San Diego Tour Guide (part four) Scenic Drive and Harbor Tour

One day we took a scenic drive up towards Julian, California on the “S1” highway called the “Sunrise Highway”. This is a beautiful drive in the mountains that I have taken many times before, and I wanted to share the views with Bonnie. It runs parallel to the Pacific crest Trail in several places. The Pacific crest Trail is a trail that goes from Mexico all the way to Canada through the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains. The trail lies 100 to 150 miles east of the US Pacific Coast. It has a total length of 2653 miles and is a combination hiking and equestrian trail. It is closely aligned with the highest portions of the mountains that it follows. Check out more information here on this webpage.

There’s a lookout that the trail follows right below and we stopped to take a little hiking along the trail. Here’s the view you get standing on the lookout facing east. In the trail you can see wonders up and down the hills through the section. We a granted couple water bottles and headed out for a short hike, so that we could say we had hiked part of the trail at least.

You get beautiful views in all directions. They had placed some benches along the way, so you can rest and take in the views. After walking about a mile or so for me, I headed back to the car. Bonnie continued on a little further up and down the hills and I picked her up down the highway. We continued on into Julian taking in the scenery and the change in the altitude, you get up to about 7500 feet near the town of Julian. We stopped in town to pick up some snacks at one of the local bakeries for a light lunch. And then we continued on West back to San Diego, to head down town to the harbor to take a Harbor Cruise later that afternoon. I had gotten tickets before Bonnie arrived, for a two-hour informational tour of the San Diego Harbor on the “Flagship Cruise Line” (check out their website here). I had done these before I knew she would enjoy it, plus it’s a very nice way to get information about the city and its history. There was a Disney cruise ship docked in the harbor as we headed out. The ships should carry a lot of passengers and very large, as you can tell by the skyline in the background. He talked about the Maritime Museum in these tall ships. Of course, there are always several private sailing vessels throughout the harbor. There is a baitfish company with these floating docks that the sea lions and birds love to hang out at for free lunch. They take you along the north side of the harbor and give you the history and explain how the harbor has to be drenched, because originally it was only about 15 feet deep. But now they keep the main channel up to 85 feet deep to accommodate large vessels. As you get further from the dock you great views of the city skyline. You go by the Navy Air Force Base and they give you lots of information about it. Check out this webpage for more information. Then you get back in to the dock, so you can do the southern part of the harbor. Along the way they will explain about some of the buildings and the city skyline and share an overwhelming amount of information. There are some interesting buildings as you can tell in these photos. Then you head underneath the Coronado Bridge which is unique because it has a very large curved to it. This was done for a couple reasons but mainly to make it long enough to get federal funding. There’s more information on this website. And you go by the Navy base and explained about different ships that are stationed here. This one is one of two hospital ships in the Navy fleet this one is stationed here and the other one is on the East Coast. You also go by numerous stealth battleships, Built very boxy to avoid being seen on radar. You also get a great view of Unconditional Surrender Sculpture, sculptured after the famous photo taken in Times Square after World War II, check out this website for more info. After finishing her harbor cruise, we took a quick ride down to the “Old Town” San Diego the original settlement of the city of San Diego. To take in the beautiful gardens and all the flowers in bloom. And wander around and check out some of the shops and stopped at one of the many Mexican restaurants for some dinner.

There’s also an old church that we stopped at with beautiful stained glass and artwork. That concludes another busy day exploring the area, Rick