San Diego….the birthplace of California.

The first mission was established in 1769 by Father Junipero Serra. By 1835, the area was known as El Pueblo de San Diego. The US Navy and Marines arrived in 1846, raising the area’s first American flag

The State Historic Park was established in 1968 and preserves the original townsite as well as the buildings built between 1820 and 1870. It is free to walk through the park.

We ate lunch at Cafe Coyote, which is on Historic US 101, the main street through Old Town.

We watched as the tortillas were rolled by hand. On the week-ends, to keep up with demand, 12 ladies make the tortillas. We took a dozen tortillas with us…lol.

Lunch was amazing and we were serenaded with a Mexican love song…ahhhh

We visited the nearby Mormon Battalion Visitor Center. It was fascinating to learn the history of this group. They were organized by the US government in 1846 to fight in the Spanish-American War. They marched over 2000 miles from Iowa to San Diego.

Inside the building, there are guides who take you through a visual journey about their march.

Jim was the demonstration solider. 500 people started the journey, but only 300 made it to San Diego. They arrived in 1847 and helped build many of the original buildings in Old Town, as they knew how to make oven-fired bricks.

We grew up listening to Air Supply, so when we found out they were going to preform in Point Loma, near San Diego, we bought tickets. The concert was held at Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay.

It was an awesome venue that holds 1400 guests, but the tickets were fairly inexpensive.

True to it’s name, the stage is right on the bay. There were several boats full of people, who had anchored to listen to the show. The sunset was perfect!!

Air Supply was started by Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock in 1975 in Australia. They say that once you have been to an Air Supply concert, you will forever be an Air Head.

They sang all of our favorites…Making Love out of Nothing at All, Without You, and All out of Love. Russell is 73 and Graham is 72. They said that they are the best of friends and love what they do and it showed. We had the best time!!

What a great way to end our exploration of the San Diego area.