Fun in San Diego
May 11, 2021
We don’t often get to spend any leisure time in San Diego, we’re usually 100% Comic Con, so for all the years I’ve spent coming to this city I didn’t know much about what there is to do here!
Sadly, since we didn’t attend this year, my first missed Con in 16 years (?) the replacement for this year’s recap is this write-up of the other fun we were able to squeeze in when we took a few extra days in an earlier year.
Central Library, 4 hours
- Free validated parking (had to repark once)
- Free lunch for kids
- New toys (fresh out of the box while we were playing!)
- New to us books
- A Where’s Waldo scavenger hunt
Cost: free!
Nine spacious floors – I’ve never seen a public library with more than three floors – packed with amazing resources and so we’ll designed. With two kids under five, we mainly stayed on the first floor but it was The Best. They have an amazing homage to Dr. Seuss, Things all over the place, with books and toys and computers and coloring and activities, all for children and delighting us adults as well. The kids did a bit of everything: we read, we looked for Waldo, we colored, we played with the old toys, they dove for the new ones the staff unboxed right in front of us, they rocked out on the rocking horses, they were fed a free hot lunch supplied by the school district (free for all under 18, no questions asked), then went to play some more. It was sheer heaven.
Upstairs had a teens only area, which I would have adored at that age, separate from potentially creepy adults.
Parking was validated free for two hours at a time, but we were able to refresh that by leaving at the two hour mark and coming back again since they weren’t busy that day. The validation was a really easy little barcode scanner kiosk so you didn’t have to wait on someone to be free to take care of it.
Hands down it’s the best library we’ve been to.
A library staff member later told us that Theodore Geisel’s widow donated millions to build the library and then it all made sense. No wonder it’s so fabulous.
The New Children’s Museum, 2.5 hours
- Parking was free with my disability placard but they also had limited parking for $10 for the day.
- They have a WHAMMOCK!!
- and a pillow fight room
- and a temporary blocks room
- and a two story high treehouse type of structure
- And a virtual aquarium where kids can color a shark or a jellyfish, scan it, then see it projected on the wall floating around like in a real aquarium.
We had a big group this day, all energetic kids between 2-8 years, and limited time for them to play so we chose a more expensive experience we hadn’t done before. I worried that this wouldn’t be worth the price of admission but after almost 3 hours, we were all tuckered out and satisfied we got our money’s worth. They climbed, they explored, they built with massive blocks, they had mega pillow fights.
Cost: $42 for three people
These particular things were very kid oriented, that’s our phase in life right now.
There are a lot of other places (and food) I’d really like to explore in San Diego but our time in the city is usually so limited. I recall Balboa Park was always lovely and the zoo was very cool.
Native San Diegan here! These are great spots with kids. I’d add:
Civita Park, which is a well-kept secret. It has a splash pad and a great playground and is usually relatively quiet. https://www.civitalife.com/community-tour/parks/
Waterfront Park, near the water. Because of its water features, it’s perfect on a hot day, though it can great crowed. https://www.sdparks.org/content/sdparks/en/park-pages/Waterfront.html
The outlets at the border. Grab fresh churros from the Churros El Tigre cart, browse the shops, and be amazed at transnational life. Immediately behind the outlets is the border all made from aircraft carrier decking, which is a sight to behold. People from other parts of the country (except maybe southern Texas and northern states that share a border with Canada) don’t understand the fluid nature of borders. Visiting the outlets is a great way to see it with your own eyes. https://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlet/las-americas
Torrey Pines Glider Port. Beautiful views. Food’s available. Watching people hang gliding while being cooled by the ocean breeze. https://lajollamom.com/torrey-pines-gliderport/
Oooh, recommendations from a native, thank you! These sound wonderful!