It was about eight weeks ago, but I’m still not over my most recent cross-country trip! For spring break, I flew with my roommate, Lindsay, to her home in San Diego. I had such a great time and took way too many pictures, so I thought I would share a travel log of our daily adventures in SoCal with some of my photos.
Day 1 – We had an evening flight into San Diego, so our first full day started after we caught up on our sleep. The first thing we did Friday morning (St. Patrick’s Day) was get our nails done. Then, Lindsay and I followed her dad to their weekend house in Palm Springs. I spent about three hours in the car jamming with her and taking in the desert and mountains. The views everywhere of dusty expanses rising to green mountains were unreal; I felt like I was in a movie. I couldn’t stop snapping pictures out of the car window.
Day 2 – After meeting more of Lindsay’s family in Palm Springs Friday afternoon, we made plans to go to College of the Desert Saturday. Basically, there is a really cool flea market held on College of the Desert’s campus. Lindsay and I scored some cute stuff, including intricate silver friendship bracelets.
Day 3 – Sunday was a kind of lazy day. Lindsay’s parents treated us to an excellent brunch by the pool. We spent most of the day floating in the water or soaking in sun rays from chairs on the patio. The views continued to be amazing; you can see Big Bear from their yard.
Day 4 – Lindsay took me shopping at the outlets in Cabazon. There were so many stores; we were there a few hours and only made it through one section of them. Afterwards, I had In-N-Out for the first time – it is so good! And God bless California for being so conscious of different diets – I didn’t have to worry about feeling weird for asking for no bun, it’s an option on their menu. Before we headed home, she drove me through Palm Springs and we walked through a few smaller boutiques and, as you can see, took photos in front of the Palm Springs sign.
Day 5 – Tuesday, we drove back to SD, on winding roads cut through mountains. Before we made it out of the desert, we stopped to see these touristy dinosaurs; I’m not really sure what their purpose is? Anyway, as we drove, I was busy taking pictures again when I was supposed to be in control of our music. I was fascinated when we drove past a California dairy farm; it was so weird to see cows on such flatland and without weather-paint-peeled, red barns for shelter.
Day 6 – Wednesday was another very chill day. Lindsay got her hair done, I feverishly wrote an essay I’d been working on, and then we found another place for photo ops. I look dorkishly happy, and that is mostly because of sunshine.
Day 7 – Lindsay took me to Pacific beach, then Coronado, and then we went to Balboa Park. Thursday was packed with so much summer beauty, I can’t believe people get to live with such rich flower and water scenery all year round.
Day 8 – We were so active! We went hiking to Razor Point, which is the only mountain hiking I’ve done in the US (the only other mountain I’ve hiked was in Germany) and the view was more than worth it. Next, we trekked the stone sidewalks in windy, hilly, La Jolla so that I could see a beach with actual seals! They were so unbothered by all the people taking their photos, and I swear some of them were posing. La Jolla’s ocean side cliffs were my favorite sight of the trip. The flowers on the path were so vibrant, wrapping around the white fencing that served as a guard rail on the path. They beautifully fringed the bottom of my pictures of steady teal waves washing into the arc of sand and stone. There were benches along the path, and I could easily imagine myself coming to sit there and stare at the water on a regular basis.
Day 9 – On our last full day in California, Lindsay’s parents took us to the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park. It was probably the best zoo experience I’ve ever had. We took a bus ride through the sanctuary part, and it was so cool to see all the animals with a lot of space, just kind of relaxing in their groups. I also got to see that little three banded armadillo, Tattoo, up close, and he was super cute.
Oh, and that evening, our last in SD, we went to a ship launch. Talk about cool, probably once-in-a-lifetime, experiences. We got to sit on the platform even, and listen to the company’s president and a local representative speak, and have the Marine Corp band right behind us. There were also killer cupcakes to eat and fireworks after the ship was in the water.
All in all, spring break in San Diego was a lot of fun. I want to thank Lindsay and her parents for letting me stay with them and showing me all these cool, beautiful, warm, west-coast things I had never gotten to experience before. I think I kind of fell in love with Southern California, and it will definitely not be my last trip there.
Kristen Elizabeth Nichols 