Yuma, Arizona to San Diego, California
Mark & Ana's Hacienda
Distance: 208 miles
Duration: 4 nights
We've traveled through Oregon, Northern California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. Time to head to Southern California!
After a very chilly shower (we would have complained if we were staying another night), we headed over to Walmart to stock up on the essentials: water, wine beer and seltzer water. Back on the road and the wind began to pick up. Heading east or west across this country has been quite a bear with the wind. Maybe it will be better when we make our way north. One can only hope.
Driving west on I-8, the Imperial Valley was desolate with big sand dunes and some green fields. We reached Alpine and had a 13 mile descent of 6% (after a long climb), but in spite of all the warning signs, it wasn't a problem. The wind even calmed down.
Somewhere west of Yuma.
Big sand dunes!
We hit a lot of traffic when we got to El Cajon and Santee, but even more on I-15 north. Our GPS kept telling us to "stay in any of the six lanes" or "stay in any of the eight right lanes." Yep. We were back in Southern California! It was pretty nerve-wracking, but at least it wasn't dark or rainy. And, having lived in San Diego for 20 years, I was very familiar with the freeways and knew where I was going. We arrived at my brother and sister-in-law's around 5:00 pm and we were both ready for a cocktail! Ana treated us to an amazing carne asada dinner - all homemade, of course. It was delicious!
My sister-in-law is THE.BEST.COOK!
Mark & Ana have a very steep driveway, so we parked the RV down on a gravel parking space just off of the main road in front of the house. Almost perfectly level and hooked up to house power, we were set for the next few nights. Mark had just returned from a business trip to China and was pretty wiped out, so we made it an early night.
The following day we headed to downtown San Diego to spend the day with our daughter and her fiance. Amy and Will have a cute townhouse near Balboa Park and a lot of fun restaurants and shops. We walked to Dark Horse Coffee Roasters for coffee and donuts, which were delicious! We hung out at their place for the afternoon and then headed out to Herb & Wood in Little Italy for an amazing dinner.
The following day we headed to downtown San Diego to spend the day with our daughter and her fiance. Amy and Will have a cute townhouse near Balboa Park and a lot of fun restaurants and shops. We walked to Dark Horse Coffee Roasters for coffee and donuts, which were delicious! We hung out at their place for the afternoon and then headed out to Herb & Wood in Little Italy for an amazing dinner.
Amy was heading off to London in the morning and we were still worn out from our travels, so we headed back to Escondido, where we visited with Mark & Ana for a little while before calling it a night.
Amy & Will's place is very close to Lindbergh Field.
The happy couple!
Sounds like a wonderful visit with family—and such delicious meals! That Mexican feast looks fantastic.
ReplyDeleteWe always enjoy our adventures in San Diego (Eric has family there)...if only there weren't so many people and 8 lanes of traffic each direction, LOL.
Laurel, San Diego was a great place to live in the 70s and 80s, but it has grown far too much since we left in '92. I don't miss the traffic or fast-paced life one bit, but it does have A LOT of great restaurants, so we're always happy to visit friends and family and are looking forward to heading down there next month for my daughter's wedding in La Jolla. We're already talking about all the restaurants we want to go. :)
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