options. The "mock duck" was to die for! If you're ever in the area, I highly suggest trying it. We also walked over to Modern Times, grabbed a quick beer, and watched a beautiful sunset out the window.

Lastly, we tried to make it to Sunset Cliffs in time for the sunset, but unfortunately it was a bit farther than we had anticipated, so we only caught the tail end of it from the car. It was too dark out to get out and try to walk to the cliffs, so we decided to start heading home.

We had such a great little weekend getaway, and we've already decided that we need to go back more often considering how close it is! I really enjoyed myself, and it truly did feel like we were on vacation! It was just what I needed after a very stressful and busy work week. Traveling always helps me relax and reset when I need it most, and I highly encourage you to do the same when you are stressed or need a break from your normal routine.