san diego in 6 hours

Before we get to the multitude of posts prancing around in my tired brain (currently located on top of a very tired body), I wanted to show you some photos from last week.

My parents took a cruise starting in Seattle that ends in Florida through the Panama Canal. Their first port of call? San Diego. They had 6 hours from the time they disembarked until they had to reboard. It was conveniently my only day off for the week and the day after my birthday. What to do, what to do?

Because of the time constraints we stuck close to the harbor.

First stop: the USS Midway Museum, an aircraft carrier docked in San Diego Harbor. The hubby and I had been a few months ago so we tried to see the things we missed last time. The carrier is pretty substantial. We started with a tour of the bridge then headed down below.

Here is Dad in one of the hallways below decks. There is a lot of climbing up and down ladders involved. One of my favorite facts from the visit was that the most common cause of sick bay visits was head lacerations from men hitting their heads on things.

In addition to ladders, we also climbed on various aircraft parked on the carrier.

Dad flew.

I can’t take Mom anywhere.

It was also the hottest day in San Diego in 75 years, so after we’d had enough sun, we went to grab lunch. Since it was my birthday (observed), we got cake!

We split it four ways because we had to save room for dessert at our final destination. After a stroll down to Seaport Village to buy my parents new traveling hats, we walked to the edge of Little Italy for serious cake at our true destination for the day.

Nice hats, huh? Mom’s matches her dress from our trip to Sicily!

San Diego generally tends to favor longevity over innovation on the restaurant front, and Extraordinary Desserts has been a sweet institution since the late 1980s. They do some over-the-top plating (flowers, edible gold) of some decadent desserts and offer daily house ice creams and an ever-changing case of sweets. Yum. We now live fairly close to their smaller original location, but the Little Italy outpost is bigger and has more choices.

We had a three-layer berry torte and a lemon meringue cheesecake to share. Despite valiant efforts, we could not finish everything.

It was lovely to have my parents in town — albeit briefly — and gave us a good excuse to have fun before we spent the rest of the week moving. It was also my mom’s first visit to San Diego and I think she enjoyed it. Not bad for such a brief time!

What are your favorite places to take out-of-town visitors?

Tagged as: family, san diego