What a morning I had exploring old town San Diego. San Diego is one of those America cities I had penned on my must visit list and I am thankful that at the end of 2016, I got to check it off my list. In all my prep for the trip, the one place that kept coming up as must see - Old Town San Diego. On our first full day in the city we set out to see what the fuss was all about and what we discovered was one of the highlights of our time in the city. Old town has such a historic significance, it has been classified a historic park. A bit of history lesson from our time in Old town; It is considered the first permanent Spanish settlement in California and possibly the birthpace of California.
The park has been beautifully preserved as a reminder of the old, but also has influences of the new with shops and restaurants including a cold stone creamery housed in one of the historic huildings and the Wells Fargo museum in the Colorado house. We explored on foot starting at the Fiesta de Reyes courtyard. The hightlight of our time in the courtyard lined with shops and restarants have got to be olive oil tasting at Temecula olive oil company and hot sauce tasting at Awesome hot sauce. I have added some of their offerings to my Christmas want list. I highly recommend stopping by both shops if you are in old town.
After all that tasting business was sorted, we made our way to the historic buildings, including the Church, Casa de Estudillo and Whaley house. We stopped by the model railroad depot which was amazing and is free to visit (donations are encouraged). We did not have a meal here but Casa coyote came highly recommended by several people. I chose not to do a "guide" post because this is one of those place you have got to explore your way and let the feel of old town lead you. I will recommend a few hours here to get the most out of the experience and you can hop on one of the shuttle if walks are not your thing.
