San Diego

The Aquatic Center of Newport Beach is an ideal place
for anyone who loves the water or loves to work out
and stay in shape. The over 18,000 square foot
facility offers a multi-purpose meeting room, both
weight and cardiovascular training facilities, locker
rooms for both men and women, and a storage area for
well over 400 canoes and kayaks!

North Star Beach is here as well, offering a launching
dock off the sandy shore. The Aquatic Center offers
direct access to Newport Harbor and North Star Beach,
offering rowers and paddlers their choice of water
activities and sports.

During the year, the Aquatic Center offers many
different activities and events. A majority of these
test team skills and individual skills, which is
perfect for anyone looking to get into the Olympics
or just learn more about water based activities.

Along with the many programs for members, the Aquatic
Center in Newport Beach is also open to the public.
Even though you don’t have to be a member here, there
are special discounts that members receive. If you
happen to be on vacation in Newport Beach, it’s ideal
to stop by the Aquatic Center and check out everything
they offer.

If you happen to miss the big Wine Festival in May,
you shouldn’t worry as the area has a lot of fine
restaurants to keep you coming back for more. One
of the local favorites here, and a favorite for many
visitors is the Chimayo Grill.

The Chimayo Grill is located on Fashion Island, in
the chic shopping oasis. After a long day of
shopping, nothing beats going to the grill for lunch
or dinner. Starting with the legendary tequila
infusion is great, as it consists of fresh fruit
marinated in tequila. Although they taste light
and fruity, they are full of tequila and pack quite
a punch!

The grill is decorated in a Sante Fe style, being
casual, but yet unique. You simply can’t go wrong
here, as all of the food they serve is great. With
so much to choose from here, you may find that it
takes quite a few trips to sample everything they
have to offer.

Being on Fashion Island in Newport Beach, the
Chimayo Grill is in a perfect setting. You can
take the kids here as well, as the grill has a nice
setting. For a night out as a family or a night out
to have fun – the Chimayo Grill adds a bit of spice
to Fashion Island – as well as Newport Beach.

All along Newport Beach there are several historic
sites that are worth checking out. Many of them
were around back in the early 1900’s, which is
great to see for anyone who wants to see what the
past was like or to learn more about the history
behind Newport Beach.

Balboa Pavilion
Located at 400 Main Street, the Balboa Pavilion
is the first landmark for Newport Beach. Built in
1905, the pavilion was the end of the line for the
Red Car of the Pacific Electric. Now days, the
Balboa Pavilion hosts a variety of shops, a
chartering company, and even a restaurant.

McFadden’s Wharf
Completed in 1889, the wharf began the decade for
Newport as a shipping port. Built by James and
Robert McFadden, the wharf was a great way to ship
lumber from Northern California to those who
settled here.

Old Landing
The Old Landing is located at Highway 101 & Dover
Drive. Established in 1870, the Old Landing was
designated to be a new port by the McFaddens, who
went on to establish a shipping service in the area
of Newort. Now, there’s a bridge and highway on
an area of teh site. The remaining area of the
Old Landing is vacant.

In our recent trip to San Diego we stayed in two hotels. We had originally planned to leave on a Monday and had our hotel booked for the Monday to Friday but decided in the end to go a couple of days early and could not extend our hotel. Sadly our original hotel was not able to give us a room for the first two days so we had another for the first two days.

Mission Plaza Hotel and Suites

This is the hotel that we stayed in for the first couple of days. Although the hotel was clean enough for my wife it was not a high end hotel by any means. The room that we got had a bunk bed that the kids fought over but was a very nice to have a bed to ourselves instead of having the kids crawling in.

The hotel had a pool that hte kids used quite a bit and the location of the Mission Plaza Hotel is just a few minutes to both SeaWorld San Diego and Ocean Beach (different directions).

The hotel is really affordable and that is what got my wife interested. To be perfectly honest my wife picks hotels based on pool, location and mostly price so this place worked out great for us for a couple of nights in San Diego

Comfort Inn and Suites Seaworld

This hotel was the place that we stayed for our last four nights and again we had bunk beds for the kids (less fighting this time) and the hotel was good for us in that it was right next to the highway on hotel circle in San Diego and not only did the hotel have a pool but also a pretty extensive free breakfast that included make you own waffles.

The hotel was again just as clean as the earlier hotel that we stayed in and the Comfort Inn and Suites Seaworld is the same motel style where you can park in front of the unit. The other plus that the place had was a laundry room which all of us families know can come in really handy in an emergency.

The one thing that I did not like about the Comfort Inn that we stayed at in San Diego was the generic looking area, all hotels on two strips one on each side of the highway. A couple of  things that are really close by though is the Old Town San Diego area as well as a place called the Presidio, which is the oldest settlement on the west coast of the US

Last week our family went to San Diego on Vacation.

It was a lot of fun.

Usually when going to California we tend to go to Los Angeles as there are beaches and Disneyland there but just as a change of pace this time we went to San Diego and did lots and still there was a lot that we missed.  Here is a big of an overview of the stuff that we did and then later on you can get the more indepth for each of the things that we did in other posts:

Day 1 San Diego – flew in and went to Ocean Beach. We changed plans last minute before we left so we needed to get a hotel for the first two days and then stayed at another for the last five days. The hotel we stayed in was the Holiday Inn Seaworld and as usual on our trips it was a fairly clean hotel with a pool of course and our room actually had bunk beds that the kids fought over. [Read more…] about San Diego Vacation Week