Monday, January 21, 2013

Six Fun Outdoor Activities To Do While Visiting San Diego

By Terry Hunefeld


The most difficult decision to make when planning a vacation to San Diego is determining what things to do. San Diego has an excellent array of fine and trendy restaurants covering a wide range of cuisines, world-class beaches and hotels from lavish to budget. This article lists six things to do in San Diego that you should not miss when visiting one of America's finest vacation destinations.

1. The Gaslamp Quarter is San Diego's vibrant dining, entertainment and shopping district. A walk through this eighteen-square-block in historic downtown San Diego takes you by modern restaurants and nightclubs inside turn of the century architectural buildings, complete with gas lamps and brick sidewalks. Explore avant-garde art galleries, historic theaters, unique boutiques and shops, more than a hundred restaurants, chic bars, hot nightclubs and a hardware store founded more than 100 years ago. One of San Diego's best travel destinations, the Quarter is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and extends from Broadway to Harbor Drive, from Fourth to Sixth Avenue.

2. Enjoy a free organ concert at 2 p.m. on Sundays at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in lovely Balboa Park. The Spreckels brothers donated this - one of the world's largest outdoor pipe organs - to the City of San Diego for the Panama-California Exposition way back in 1914. The organ has more than 4000 pipes in length from the size of your finger to 32 feet. At the concerts you will hear world-famous organists play traditional favorites, waltzes and show tunes on enormous 32-foot pipes.

3. At dusk on the first Wednesday of each month, following the monthly "Sky Tonight" planetarium show in the Space Theater of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, members of the San Diego Astronomy Association set up big telescopes by the large fountain in Balboa Park for free public sky viewing. See Saturn's rings through a big telescope as well as the moon, planets, nebulae and globular clusters - up close and personal.

4. See things you never saw before at The Museum of Contemporary Art in LaJolla featuring an enormous collection of 4,000 works created after 1950. Here you'll find exhibits of all media and genres: painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, video and film. Designed in 1916 by world-famous Irving Gill and originally the home of distinguished philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, the 60,000 square-foot Museum will thrill you with its breathtaking coastal views.

5. Explore the tide pools in Point Loma below Cabrillo National Monument when the tide is out and get up close and personal with flowery anemones, scampering shore crabs, elusive octopus, spongy deadman's fingers and many other cool sea creatures. Located on the western side of Point Loma, these pools lie in the rocky inter-tidal zone and offer a window into the ocean ecosystem. San Diego travel tip: Ranger walks are available during most low tides and a slide program is shown daily at the Cabrillo park visitor center.

6. Sun and Fun. There are more than seventy miles of coastline here in San Diego and the best part is that every one of them are free. They are all great for swimming, surfing, jogging, body surfing, boogie-boarding, reading that mystery novel, people watching, collecting seashells or just chilling.




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