Week In San Diego - Day 1 - Mission Beach

Finally arrived for the long and well planned and drafted San Diego 4th of July holiday. Putting up a beach cottage in Mission Beach with family. Its actually quite cool (as in nice). Much better than a hotel. Lots of room, freedom to move around, the beach at your doorstep, costs less when you tote up the charges for a full week with family in a luxury hotel like the Hilton San Diego Resort. What's not to like?

Well, things is, it felt too much like home, and the whole point was to get away from home. But that's kinda weird, cause the cottages really are homey and comfortable. Tiled and sloping roofs, pristine white walls, neat patios with a hedge and flowers and all. A small round tabel with an umbrella and chairs if you want to hang out in front of your cottage. Actually, the beach is just a few steps off from the rows of cottages, so the chairs and table were a waste, actually. Point is, this is way much better than an air-conditioned box high up in a hotel, where you really have no idea if you're in San Diego or Las Vegas or any other city - I mean, all these darn hotel rooms are the same. You just don't get a feel of a new place. You pay $300 a night for a full cottage with a kitchen and your own parking space and a garden and beach front access. You can see and sense and feel San Diego even when you're half-asleep. That's a real vacation. The Hilton probably would have cost more than $500 per night for the full family, and would have been far less enjoyable a stay.

Anyway, we weren't here just to hang out on the beach, so we gotta head out and make like tourists and see all the things to do in San Diego. Me, I just want to make a getaway and head for the Gaslamp Quarter, but I probably won't be able to do that until the 4th of July Padres Game at PETCO Park. Let's just say its delayed gratification.