It’s not “Behind The Scenes.” The first time we went here it was to eat the “BTS Meal” from McDonalds, my daughter and I celebrating the Korean boy band.

This table is another “Developer Required to Build” hidden treasure in North County, specifically Encinitas. Park in a cul-de-sac, schlep up a nice decomposed granite trail for 5 minutes, and you’ve got a great spot overlooking the Pacific with the sound of the wind and curses of golfers in your ears.

It even has a trash can! Love this spot!

First, park in this cul-de-sac. (Red drop white star on map)

Walk up the trail

Here it is.

The first time we found it, kid age-appropriately posting to soc meeds.

• Take a tandem flight at Torrey Pines, probably a paraglider (not many hang gliding tandem opportunities). It’s generally kind of light in the summer. Beach with naked Michelin Men below.
• Zoo or Safari Park, of course
• Lions, Tigers, & Bears Rescue & Sanctuary in Alpine. Really good value, supporting a good cause.
• Legoland if you’ve got a human child
• Fiesta Island if you have a canine child
• Waterfront Park is also nice for those human children
• Hike Torrey Pines (the other end from the gliderport). This is my personal favorite activity for visitors. They are blown away by the views and the hike is good exercise. Parking is $20 and at the base of the hill and also further up coast highway.
• Actually, there are a lot of interesting and varied hikes around the county… more than you might expect for a metropolitan area this size. Just google them if want to work off that California Burrito. Annie’s Canyon and Cowles Mountain are favorites. Bring water, leave the speaker.
• Balboa park, mostly museums, fairly interesting, next to the zoo.
• Tour the USS Midway Museum
• Take a surfing lesson.
• Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad (very family-friendly)
• Carlsbad Flower Fields in the Spring. I live in Carlsbad, never been. But, people seem to like it. Pricey. Cheapskates can view them from the top for free (right next to the Museum of Making Music).
• Near the two above, is not always open, but there is a pick-them-yourself strawberry farm in Carlsbad that is kind of fun. It’s a decent place to go around Halloween, with pumpkins, corn mazes, and fun things for kids.
• Belmont Park – a beach boardwalky place with a rickety roller coaster.
• Go to La Jolla Tide Pools at low tide, then check out the Children’s Pool (a cove with sea lions), then have lunch at the Taco Stand
• Go to a brewery. Pure Project is all around the county and a solid choice at each one. Northpark has a lot in walking distance of each other and if you are up in North County there are quite a few in Carlsbad/San Marcos/Vista. Stone has kind of jumped the shark, but their breweries at Liberty Station and in Escondido have great atmosphere.
• Take a kayak tour of La Jolla
• Catch a Padres game
• Go to Old Town. Park at CalTrans after 5PM on weekdays. It’s like Tijuana without the cartels and the kids selling Chiclets.
• Drive over to Coronado. It’s kinda neat. There’s a long bike path along the waterfront and lots of bike rental joints. Of course, the famous old wood hotel is there, eating on the beach behind it is a treat. Avoid Coronado Brewing Company, it’s got the most painful brewery quality-to-crowd ratio in the county.
• Go to the Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma. Tide pools, incredible views, and occasionally a weird dude dressed as a conquistador who is a bit of a close talker. Fee for entrance, free for Veterans.
• Go across the border for cheap dental work and/or street tacos.
• Check to see if the ponies are running in Del Mar.
• At night there’s this boat/bar that cruises around Mission Bay. Not expensive at all.
• Seaport Village for shopping and food and stuff. It’s being renovated, but still pretty cool.
• Botanical Gardens in Encinitas. Neat light display after dark during the holidays. Book early for that.
• Birch Aquarium
• Take a tour of the Bay, there are a couple of companies that do it.
• Go whale watching if it’s the right time of the year
• Mission Bay is fun. It’s got boating activities, a fun casual cycling path around it, a lot of playgrounds and places for picnics, lots of free parking.
• Mount Soledad – good views and a burr in atheists’ asses.
• Museum of Contemporary ~~Crap~~ Art
• Moonlight Beach in Encinitas is a very good family beach, with free parking above and the neighborhood around. It has a playground for the littles, picnic tables, a food concessionaire that is open in peak summer hours, easy access to the water, lots of lifeguards, etc. Can park there, walk up to Coast Highway for lunch. Encinitas downtown/strip is a fun hang.
• A bike ride up and down the coast. Rent in Oceanside or Carlsbad village and go down the coast to Tamarak or Ponto, or rent in Encinitas and go down to 15th St. in Del Mar. Rentals in Coronado, also.
• Park in North Park around 30th St. and University Ave. and walk around for a fun, walkable area with good foodie spots.
• Chicano park, if you are on a quest for culture that’s a little different from the stereotypical San Diego scene
• If you eat on the balcony of Mister A’s, you can watch planes on final to the airport at about your height, flying by. There is a dress code.
• The Marine Corps Mechanized Museum on Pendleton
• The San Luis Rey Mission in Oceanside is kind of interesting if you happen to be up there.
• Sunny Jim’s Cave & Store in La Jolla
• Oceanside Surf Museum
• The Gondola Company in Coronado. There’s also one in North County on Lake San Marcos.
• The Maritime Museum
• If you find yourself in Julian, there’s the Eagle Mine and the Wolf Center, on top of pies, pies, pies.
• Out in Ramona, there’s a really nice hike in the grasslands park. There is also a camel farm.
• The old sailing ship Star of India and the Maritime Museum near the Midway.
• Rent a bike and ride around Coronado and along the Silver Strand
• Rent a bike or boat and have a fun time around or on Mission Bay

• Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
  • Hit or miss in terms of the guest, Jesse’s fun and kind.
• Childish
  • Allison Rosen & Greg Fitzsimmons talk about parenthood, but it’s a podcast for adults in terms of content.
• Consider This (NPR)
  • Mostly for the subcategory of Ukraine War updates
• Endless Thread
  • This podcast picks a thread on reddit and dives deep. Fun Stuff.
• E Plurbus Motto
  • New one by John Hodgeman and Janet Varney deep diving on U.S. states, their facts and culture.
• Filmweek
  • KPCC’s weekly movie reviews, an old radio standard.
• Fitzdog Radio
  • Comedian Greg Fitzsimmons has been doing this for a decade, always fun.
• Fly on the Wall / Superfly
  • Dana Carvey and David Spade interview celebs (or don’t), generally with an SNL theme.
• Freakonomics Radio
  • I love this podcast, it’s consistently interesting in breadth and depth.
• Fresh Air
  • One of out 3 is going to be a really good or better guest, but this podcast went downhill after Trump got elected, mostly in its never-ending whinging about Trump and the Right. Also, its political correctness just plain takes up a lot of the airtime.
• Hidden Brain
  • Shankar Vedantam does a stellar job of finding and diving in on topics that are really educational.
• How I Built This
  • One out of 4 is really interesting. A lot of retail stories that I’m less interesting in and it’s always just the founder’s tale, often about how they built something and flipped it.
• Huberman Lab
  • This is the newest to the list and one of the most informative. Dr. Huberman has literally already helped me sleep, not by putting me to sleep, but by explaining how sleep works and what affects it. Fascinating and well done.
• Judge John Hodgman
  • John Hodgman and Jesse Thorn have a great time and share the fun settling trivial disputes.
• Martini Shot
  • Hollywood insider takes by writer Rob Long. Funny and quick, I can’t multitask while I’m listening or I miss too much.
• Medal of Honor
  • Malcolm Gladwell’s stories of MOH recipients.
• Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast
  • Best when it’s just comedian Bill Burr, holding forth about what’s in his brain. I skip the sports talk if it goes on too long, while enjoying almost endless musings and rants.
• Naked Lunch
  • Fun conversations between Phil Rosenthal, David Wild, and guests, over very mesophonia-triggering lunches.
• No Such Thing as a Fish
  • Wry Brits tackle trivia while trying to out-jest each other.
• Pop Culture Happy Hour
  • Another NPR podcast that goes over what’s happening in pop culture. Its batting average has gone down since it went daily, but going daily did increase the overall amount of fun to my ears. Glen Weldon is one of the funniest people in podcasts, with quick and often bone-dry replies and asides.
• Real Coffee with Scott Adams
  • Unique takes from a right-center-right, analytical, cancelled cartoonist.
• Risky Business
  • Part discussion of Risk, part discussion of politics, by election guru Nate Silver and poker player / author Maria Konnikova. Nate’s surprisingly objective, Maria painfully subjective.
• State of the World
  • Daily News by NPR.
• Stuff you Should Know
  • One of the top podcasts forever, I’ve been listening since before it was Josh and Chuck exclusively. It’s gone way downhill since I Heart Radio bought it, taking it to a podcast I can’t listen to on a bike ride for all the ads. I don’t auto-download anymore.
• Sunday Papers
  • Yet another Greg Fitzsimmons joint, this time with friend Mike Gibbons, the two go over news stories and rail against Dagwood Bumstead’s treatment of Blondie.
• The Daily
  • The best news podcast in terms of quality. They deep dive a subject every day. Fairly objective for the New York Times.
• The Business
  • Kim Master’s always interesting update on what’s going on Hollywood. Another NPR production.
• The Tim Ferris Show
  • About half the shows are really interesting and informative, the other half not bad but since it’s such a deep dive, I fast-forward out of stuff that’s not relevant to me.
• The Town
  • Matt Belloni’s coverage of Hollywood. Always a fun listen.
• The Treatment
  • Elvis Mitchell is the Old Pro from Dover, interviewing entertainers great and small.
• The Way I Heard It
  • Mike Rowe recently took his podcast from 5 minutes or so to an hour or so. I kind of preferred the old format, but he’s always fun to listen to.
• Up First
  • NPR’s early morning quick take on a topic of the day.
• Weekend Film Reviews
  • By KCRW
• WTF with Marc Maron
  • I’m still waiting for him to say something funny, but his interviews can be pretty good

Based on a combination of my nostalgia, climate, and current conditions… this is the order I’d live in them, again.

• Carlsbad, CA
  • Climate, Beaches, Hills, Open Space, Bike Trails, Well Governed, Well Educated and Chill Residents
• San Francisco, CA
  • Amazing, Despite the Governance Flaws
• Helena, MT
  • Nostalgia
• Melbourne, Australia
  • Multi-ethnic Women with Amazing Australian Accents, Never Boring
• Newport Beach, CA
  • The Beaches
• San Marcos, CA
  • Baja Carlsbad
• San Bernardino, CA
  • Great Hang Gliding. If you don’t hang glide, probably not best.
• Mendoza, Argentina
  • Steak and Women to make your liver quiver.
• Davis, CA
  • Nice Little Town. So PC.
• St. Andrews, Australia
  • A Little Rural, Pretty
• St. Petersburg, Russia
  • Most Beautifully Designed City
• Huntington Beach, CA
  • Geography A, Governance F, Population D-
• Fresno, CA
  • Would Be Higher 40 Years Ago. Now it’s all meth and madness.
• Pensacola, FL
  • Nice Beaches. A Navy rite of passage. Humid.
• Milton, FL
  • A Getaway. Friends retired there and I get that. Humid.
• Virginia Beach, VA
  • Kind of fun. But humid and no waves.
• Temecula, CA
  • Horrible Commutes, Hot
• Irvine, CA
  • People’s Republic Of Irvine. Corrupt Government & the Irvine Co. makes every other city in OC preferable, unless you love Mello Roos, strip malls, and stop lights.
• Honolulu, HI
  • Most Overrated Place on Earth, IMHO