Tell people you're from San Diego and their response is, "Wow, isn't the weather perfect there all the time?" When compared to most places, the answer is pretty much: yes. The winter, such as it is, usually has temps in the 60s, so I have a hard time hearing San Diegans (ahem, mom) insist that "it does get cold at night" (egads, 40 degrees!!) when in Vermont right now the temperature is 10 degrees and falling.
That said, Christmas week in San Diego this year was exceptional: 75 degrees every day, cerulean skies, Chamber of Commerce weather. On my last night there, the forecaster said, literally, "we don't see a change in this weather pattern till at least January 12th or 13th." So there's that. I ran almost every day, taking advantage of beach views and a chance to wear t-shirts. A few highlights:
North Harbor Drive to Pt. Loma:
The quirky geography of San Diego is such that the airport is adjacent to downtown and both are right on the harbor. Even when you know this, you can still get caught by surprise seeing a a very large, very close plane enter your peripheral vision while jogging across Laurel Street heading to the harbor. Tuesday morning I returned a rental car at the airport and ran to my mom's house on Pt. Loma. Most of that run is along the northern part of San Diego Bay -- yachts, glassy water, palm trees, gorgeous skies... exactly the cliche you resent San Diego for. (Stay, classy.)
Torrey Pines:
Go north from La Jolla and there is a state preserve on the coast. While $15 is an extreme day use fee (I forgot California was broke...) I still love this state park: sandy trails run from the top of the cliffs, down through sandstone canyons to the beach and back up through the trees. From every direction there are commanding views of the coast and the wide open ocean. With zero humidity, the scent of sagebrush is pungent and just smells like California. (In the best way.)
Pt. Loma to Sunset Cliffs:
There are a million reasons to love Pt. Loma, but here's one drawback: it's extremely hilly. Pretty much a mountain peninsula with a bay on the south side and the ocean on the north. My mom lives near the crest of Pt. Loma, so every run from her house has a lot of steep inclines. This run went up to the top of Pt. Loma, then sharply downhill to the ocean, then straight back uphill to the top, with a descent back home. But coming down into Sunset Cliffs from the trails near Nazarene College is pretty spectacular.
Later that day, I walked another 4 miles at the San Diego Zoo with my mom and sister. Tip for zoo-goers: the koalas are crazy active after sunset!!
Morley Field Trails:
I have always associated Balboa Park with museums and the zoo, but huge areas of it are grassy open space and steep canyons.
Meb Keflezghi writes about the Morley Field running trails (upper right on this map) from his days as a high school cross-country star. Sadly, I didn't bump into Meb, but I did get to see parts of the park that I didn't realize existed. (Florida Canyon, who knew?)
Shelter Island to Liberty Station:
This awesome photo is from the
USS Constellation reunion web site and shows how Shelter Island sits in
San Diego Bay, hugging Pt. Loma. (I added the star where mom's house is.) Home to picnic-ers, joggers, fisherman, boaters and hotels, Shelter Island is a sweet run. On the far right in this photo, there is a neighborhood of pinkish-colored buildings near the water; that's Liberty Station. Formerly Navy housing and offices, now home to Trader Joe's, condos and restaurants. And also pretty parks and great walking trails on water.
