Adventures with Abigail

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I went to California in June 2025. This is my story.

My fiancé and I went to San Diego for one of my college buddy’s wedding this past June. We decided to make a little trip out of and explore the area.

We rented a car after our short flight at the airport and I drove us over to Midway Classic Malt Shop. Very hole-in-the-wall-but-delicious kind of place. The burgers were great, and they seemed to have a good selection of ice cream. We also had a shake that was good. The man that was working the counter greeted us with such unfiltered friendliness. It was a great start to the trip.

After eating a late lunch we checked into our hotel. Look, every trip you learn something new about traveling if you are paying enough attention. This … mistake … was a little easier to notice, though. One of the ways I pick good hotels (without breaking the bank) is to not choose the cheapest option. Yes, my philosophy on hotels is that you are really only there to sleep and shower, so they don’t need to be super special. They do need to be safe and clean and get the job done. I used credit card points for this hotel, and this time I learned that while it may not be the cheapest on the credit card website, it would have been the cheapest if I’d have booked directly. I’m not really sure how that works economically, but I definitely learned that I can’t trust whatever my credit card travel website has to say about hotels. It’s not like this hotel was unsafe, or gross. It had a decent shower, and the bed wasn’t the worst hotel bed I’ve ever slept in. It just smelled like mildew which played havoc on my allergies. The lobby was also sketch AF (the people were fine).

Okay, back to the fun stuff. After dropping our stuff off in our hotel, we headed to THE ZOO! The San Diego Zoo!

We purchased a two day Go City pass for San Diego, so our visit to the zoo was included! We spent about 2 hours going through the whole zoo. Pretty nice zoo. I was very hyped up for this zoo, and when you are that level of hyped it just never lives up. It was a good zoo, though. If you don’t have a car while you are in San Diego, then I can totally recommend you spend time here (If you do have a car, go to the Safari Park).

The first animal we saw was this bear! Look at those cute little toe beans! The bear was mostly chilling in his hammock, so I didn’t get any good pictures of his face. The area didn’t have good shade to stand and watch, so we moved on. There was some really good exhibits with nice shade to watch animals. They even have pandas! This was very crowded, and they do close at 5pm (during the summer?). There’s basically a long line that walks you all the way down the enclosure, then doubles back on itself after going up some stairs at one end. This means both rows of people can see the pandas as they walk through the area.

So yeah, never seen a panda before, so that was pretty cool. If you like elephants, then you should watch the video I got of one eating. It’s fascinating. The elephant’s name is Tsandzikle, and he has one tusk.

After our time at the zoo, we decided we should probably go see the ocean. We took off our shoes and socks, and walked the beach near the jetty (which I apparently didn’t take a photo of). The water was very very cold, though.

We then decided that to get our money’s worth out of this Go City Pass, then we must do another activity today. The only thing still open was Belmont Park, so we went to do that.

We did a wooden roller-coaster and I immediately regretted it. Justin didn’t like roller-coasters to begin with, and then the first one I get him on is an abusive wooden one. This park also had an aerial adventure park in it. 2 stories of obstacles was very fun. Afterwards I had Justin show me his moves on a cute little rock wall, and then we did the minigolf course. He got a hole-in-one on the last hole and won a prize! He gave the $10 arcade gift card to the family of 3 that was ahead of us the whole time. Their son was very excited and appreciative.

The next morning, our plans were up in the air. We had planned on going to a water park that was listed on the San Diego Go City Pass, and then when we finally looked up where it was we found out it’s in LA! So, word to the wise, just because it’s on the Go City pass doesn’t mean it’s in the city…. Frustrating, but this meant we could check out the San Diego Zoo Safari Park! This time we learned that just because the entrance ticket is included with the Go City pass, that doesn’t mean the parking is. Also, this park is 30 minutes outside of San Diego, so you do need a car to get to it.

We get there minutes after its open in the morning. When we first walked in and are trying to get a lay of the land with the map, a park employee asks us if we need help/is this our first time. We say yes, and he tells us to go straight to the tigers. That you really only see movement when it’s early in the day because it gets too hot for them in the summer. He points us in the right direction, so we take his advice and make a beeline for the tigers.

As you can see by the photo above, the park is very immersive. Justin will tell anyone that’ll listen that, “it’s like if Jurassic Park was in real life!” And he’s not wrong. Their exhibit boundaries are really low visibility, so you really feel like you are in the same area as the animals.

That’s all the time I have today. Will finish blog post soon.