San Diego, California (Dec. 26th-January 1st)
We arrived in SD at about 11:30 Pacific Time on Sunday night (we left Cleveland at 9:30 Sunday night), and walked outside the airport to 50 degree weather…a heat wave to us Clevelanders! (Well then again, not so much for the two of us, who are both freeze babies). The shuttle took us to the Alamo rental car station where we picked up our car and headed to the hotel. We drove through a pretty neat area that had a Trader Joes and of course a Starbucks. Everything was closed, but it is always important to know where you can get a cup of coffee every morning. One of the many things that the two of us have in common is love of coffee. We both start each day with at least a cup or two! We checked into our hotel, which was located right off the water and only 10 minutes from the airport, and went to bed to prepare for our first mountain of the week.
Day 1: After breakfast and some driving around and talking to various people for directions, we finally made it to Iron Mountain. As Rachel was still recovering from Run Across Ohio and IT Band issues, we decided to hike it. It was a gorgeous day and beautiful scenery. This was Rachel’s first trip out west and her eyes were wide open with excitement. It only took about an hour to hike up, but the top was gorgeous. As Steve was fumbling around with the self-time of his camera, we came across one of our first notable and kind people on this trip, who offered to take our picture. He was a professor at a local community college and had lived in the area for about 15 years. The kind gentleman gave us the run-down of the area and where to find the other trails and mountains.
The second half of the day, we ate a “drunch (Rachel) or linner (Steve)” in Little Italy, then checked-out the open-air mall where Rachel purchased a pair of sunglasses for the sunny weather J
Day 2: Time to conquer the highest mountain in the area, Cowles Mountain (pronunciation note: most everyone except the locals, or so we read, pronounces this as “cow-els”, but the correct way to say it is “coals”). We started off again with breakfast to fuel ourselves for the climb, and, as always, coffee, an essential part of our diets. It was another beautiful sunny Cali day, a bit chilly when we started, but it quickly warmed up as we go going. We did an aggressive hike up (Rachel’s definition of “aggressive hiking”: fast hiking up inclines and technical areas, running on flatter areas where chances of tripping are slightly more minimal). It was a little tricky in areas, and a very high traffic trail, but we reached the summit in good time. We did go on to hike/run around the mountain more and summitted again, but that’s not important when comparing it to our conversation with a very insightful couple (and puppy named Mate) at the top.
Honestly, what attracted us first was the dog as we both love them and, in a child-like nature, always reach out to pet a furry friend. The two were both retired, and it’s hard to say how old they were, as neither looked old enough to retire. The man sported hip hiking clothes, and the woman totally rocked out her nose ring. We found out they were training Mate to take with them on their future and much longer hiking trips. This brought questions. Where else have they hiked? For how long have they been hiking? How often? Turns out, there whole 2010 was spent hiking, mainly at national parks, as they knew they were eventually going to get a dog and wouldn’t be able to take him to the parks. And that’s all they really did…hiking, camping, exploring…breathing, living…making their lives an adventure. They do have a home base in San Diego, where we believe the man’s daughters live and where they have a 10’ x 10’ storage unit where they kept some of their old “stuff”. When they were explaining this to us, they just seemed so happy and so content with their lives. Isn’t this what we all search for? Steve asked for parting advice, and the man simply said: Just don’t worry about all the “stuff” you have, it’s not important. His exact words were “Stuff ain’t shit”. Needless to say, the couple (and Mate) left quite an impact on us.
We spent the second half of the day in Old Town (yes, built more for tourism, but def. a place we would recommend to go and plan to spend a lot of time). It was very Mexican inspired and lots of places to shop and by souvenirs, walk down the little streets, and eat! By luck (once again, we had to stop and ask for directions then asked for restaurant advice) we found La Piñata. It is a little hole in the wall place that’s been there for years and not heavily commercialized. The food was AMAZING! It is definitely a must go if you are ever in the area. We were even serenaded by a mariachi singer!
Day 3: We knew it was supposed to rain on Wednesday. And yes, it poured. Still, we wanted to find Mt. Fortuna. After fueling up, we drove to the park Visitor Center (note: this should be done on day one, and they carry maps). Unfortunately, we couldn’t start the run from there as one of the water crossings would have been almost over Rachel’s head and moving swiftly, plus it was a bit cold for swimming. So we just drove down the street a bit to a different trail head, and started into the rain. Our being less-than-pleased attitude about the weather turned within a few minutes (when we both began to warm up). It was awesome! The trails were muddy, the water crossing knee-deep, we were soaked, and exploring new trails. The first half was mostly run-able too, very different from the other 2 mountains. We started off through an area called the Grasslands, then we got to a point were we headed towards North Fortuna and crossed back and forth back and forth over a stream. Nearing the summit, everything is a straight up hike. It got colder and rained harder, making reaching the top all that much better. But thank God Steve had a map, as Rachel has no sense of direction and we may have never found our way back at some of the trail intersections, and it was getting cold. We got back to the car a sloppy and happy mess.
For lunch, we ate outside at a restaurant at Balboa Park. Now, the “outside” part might not make sense, but we were hungry, and there was an awning and one of those space heater lamps nearby, which we just scooted our chairs as close to as possible. Then it was off to the Museum of Man, where Rachel met her ancestor, Lucy, a replica of a homo-sapiens (or something like that)…basically saying we came from monkeys. While nothing was exactly authentic in the museum, it was still a very cool place to go around. Balboa Park also is in close proximity to the San Diego Zoo, many other museums, gardens and architecture that makes taking a stroll a must.
Day 4: North Fortuna was so much fun that we decided to head back there again after some hard boiled eggs, oat muffins, and fruit, (and Steve with and his waffle with peanut butter) We started off at the same trail head but approached the “saddle” from a different trail. Steve forgot to mention that Rachel likes to lead on ALL runs. Steve learned this after hiking up Iron Mtn. on Day 1.
Steve’s version: So being the wonderful boyfriend that he is, and respectful of Rachel’s wishes, enjoys running either a step behind her or next to her. This is where it gets interesting…on the steepest hill of the day, leading up to the Fortuna Saddle, which is the point where you can either head to the North or South Fortuna summit, Rachel decides that she wants to RUN the entire 1 + mile up! At first, Steve was sort of laughing to himself and smiling thinking that this was not going to continue very long, after all, we weren’t racing, there was nothing to prove, this was suppose to be enjoyable. Well, after about 5 minutes into the climb, Rachel decides there isn’t going to be any hiking. We FINALLY get to the top and look at each other and Rachel says “that was really stupid”. Then we both started laughing.
Rachel’s version: I really had no intent of running up the whole hill, nor did I realize how big it was. And, Steve did get ahead of me by 10-20 ft. Since he kept running, I kept running. At the top, I did say “that was really stupid” but I was not laughing!
From there we took the trail to the summit of North Fortuna, back to the Saddle, then down to the valley, along the San Diego River, then up the stairs (LOT’s of stairs) to the summit of South Fortuna, back to the Saddle, then back to the trail head. This was a very enjoyable run and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the San Diego area!
From there we stopped by Jamba Juice for a smoothie and then got some ideas from Rico (one of the employees there) on what we should do for the evening. He suggested that we visit Mission Bay Park. So off we went on our next adventure. We got to the beach, parked the car and checked out all the little shops along the boardwalk, we then kicked off our sandals and walked along the ocean’s shore. The water was cold, but it was nice to be walking along the beach barefoot in late December. On our stroll back towards the car, we walked past an elderly couple from Texas who had been vacationing at a beach house all week and were heading back home to Texas on Saturday. They were a very cute couple in their 70’s. The woman knew a lot about the Dallas Cowboys, Steve’s favorite football team. After a 15 minute conversation, we continued our walk back towards the parking lot. We then checked out a surf shop where Steve got a new Hurley shirt and then stopped by a fudge and ice cream store for a small, but delicious piece of peanut butter fudge.
For dinner, we walked across the street from our hotel to an Italian restaurant called Pizza Novo. We had a very good pizza, some salad, and a few glasses of California red wine. It was a great evening.
Day 5: Happy New Years! We wanted to head to LA for New Years Eve so we got up early and ran along the bay from our hotel. It was actually quite enjoyable and by the time we were finished running, we had seen a bunch of runners! After our run, we showered, changed and made our way north towards LA. The traffic was very heavy! When we finally arrived we decided that we had to get a picture of the Hollywood sign. Now you just can walk up to the Hollywood sign and snap a picture. It’s not like it is located in a park so after asking several “interesting” people we finally navigated our way up a very twisty road to a spot where a group of folks with a similar idea, were taking pictures. We headed to a neat little coffee shop known for their crepes for a bite to eat and of course coffee and then went for a walk along the “Walk of Fame”. This was pretty neat, but neither one of us recognized a lot of the names until we got really close to the place where all the hand and foot prints were. Rachel was excited to get her picture taken with Will Smith’s handprints (it also read: Change the World)! We headed back to Point Loma to watch the ball drop in New York and then headed out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant near Old Town.
Day 6: New Years Day/Departure Day! We woke up, grab some breakfast and headed out to Cowles Mountain for one last run. We started at the Staging area off Navajo Road ran up until we got to where the trail juts off to the right and ran to the Mesa Road trail head and then summitted the mountain from the east. This side is a more gradual and has a more run-able approach, which, since it was the last day, we decided to run it. Steve already expected this based on their prior experience at South Fortuna so he was a little more mentally prepared. We slowly started making our way up the two mile climb, running by everyone and getting comments and looks along the way. We got to the top, took another picture at the monument and then made our way over toward Pyles peak which is to west, but had to turn back before we go there because we needed to make it back to the hotel for checkout time. That trail takes you out and then back to Cowles Mtn. and then we descended down the southern face of the mountain. We headed back to the hotel, cleaned up, checked out and then went to Little Italy. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in San Diego and there was a farmer’s market which we both enjoyed. Lots and lots of samples! We met one interesting gentleman who talked to us about the history of San Diego. Of course we were very hungry by this point in the day so we checked out a Burger Express and both got veggie burgers. This place was so good! Probably the best veggie burgers ever! Seriously!
Then when we got back in the car, Steve realized something very wrong. It appears that the cactus from Balboa Park the other day didn’t like getting its pictures taken and attacked him! It had imbedded thousands of little spikes into his jeans which pierced the denim and now were burrowing into his soft Asian skin. Although Steve was both audibly and visibly in a significant amount of pain, he caught Rachel smiling and laughing on more than one occasion. Why? Maybe she thought he was being dramatic who knows? But anyways, Steve was in pain until he changed and they made their way into Starbucks to get some coffee and kill some time until their red eye flight back to Cleveland. The flight back to Cleveland was uneventful and when we got back to airport it was about 6 AM on Sunday morning. Rachel was very unhappy about the cold and snow, asking “why didn’t you just leave me in San Diego?” We drove back to Hudson and slept until about noon. Got up and grab some food a Yours Truly (one of our favorites). When we walked through the door, Art Shibley, one of the owners of YT, was there to welcome us as we sat down at the counter. He asked how we where and how’s the running? It was like we never left.
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