Back here in the Valley of the Sun where this weekend’s high temperature will be somewhere between 35-40 degrees higher than they were yesterday morning before we departed San Diego. As that Glenn Frey song goes, the heat is DEFINITELY on. Still there will be a few fond memories of SD that we take with us while we watch the pool temp break 90 and see the last batch of petunias crisp up nicely to a golden brown.

The Best Western Island Palms on Shelter Island is one of the most beautiful locations we’ve ever stayed in. If there weren’t for the mountains across from the marina you could almost imagine yourself in Newport, RI or on Martha’s Vineyard. Having all the windows open at night is nearly perfect – I say nearly because it’s fairly close to both the airport and some marine base, and those planes get started pretty early in the day.

San Diego’s Old Town never fails to disappoint – more Mexican restaurants than even I could chalk up visiting in a few days spent there and lots of interesting shops. Every year I try and bring a new Hawaiian shirt to Goodboys weekend, and I found a great Reyn Spooner with surfboards on it that will perfect to three-putt my way around one of the courses we play this year. There’s also a funky outdoor store with more wind chimes, tikis, and metal, wood, and glass art that will blow your mind.

Speaking of three-putting, The Crossings at Carlsbad is as nice a course as you’ll ever want to play. One of the guys at the 19th hole was telling us he plays The Crossings and Torrey Pines regularly (how’s that for a life!), and while the greens at TP are even nicer than those at The Crossings (hard to believe) he thinks the elevation changes and the layout at The Crossing makes it a more challenging and enjoyable place to play. We actually passed Torrey Pines on our way back from Carlsbad – need to mark that on my to-do list if we ever get back to San Diego again.

If we had had time we would have headed up to Oceanside from Carlsbad, but it was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to use the shore road back to San Diego; if we ever get there again I’d like to do the road trip from Oceanside north on the historic “surf route 101” up to Santa Barbara and take in a few legendary surf spots and actually take a lesson.

If you’re conservation-minded and want to see how various African and Asian animal species are being preserved against extinction it’s well worth taking in the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park. Yeah, it’s a place for chiuldren and families as well, but there are tours where you get to see all kinds of animals in a natural habitat and learn a few things about the park’s ongoing efforts. The incurably pleasant and chatty tour guide aside, it was a great take – we did the African, would love to do the Asian tour next time. Even better, down the street a few miles there are a couple of wineries open for tours and tastings, as well as The Vineyard at Escondido which looked like a very nice golf course from the street.

As nice as San Diego is, I can’t imagine what it would be like to live there, with all the traffic. There was one moment where we’re heading south on “the 5” and in all directions – south, north, and from an approaching overpass to on-ramps both north and south all you could see were cars. Like, thousands of ants crawling all over the place. How people live with that on a daily basis I’ll never understand.

But I do, actually – the weather is unbelievable. And to live in weather like that year round you’re not going to be the only one, that’s for sure.