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First off, it’s not a San Diego trip without going to the beach. With the perfect weather, this is why I chose San Diego for this trip.

We first went to Coronado beach. Coronado beach was voted #2 most beautiful beach resort in the US together with the iconic and classy Hotel Del Coronado. When we got there it was too early, we opted to walk by this beautiful beach. San Diego is definitely a beautiful city to live in, where you can do your morning jog along the beach whenever you feel like it.

We decided to go to Mission Beach since we have time to kill and we wanted to see how different Mission Beach is from Coronado beach.

Turns out, we enjoyed Mission Beach more. Mission Beach is a more popular beach with stores and restaurants aligning by the beach walk. As we plan to be all touristy, it’s a great convenience to be near stalls and stores if you needed more beach towels and probably, eat quick-melting ice cream like we did.

If you’re planning a San Diego trip with beaching, parking is definitely horrible. We got there around 8:30am and the street parking was almost full. I would say it’s the same with Coronado beach.

The beach was gorgeous but was surprised it was full of… seaweeds! I don’t know if it’s the time of the year but the beach was full of washed up seaweeds. Be sure to find a spot a bit away from them.

Click to enlarge pictures and to see notes.

We set up camp, put on our SPF’s and jumped into the water. When I say jump, I do mean it literally. Water was so freezing you’d have to set yourself up to avoid resistance. The sand is not as white as Florida beaches, but it was still perfect. Here we are jumping into the waters and getting our a*ses wet. Nothing like freezing water to jumpstart you in the morning (after waking up at 6am to get a good parking spot :D).

Mission beach is a bit crowded, being popular. As tourists, we like being with the crowd. You’ll see all kinds here: from families, to college kids, to tourists like us.

You could do all kinds of water sports in Mission Beach. There are a variety of stalls that offer all kinds of boards like surfboards and other equipments such as jetskis. There are even surfing schools if you’re really serious about mastering the waves. As most of us were non-swimmers, we tried a little bodyboarding. Keyword: tried.

And if you got your a*s kicked by the waves instead of the other way around, you could always use the bodyboards for photo props. Don’t forget to tuck that belly in in the photo shoot.

We eventually got tired fighting the waves and trying not to drown. We went to eat some Mexican in the Mission Bay Park. It’s nice to sit on some cool grass after having your skin singed by the sun and hot sand. You can also try out that amusement park.

What a great day for beaching. Mission beach is definitely the beach that has it all. For Coronado, I think it would be great as well if you were staying nearby. Of course, if you’re looking for a nudist beach, Black’s Beach is also in the area.

(Pictures from my cameras and R’s camera.)

Next stop: Sunset Cliffs 🙂
Trip summary: San Diego Trip
Complete photo album: San Diego 2011 (updating while on this series run)