Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

[Note: The folks in San Diego just keep sending along notes about favorites in their town!  Whatta great place to be.  The latest is from Tim Murray, Director, Exhibits Department at San Diego Natural History Museum]

by Tim Murray

As a long-time resident of San Diego, I thought I would share some of my favorite places in San Diego with you.

View - Cabrillo National Monument (http://www.nps.gov/cabr/)

The view looking east from the visitors observation deck is truly inspiring. The whole county and a chunk of Baja California (Mexico) is laid out before you. It's a great place for orientation to San Diego.

 Nature & Cultural -  Mission Trails Regional Park (http://www.mtrp.org/)

A very large city park with great examples of coastal sage scrub and riparian habitats.

 Nature & Cultural - Crestridge Ecological Reserve (http://www.earthdiscovery.org/crestridge-ecological-reserve

A large piece of "foothills" habitat that has been saved from development. This is a really cool spot - lots of cultural history, natural history, enthusiastic staff and volunteers, restoration, and preservation can be found here.

 Mexican Restaurant - Valentines (844 Market St between 8th Ave & 9th Ave) San Diego, CA 92101 (619) 234-8256)

There are a LOT of mexican restaurants and many are very good, but Valentines does not offer much decor, just really good and pretty inexspensive food.  The crowd is very "downtown" - a great mix of young professionals, working class, and a few savvy tourists

 Cultural (night) - Santee drive-in theater (10990 Woodside Ave N, Santee, CA 92071 (619) 448-7447)

Because of the favorable weather, the drive-ins are open year-round. The Southbay Drive-in and the Santee Drive-in offer multiple screens and recent movies. The audio is via your FM radio (no speakers hanging on your window). So grab some donuts and coffee (or ?) and head on out to da movies. Who cares what's showing.

 Beach - Most scenic and beautiful beach for me is the Coronado beach, especially the dunes on the "west" end.

There are a lot of incredible places in Baja really worth seeing, but I might not recommend going down there at this time for a number of reasons: 

- there is a high incidence of drug-related crimes in the Tijuana area.

- a passport is required to get back into this country.