Carrie will once again cover the fun stuff of what we did each day in San Diego, but I get the task of providing the San Diego guide, using the more analytical approach. My Bay Area post was pretty long, so I tried to shorten this one, but it still came out pretty thorough.
BASIC GEOGRAPHY OF SAN DIEGO
San Diego is somewhat unique in that the downtown is not at the center of the city in terms of north / south. Once you go south of downtown, you are very close to Mexico. The airport is right downtown, with beaches west and northwest of downtown. If you head inland and north, you hit neighborhoods like Hillcrest (the "Boystown" of San Diego), and then further north into vast residential neighborhoods, in addition to office parks. One thing I noticed about San Diego is that it really seems small geographically -- nothing is that far from anything else, and since there are lots of freeways, you can get from place to place fairly quickly and without too much traffic. OK - Let's get into the neighborhoods.
THE BEACHES (Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, La Jolla)
GEOGRAPHY
Along the West Coast, from south to north, the beaches go Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla. There are more beaches to the north, but we did not make it up that far. Ocean Beach is basically west of downtown, whereas the rest are northwest of downtown. Mission Beach is a narrow strip of land bordered by the ocean to the west and Mission Bay to the east. The larger Pacific Beach has more land east of the Ocean, as Mission Bay and Mission Beach border it to the South. North of Pacific Beach is La Jolla, which has beaches and some cliffs on the ocean.
PEOPLE
The people you find at the beaches are different for each area. Ocean Beach was described to us as being the more "hippie" beach neighborhood, and we did observe that to an extent. Our friends also warned us that there were more homeless in Ocean Beach. The ages were quite varied. Once you move into Mission and Pacific Beaches, you run into a younger, party oriented crowd. Carrie and I felt that we might be a little bit too old for the neighborhood, and we became turned off by the constant catcalls from drunk guys driving by in pickup trucks. As you head into the more upscale La Jolla, we found more tourists and older, wealthier residents. My thought was that this neighborhood was a little too ritzy for my taste.
CULTURE / THINGS TO DO
In the beach neighborhoods, when the weather is always perfect, the beach is definitely the place to be. The ocean is great for swimming (although a little cold in the winter, we hear), and the sand at the beach is fantastic. Alcohol is allowed at beaches, which appears to be quite popular in Pacific Beach especially. Assuming your apartment has a balcony or a yard, you can barbecue every day, 365 days a year. There are also restaurants and bars. The Pacific Beach bars are similar to Wrigleyville after Cubs games, except people are wearing bathing suits and there is more outdoor seating. The restaurants vary from cheap fast food to upscale. There are some hotel / beach club type places that have live music, but we didn't check those out as much.
WEATHER
After hearing so much about the "perfect" San Diego weather, I was curious to see if it could live up to the hype. It did. Every single day, there is a blue sky with some occasional floating clouds. The beaches get a few more clouds, but they quickly burn off. The temperature during the day is always in the 70s, but could occasionally float into the 80s on "hot" days. At night, the weather cools into the 60s, and is comfortable for sleeping. I've been told that it can occasionally get into the 50s in the winter, and it even rains for a few days in January.
GETTING AROUND
This is Southern California, so cars are the primary mode of transportation. However, if you live in the beach neighborhood and want to go to the beach, walking is usually doable, and riding a bike is easy. There does appear to be a bus system that accesses the beaches, but we did not try it, and it does not seem heavily used. For getting to Downtown and other neighborhoods, the I-5 is the westernmost freeway and basically your primary option from the Beaches.
SPORTS
I guess there could be Frisbee on the beach -- but the pro sports teams are inland. Since one can get around San Diego pretty quickly, the sports teams are not all that far away.
OVERALL
San Diego's beaches are beautiful, and well worth going to. However, I'm not sure that I'd want to live in the beach towns themselves. Pacific Beach is too "frat party" like, and La Jolla is too ritzy. Ocean Beach might be a possibility, but we'd need to spend a little more time there to know for sure.
DOWNTOWN / LITTLE ITALY / HILLCREST / BANKER'S HILL
GEOGRAPHY
From the beaches, head inland and a little south, and you'll hit the more "urban" San Diego. Downtown is south and west, and has the airport, tall buildings, and the like. Little Italy is basically part of downtown. Banker's Hill is just north of downtown, and is a fairly residential neighborhood with a canyon running through it. Hillcrest is also north of downtown and inland from Banker's Hill. Downtown is generally east of the I-5 and south of the I-8. The very large and pretty Balboa Park borders nearly all of these neighborhoods to the east.
PEOPLE
These neighborhoods are more urban, so you'll find a more diverse crowd here. This is also a somewhat more intellectual crowd than the beaches. Downtown is primarily the financial / big business / hotel district, so you'll see plenty of tourists and business people here. Hillcrest is the openly gay-friendly neighborhood. Banker's Hill seemed like it would be home to professionals, but we didn't really get a sense of the people there.
CULTURE / THINGS TO DO
Downtown has the Gaslamp District, which is full of restaurants and bars. There is also live music downtown. Little Italy obviously has tons of Italian restaurants. Balboa Park is nearby, which contains lots of open green space. Hillcrest contains plenty of restaurants, bars, and coffee shops.
WEATHER
Same as the beaches, except even fewer clouds.
GETTING AROUND
Downtown has a trolley system (pictured above), but its scope is fairly limited. We rode the trolley from the Amtrak station to the airport Enterprise rent-a-car location, and the ride was pleasant enough. The fare varies depending on how far you go, and what's interesting is that paying the fare is based on the honors system. We were told that occasionally attendants will randomly come on a trolley and check for tickets, and if you don't have a ticket, you pay an enormous fine (~$80-$100). Within Hillcrest, things are very walkable. One can also walk from Banker's Hill to Downtown or Hillcrest, or Little Italy to Downtown, etc, although the walking distances are longer. Since the weather is always nice, long walks aren't necessarily a bad thing. Biking also seems like it could work, although you're often sharing the road with cars. If you are more pressed for time, the car is certainly the primary method of transportation.
SPORTS
The Padres (baseball) play downtown in the brand new Petco Park. Unfortunately they were on the road while we were visiting, so we didn't get a chance to enter the park. The Chargers (football) play in Qualcomm Stadium, which is north and east of downtown, but is easily accessible by many freeways. Unfortunately, there is no pro basketball in San Diego.
OVERALL
Provided appropriate housing options were available, I could definitely see myself living in these parts. Little Italy and Downtown are fairly expensive and more "high-rise" like, so those might not be good options. Hillcrest and Banker's Hill seem like better and more affordable options.
UTC / CLAREMONT / TIERRASANTA
GEOGRAPHY
Head north of downtown, and more inland from the beaches. UTC is just east of La Jolla, Claremont is a little more east of Pacific Beach, and Tierrasanta is further east. The Beaches are anywhere from 3-10 miles away from these areas. Things become a little more spread out and suburban here. The residential neighborhoods tend to be more subdivision like, and there are more office parks. In terms of residential areas, Tierrasanta seemed very appealing with more green / tree-lined streets and more space for your money. UTC tends to have more condo-like units that are parts of larger communities that share pools / health clubs, etc. Claremont has more typical small houses. There are some large canyons that go through Claremont. All of these areas are close to multiple freeways, making the rest of San Diego fairly easily accessible.
PEOPLE
These areas appear to have your standard family / middle class housing. This is definitely a more suburban crowd.
CULTURE / THINGS TO DO
Some residential complexes have their own pools and gym, and they may have events going on. In terms of restaurants / bars / shops, there tend to be more strip-malls and fewer dense streets. We'd no longer be able to leave the apartment and walk to a restaurant. However, since these areas are very centrally located, it wouldn't be difficult to drive downtown or to the beaches, where there are more entertainment options available.
WEATHER
It's still San Diego, so nothing to complain about here.
GETTING AROUND
Here, it's almost exclusively the car. Biking is possible, but the area is fairly hilly, so we'd certainly get in shape.
SPORTS
These areas are probably closest to the football stadium, although with all of the freeways near here, getting to Petco Park can't be too hard.
OVERALL
It would be an adjustment, but I think this area could work, especially if the new office were to be in the area. We'd need to find the right type of apartment, but it's possible.
That's all for now. We really enjoyed San Diego, but we also enjoyed the Bay Area, so Carrie and I have some thinking to do. We may need to do what we do best -- make a spreadsheet and start figuring things out. Once we get this California decision settled, I'll post more about the other fun California things like the Amtrak... and then we'll be in full scale South America prep-mode! I can't believe it's only a couple weeks away.
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