I’ve been in San Diego for for five days, and I’ve yet to tire of the view from my hotel window.
I’m on the seventh floor of the Hilton Hotel on Harbor Island. When I lived in San Diego, I would come here to walk the path that runs the length of the island and to see the skyline and watch the sunset. I walk with Annie on the same path, morning and evening.
I will be here until Sunday, June 27, which will make for 10 days in one spot. Why so long? It’s a rest stop, sort of, before I begin the long trek up the Coast to (hopefully) Canada. Enough time to reassess the city I lived in twice. In 1997-2001 I lived on the second floor of this orange building on Third Avenue in Hillcrest.
Taylor was a toddler then. I used to set her on the balcony railing and hold her tightly as we watched the moon rise over the treetops.
In 2012-13, I lived in Little Italy, first in a tiny apartment where I babysat a little Italian Greyhound named Bella for three months while her parents were in Europe. When they returned I moved two blocks away to this high rise on Beech Street.
I loved living in Little Italy. The Saturday Farmer’s Market was two blocks away, I could see the harbor from my balcony, and I could walk to some of the best restaurants in the City.
Would I really give San Diego a third shot? The elevation couldn’t be much lower (62 feet downtown), the climate is almost perfect, I can get around town without every setting tires on a freeway, it’s probably the most livable big city I’ve ever lived in. And it has a Trader Joe’s. More than one.
If I could have a place with a view like the one from my hotel room, I might consider it. But that would cost a million or two, which is a million or two more than I can conjure up.
So relax, everybody! I’m just doing a little California Dreamin’ here.