A Date With San Diego

We’ve been to San Diego, California many times, in fact my aunt used to live on Coronado Island, so needless to say we know the city pretty well.  That said it never ceases to amaze me, no matter how many times we’ve visited an area there’s always more to discover and explore.
So, we gave ourselves the task this time around NOT to do anything we’ve done in the past.  Not only did we want new discoveries we wanted an experience with a romantic twist, we wanted a date with San Diego.

When trover reached out to us about using their app to discover and explore in a new way we thought San Diego was the perfect challenge because it was a place we already felt we knew.  After spending a few hours browsing around other traveler’s recommendations in the area we realized there’s so much we haven’t seen.  So we made a San Diego list, checked it twice and decided to let others plan our day for us!  If you didn’t catch it in the video, here is what we discovered…

Tin Fish Gaslamp

Not sure why the area was dead for our video, granted we did eat lunch at 11:30am, but there wasn’t a soul around!  The fish tacos are far from traditional considering they’re served in flour tortillas and covered in shredded cheese.  If we were to come back I’d skip the grilled fish and stick with the fried fish as the crispiness helped keep the tortilla from getting soggy.  Overall we were both happy with the recommendation, and we’d even recommend you visit if you’re near the area.

Cabrillo National Monument

Free entry with our National Parks Pass was an unexpected bonus and a welcome start to our afternoon.  The barely “negative” tide wasn’t the lowest of the year but there was more than enough to explore in the seemingly short few hour window.  Once the tide brings the water back in all the treasures are covered up and you’ll have to wait another 20 something hours to revisti!  I can’t believe in all the years we’ve been coming to San Diego we haven’t even heard of this place!  If you are visiting the area make sure you check the tide charts and head over about an hour before low tide.  Expect to spend at least a couple hours exploring the rocky intertidal area and add another hour or two if you want to hike the short trail system.

Old Point Loma Lighthouse

Still inside the National Monument, next to the upper parking lot is the visitor center, the Cabrillo Statue and one killer view of San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean.  The view overlooks the San Diego Naval Supply Center and we watched several GIANT planes fly right by us at eye level as they were descending for the air strip, that alone was worth the visit.  A short walk up the hill and the old lighthouse is open for a self guided exploration.  Plan on spending at least an hour exploring and if you can stay for sunset it is absolutely stunning on a partly cloudy day.

Modern Times Beer

This place is nearly perfect on our Awesome Scale, from the décor, to the beer experts behind the bar and of course the tasty brews.  Top it all off with the fact they are one of the only breweries that also roast their own coffee and serve it up on tap (cold brew on nitro) next to the other brews…yep it was love at first sip for us.  You can bring your own food in or they typically have a food truck setup outside severing tasty local fare.  We especially fell in love with their Black House, a seriously smooth coffee-roasty-stout that would pair perfectly with a quality vanilla ice cream (just sayin!).

Where We Stayed

We parked the RV at the San Diego KOA just a few miles southeast of Downtown.  Believe it or not it’s the first KOA we’ve ever stayed at!  This RV park is well manicured and a great spot for easy access to downtown, Coronado Island and the ocean.  We highly recommend it as a good base camp so we added it to our San Diego “list”.

The Extra Scoop On Trover

Trover is all about the images for visual inspiration, similar to Instagram (one of our faves) and the personal experience details like Google or Yelp (our go-to’s for reviews).  So, it combines two great travel apps in one and we found it extremely easy to use.

Overall letting the app help us pick a “Date Day” for San Diego took a huge weight off our shoulders.  Normally we spend hours scouring the web to choose what to do, where to eat and (of course) the best place to drink.  Instead we flipped through the San Diego photos, chose what looked most interesting and let happenstance work its magic.  Best part is this day was CHEAP!  We ended up only spending around $30 and that’s a fraction of what we normally spend in a big city, so we left pretty darn happy.

The app isn’t perfect, but it is all about following the right travelers.  If you want great tips, recommendations and beautiful photos you will have to spend some time exploring to find the right people (much like really good instagram peeps).  This also means you will have to cut through the touristy stuff (like the multiple listings for the Zoo, Sea World and misc. hotels), but the photo heavy app and website make it fairly easy to get inspired and discover new…well…anything!

It’s all about new discoveries, community, sharing, exploring and saying thanks.  As we mentioned in the video we’re new to the app but it is quickly becoming one of our faves so here are a few things we’ve learned while getting started:

• It’s not Facebook – don’t do what we did in the video and take a selfie, instead show something “pretty, tasty or intriguing” that makes people want to click, read and then go explore it for themselves!
• Be Helpful – in our descriptions we try to give a little insight about the place, and not just put a link to another website, blog post or worse leave it blank! That doesn’t inspire or help anyone.
• No Multiple Listings – If there are already 20 listings for the zoo, don’t add another unless it’s something unique or you have an insider tip to share.  Seriously we don’t need another close up photo of a caged animal filling up the feed.
• Be Thankful – The little heart button is a super fast and easy way to say THANKS when you discover something new.  Or add to the conversation in the comment box with a tip or your take on the discovery.

You can find us on trover here: http://www.trover.com/u/gone-with-the-wynns  We’ll be continually updating and adding new discoveries as we find them.

Disclaimer: All of our thoughts, opinions and experiences are our own and were not purchased.  When trover reached out to us to and said they wanted  us to share our trover experience through video, you would have thought we had just won the golden ticket to Willy Wonka.  We always jump at the opportunity to do what we’re passionate about which is search, discover, explore and share (seriously, they put no demands on us other than discover something new and capture it, perfect job)!