Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [261]
On maps Point Loma looks like an elephant’s trunk guarding the entrance to San Diego Bay. At the very tip, atop a hill, the Cabrillo National Monument ( 619-557-5450; www.nps.gov/cabr; per car/person $5/3; 9am-5pm) is San Diego’s finest locale for history and views. It’s also the best place in town to see the gray-whale migration (January to March) from land. After a few minutes here you may forget you’re in a major metropolitan area.
The visitors center ( 619-557-5450; 9am-5pm) has an excellent presentation on Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo’s 1542 voyage up the California coast, plus good exhibits on the native inhabitants and the area’s natural history. The 1854 Old Point Loma Lighthouse, atop the point, is furnished with typical pieces from the late 19th century, including lamps and picture frames hand-covered with hundreds of shells – testimony to the long, lonely nights endured by lighthouse keepers. On the ocean side, drive or walk down to the tide pools (at low tide) to look for anemones, starfish, crabs, limpets and dead man’s fingers (thin, tubular seaweed). To reach the monument, take bus 28C from Old Town Transit Station.
San Diego’s first fishing boats were based at Point Loma, and in the 19th century whalers dragged carcasses here to extract the whale oil. Chinese fishermen settled on the harbor side of the point in the 1860s but were forced off in 1888 when the US Congress passed the Scott Act, prohibiting anyone without citizenship papers from entering the area. Portuguese fishing families arrived about 50 years later and established a permanent community around the same time that Italian immigrants settled in present-day Little Italy. Point Loma’s Portuguese Hall remains a hub of activity for locals.
Charles Lindbergh tested his Spirit of St Louis airplane in 1927 on the tidal flats of Loma Portal, where Point Loma joins the mainland (at the elephant’s neck). The following year a functioning airport was established at his airstrip; it was named Lindbergh Field, now San Diego International Airport.
Ocean Beach
San Diego’s most bohemian seaside community is a place of seriously scruffy haircuts, facial hair and body art. You can get tattooed, shop for antiques, and walk into a restaurant barefoot and shirtless without anyone batting an eye. Newport Ave, the main drag, runs perpendicular to the beach through a compact business district of bars, surf shops, music stores, used-clothing stores and antiques consignment stores.
The half-mile-long Ocean Beach Pier has all the architectural allure of a freeway ramp. Primarily a fishing pier, it’s a good place to stroll; at its end, you’ll have a great perspective on the coast. There’s also the greasy-spoon café (OB Pier Café; 619-226-3474; 7am-9pm Mon-Fri, 7am-10pm Sat & Sun) where you can rent fishing-poles ($15 per day).
Just north of the pier, near the end of Newport Ave, is the beach scene’s epicenter, with volleyball courts and sunset barbecues. Further north on Dog Beach, pups chase birds around the marshy area where the San Diego River meets the sea. Head a few blocks south of the pier to Sunset Cliffs Park, where surfing and sunsets are the main attractions.
There are good surf breaks at the cliffs and, to the south, off Point Loma. Under the pier, skillful surfers slalom the pilings, but the rips and currents can be deadly unless you know what you’re doing.
If you’re here on Wednesday afternoon, stop by the Ocean Beach farmers market ( 619-279-0032; 4900 Block of Newport Ave; 4-7pm Wed, 4-8pm Jun-Sep) to see street performers and sample fresh food.
Mission Beach & Pacific Beach
This is the SoCal of the movies: buffed surfers and bronzed bohemians pack the 3-mile-long stretch of beach from South Mission Jetty to Pacific Beach Point, to cheer the setting sun at these perfect sand beaches.
The beaches’ kick-back scene is concentrated in a narrow strip of land between the ocean and Mission Bay. On Pacific Beach, to the north, activity extends inland, particularly along Garnet Ave, which is lined with bars, restaurants and used-clothing