Spooky San Diego

A beautiful oceanside &

ghostly historical spots –

What’s not to love?

I’ve been making the 2-2.5 hour drive from Los Angeles to San Diego for um-teen years now. There’s one official rest stop near the giant boobs (aka San Onofre) – humongous twin metal half sphere structures off the 5 highway.

At this good looking rest area with its Spanish tiles and stucco, wild sounding black birds sit in the trees and squawk at you and ground squirrels come to say hi and ask for food. You can climb a small hill there for an ocean view (when driving on the 5-South). Go to the bathroom/get gas before you hit the army base because you have a long stretch of road without either.

When most people think of “haunted San Diego”, their minds may go straight to the Gas Lamp Quarter. It is fun with its 1800s hotels and glowing street lighting, but there is so much more to San Diego that’ll give you the chills- in a good way:

When it comes to San Diego, I am a total creature of habit. Things that don’t get old for me there are: the Whaley House (said to be the most haunted house in America) in Old Town and the New Orleans style restaurant in the court-yard by it. I found $5 bucks on the ground there once- thanks, ghosts!

My dog Bea (the Beagle mutt) gets away with murder because she’s very cute. The tour guides of the Whaley House once let her in there because they saw us wandering around the porch and told us about their resident ghost dog named Popcorn. There used to be the cutest 1800s looking book shop next to it also. It had all ghost books. What a magical place that was.

This used to be a book shop/gift store full of books about ghosts. It was so damn cool when it was open.
The building is still to the right of the Whaley House.

Bea sneaking around the courtyard by the Whaley House

Roger has lunch next to the Whaley House. This is his opinion of salad.

If it’s not a taco, he’s not that interested:

Historic cemetery in Old Town San Diego – near the Whaley House

I also usually make it over the big bridge to Coronado Island where the red-roofed, red-carpeted Hotel del Coronado is the star. It’s also where the Marilyn Monroe film Some Like It Hot was shot. It’s a very silly comedy movie.

The humongous pointy topped cacti you see around it are called Dragon Plants I’m told. There’s a dog-friendly beach down the way there too where you can see Navy Seals jogging around right over by the base and amphibious training areas.

My lil guy Roger on the red carpet at
Hotel del Coronado

Exteriors after sun-down:

One of the best views of the whole city can be seen from Fort Rosecrans Cemetery.

It’ll take your breath away…

Balboa Park just makes you feel like you’re in old Europe of centuries ago. It’s haunted too. I’m pretty sure I saw a day-time apparition one afternoon there once in a window of Marston House (a mansion inside the park), which is usually not open.

No photos of the park do it justice. There’s just so much to see and marvel over.

The bridge leading to the park will knock your socks off to begin with.

A new addition to my rounds, which I have to credit to my boyfriend Brandon for finding, is the topiary masterwork of the front yard of a one “Edna Scissorhands”. It’s so well done and I’ve never seen anything like it. Has anyone ever caught sight of this “Edna”? Who is she? Edward S, eat your heart out—

Here I am admiring her work:

I’m quite sad that I don’t get to spend a month straight in San Diego to do more exploring. I only get down for 2-3 days at a time.
Maybe one day the world will make it so I get more time in this quaint spooky California town.