We Took a Vacation
I know, you may be thinking, “isn’t your life a vacation”? Well, in some ways you are right. We are very blessed to be able to travel this beautiful country. However, like any lifestyle, there are times when it is good to just get away. Last year we we fortunate to spend a week in a hotel while in Tennessee and really enjoyed staying in a sticks and bricks. A long, hot shower, real plumbing, and a space that doesn’t shake from time to time can be a refreshing vacation for us.
We are accustomed to moving every week or two and although we planned to stop in Yuma, AZ for a couple months during the holidays, we quickly learned we would not be moving for awhile. We would be planted in Yuma for four months (more on that in a future post). It wasn’t long after the holidays, we decided we were going on vacation.
Several years ago, our friends taught us about credit card travel points. We did not have credit cards at the time but as they explained how they were able to travel using points, we thought we would give it a try. We were insistent that we would not go into debt and committed to paying our bills on the card and paying those charges off monthly, avoiding any interest on our balance. Little did we know back then, learning this skill would be so beneficial to our current way of life. It has enabled us to use our points to make necessary purchases and allowed us to have free hotel stays. We find hotels that allow pets and have kitchens so we can cook our meals instead of eating out. We have also learned how to find free things to do in the cities we visit. As an RVer, it is important to learn how to save money.
Knowing that San Diego was less than three hours from Yuma, we knew where our vacation destination would be. We had been to San Diego before for business but stayed in La Jolla. Although La Jolla is beautiful, it is 30 minutes away from San Diego proper and limited the time we could spend to visit the attractions of the area. Not only that, the weather wasn’t the greatest. So another opportunity to visit this beautiful city was welcomed.
The drive to San Diego was beautiful and ever changing. We began in Yuma at 141 feet, climbing as high as 4,000 feet before finishing at 62 feet above sea level. Our drive first passed the Imperial Sand Dunes, then changed to very rocky mountains and then greener mountains and desert poppies before ending in beautiful San Diego.
As we arrived at our hotel, we realized we would be centralized to all that we had planned to do during our visit and were directly across from San Diego Bay. We even had a beautiful view!
The area we stayed in, Liberty Station, had historical significance in this naval city of San Diego. We learned the area used to be a naval training facility, hand picked by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1915. During World War II, the population of Liberty Station increased to 33,000 and became home to 1/6th of the Navy’s fleet. After fifty years the Navy closed the training facility and the city took over ownership of the land. Now it houses hotels, a market of stores and restaurants, and a beautiful park along the bay. We were told residents thought the San Diego airport (which only has one runway!), adjacent to the land, might expand into Liberty Station but that never came to fruition. However, the busiest single runway airport in the world did appear to have a big construction project in the works – maybe another runway is in their future.
There still is a significant Navy and Marine Corp presence in the area. We saw many destroyers, helicopters, and osprey airplanes actively on duty in the area. In fact, on a visit to Point Loma to visit some historical landmarks, we drove right through a naval protected area and even saw a man being lowered from a Seahawk helicopter into the bay from our vantage point. At the end of the Point, we visited one of the first west coast lighthouses to be built by the U.S. government and the Cabrillo National Monument, honoring Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo who was the first European to explore the West Coast of the United States. It is believed he anchored his ship where the current monument stands. The area had beautiful views of the ocean and the city of San Diego. We ended our day visiting Sunset Cliff, Ocean Beach, and watching surfers brave the cold on a very chilly, windy evening.
One of our must see destinations was Balboa Park. We visited the park before but only went to the air museum and a took a short stroll through this 1,200 acre park. This time we spent the afternoon exploring the entire park. We were told the Morton Bay Fig tree, planted in 1915, was a must see. In 1996 the tree was measured and found to be 78 feet high and 23 feet wide. The photos do not due justice to the grandeur of this tree. In addition to this giant tree, the park was full of beautiful gardens and stunning buildings. Those buildings now house various museums but their history left us puzzled. It was obvious they were historical but why were they there?
Balboa Park started as a city park in the mid 1,800’s, applicably named “City Park”. The park was set aside by city officials but sat underdeveloped for 20 years before its beautification began, mainly because resident, Kate Sessions, committed to planting 100 trees each year. Some 40 years later, the idea of Balboa Park hosting a world’s fair was proposed. San Diego was not chosen for the honor but the city decided to host their own fair, the Panama-California Exposition. The purpose was to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal and San Diego being the first American Pacific Ocean port of call north of the Panama Canal. Because the name City Park was not as grand as the park, the name was changed to Balboa Park in honor of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, the first European to spot the Pacific Coast.
In 1910, the doors of the Panama-California Exposition opened bringing in millions of tourists to the small San Diego city of 40,000 – putting San Diego on the map. An interesting fact, most of the buildings were made of staff plaster with the intent of being torn down after the expo. However, the San Diego population loved the park so much, it was saved. Restored over the years, the Balboa Park architecture is now known as the most historically intact exposition architecture in the US.
We spent the remainder of our time visiting Old Town, the first European settlement in California and walking the city of San Diego. In fact at the end of the week, we had walked over 40,000 steps and 20 miles! We were definitely sore and tired but in the words of my photographer friend, “If I don’t walk, I might miss something”. Words to live by.
