San Diego: The City Where California's History Actually Began
San Diego was California before California existed. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed into the harbor in 1542 - the first European to reach Alta California. The mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded in 1769, was the first of the California missions. Yet San Diego spent most of its history overshadowed by Los Angeles and San Francisco, a sleepy border town with a naval base and nice weather. The city that emerged in the late 20th century is California's second-largest, with a biotech industry, a world-famous zoo, and a waterfront that finally matches the harbor Cabrillo discovered. San Diego is where California began; it took centuries for California to notice.
The Navy
San Diego is a Navy town - the largest naval fleet in the world is homeported here, and military spending shapes the regional economy. The harbor that attracted Cabrillo attracted the Navy for the same reason: deep, protected, excellent. North Island became a naval air station in 1917; the Marine Corps established Camp Pendleton to the north. By World War II, San Diego was training center and departure point for the Pacific war. Today, roughly 100,000 active-duty military personnel and their families live in San Diego County. The aircraft carriers visible from the waterfront are working ships, not museum pieces; the jets overhead are flying from naval air stations, not air shows.
The Zoo
The San Diego Zoo began in 1916 with animals left over from the Panama-California Exposition and grew into one of the world's great zoological institutions. The 100-acre site in Balboa Park houses 3,700 animals of 650 species in habitats designed to approximate their natural environments. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park, 30 miles north, extends the experience across 1,800 acres where animals roam in larger enclosures. The zoo pioneered techniques in animal care and conservation breeding; its programs have helped recover species from near-extinction. The institution is both tourist attraction and serious conservation organization, entertaining millions while working to preserve species they'll never see in the wild.
The Border
Tijuana is 17 miles south of downtown San Diego - close enough that the metropolitan areas have merged into a single binational region of 5 million people. The San Ysidro Port of Entry is the busiest land border crossing in the Western Hemisphere; 70,000 vehicles and 20,000 pedestrians cross daily. The relationship is complicated: Tijuana provides cheaper labor and goods; San Diego provides higher wages and American consumer markets. The maquiladoras just south of the border manufacture for American companies; the workers commute from neighborhoods visible from San Diego's southern suburbs. The border is simultaneously barrier and connection, separating nations whose economies are inseparable.
The Weather
San Diego's climate is essentially perfect: average highs in the 60s and 70s year-round, rainfall averaging 10 inches annually (and almost none from May through October), the Pacific moderating both summer heat and winter cold. The consistency approaches monotony - seasons barely exist, weather forecasting is unnecessary, umbrellas are tourist items. The climate draws retirees, beach lovers, and anyone fleeing everywhere else's weather extremes. The downside is fire season: the Santa Ana winds that blow hot and dry from the desert create conditions for wildfires that periodically threaten suburbs built into chaparral hillsides.
Visiting San Diego
San Diego is served by San Diego International Airport, remarkably close to downtown. The Gaslamp Quarter offers historic architecture, restaurants, and nightlife. Balboa Park contains the zoo, museums, and Spanish Colonial Revival buildings from the 1915 exposition. The USS Midway Museum preserves an aircraft carrier at the waterfront. La Jolla offers upscale beaches and the Birch Aquarium. Coronado, across the bay, features the iconic Hotel del Coronado and wide beaches. The weather permits outdoor activities year-round; bring layers for marine fog and evening cool. The Trolley connects downtown to the border at San Ysidro - Tijuana is a short walk through customs, though walking back requires waiting in line.
From the Air
Located at 32.72°N, 117.16°W on San Diego Bay at the southwestern corner of the continental United States. From altitude, San Diego appears as urban development wrapping around a protected bay - Coronado Island visible across the water, Point Loma protecting the harbor entrance. The Mexican border is visible to the south, Tijuana's development continuous with San Diego's suburbs. Naval installations line the bay; aircraft carriers may be visible at dock. What appears from altitude as a coastal California city is where California history began - the first European landing, the first mission, and now the largest naval base on the Pacific Coast.