The year 2020 actually started off on a pretty good foot. My wife and I took a weeklong vacation to visit my brother and his wife in San Diego, CA. This was the first time that I had ever visited California and, even though it was January, I was looking forward to getting away from the gloomy winter weather in Pittsburgh and enjoying some nice Southern California weather. My brother, who was working for Marriot at the time, was able to arrange a hotel room for us at Moxy San Diego. It was a pretty nice boutique hotel near the center of downtown, which put everything within walking distance.
We arrived in San Diego on a Wednesday and my wife and my sister-in-law had made plans to visit Disneyland on Thursday. So, I had most of the day to myself. In the afternoon, I met up with my brother at Balboa Park where we wandered around the Museum of Man – which is now the Museum of Us. After the museum, we headed back downtown for an evening of bar hopping until the wives returned.
Friday afternoon the four of us – and their pup Hazel - set out to do some exploring at JTNP. Something I hadn’t realized is that JTNP is massive! It seemed like we spent most of the day just driving around in the park. However, during our hike at Arch Rock, we did get some excitement. My wife went completely MIA for about 45 minutes. Long story short, we thought she could head one way around a rock and meet back up on the trail leading to the car. It turns out the boulders of Joshua Tree are a bit of a maze. Fortunately, she was able to find her way to the main road and get back to the parking lot, but we were both quite rattled. After the ordeal, we headed in to Twenty-Nine Palms to grab some food and plot out what to do with the rest of the day. We spent the evening driving around the park again and eventually made our way to Barker Dam just a bit before sun set. After the busy day we headed back to our Airbnb and enjoyed a steak dinner.
As our vacation wound down, we returned to San Diego to spend another day and half before returning to Southwest PA. I should point out that our weather at Joshua Tree was beautiful, but the weather in San Diego was mostly overcast and it even rained one day. Before leaving we were able to check out the USS Midway and, just because they exist, we stopped by a recreational marijuana shop. That store was pretty crazy. Overall, our trip was enjoyable but I’m not sure I’m going to be running back to California any time soon.
Sunset at Barker Dam, Joshua Tree National Park - January 2020