Secret San Diego: Mushroom Caves

There's this magical, unworldly place in Encinitas, CA (San Diego county) known as the mushroom caves.  It's narrow passageways and graffiti walls give way to great photographic opportunity, so Court and I decided to spend the morning of Thanksgiving here.

Take the 5 North from downtown SD, get off at an exit for Manchester Ave (I believe its 29 or 39, it has a 9 in it) and take a left at the light.  We parked in the MiraCosta College lot and crossed over Manchester Ave to get to a gate for San Elijo Lagoon.  When you get past that you'll walk until you pass under the freeway and keep walking along the path (stay right) until come up to a yellow "No Trespassing" sign nailed to a tree branch, then you'll know you're there.

There are holes dug into the wall that allow anyone with good footwear to scale some walls and land in a pocket cave.

Some parts get a little too narrow for the body.

A quiet hang out spot

Courtney was feeling very young, wild, and braless this particular day.

Some parts require a bit of a climb to get to the top of the caves to see out across the water.

Courtney couldn't get enough of flashing the world, not an uncommon sight.

It was a very unique way to spend the holiday and get the hunger pumping for our dinner, which was fairly sad to say the least, but we did make a ham!

A Slice of San Diego

 San Diego is a little slice of heaven.  It's sunny and 75 (cue country song) all year round, cloudless skies, clean, uncrowded beaches, and the most beautiful people.  The part of SD I reside in is called Pacific Beach (PB for short), and it is the more "youthful" of area of town.  College kids and post grads have taken over here and are running rampant with their beach cruisers, toting surfboards and flocking to the dozens of bars lining the beach.  It's a beautiful dream world I only imagined before, now come to life.

The Cove in La Jolla

Just north of PB is La Jolla, an incredibly wealthy, quiet town.  Cliff-side mansions lined with palm trees grace every corner and peak my jealousy, no worries I'd rather be over here with my $2 taco and small apartment.

$2 taco you say, Shawn?  Yea, every Tuesday is called Taco Tuesday and most of the bars around have $1 or $2 tacos and crazy cheap prices on drinks, like margaritas.  People get all turned up about it and go totally wild, but people also do the same on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday as well.  The bars are pretty packed all the time.

We stayed with a friend for a week when we first got here and went to a billion apartments looking for the right one, but we finally settled on one about 13 or so blocks from the beach, not too bad.  We have enough space and are far enough away from the noise of town but close enough that we can walk, it's a win-win.

The view out our window

Courtney also showed me a couple places around like Sunset Cliffs, Ocean Beach (OB), and other great places, but I'll go more into depth on them later.

Crystal Pier

Crystal Pier is great to watch the sunset from and you'll always catch a glimpse of surfers, and if you're lucky you'll see the elusive Green Flash (it's a tiny little flash of green as the sun dips down over the horizon).  Most nights there are beautiful colors swirling through the sky just before and after sunset.  I like to carve out a little place in the sand and watch the show.

San Diego is a spectacular place and I'll be reporting from here for the next year, giving out the scoop on where to go and what to do.