SAN DIEGO

San Diego is California's second largest city by population, and the eighth largest city in the United States.

It's also a lot of fun!

Aside from being an aesthetically attractive metropolitan city, San Diego has almost every outdoor activity available to its residents and visitors.  You can go horse-back riding in the morning, cycling in the afternoon, and relax at any number of beaches before sunset.

San Diego is also the southwesternmost city in the continental USA, less than a half hour drive to the the nation's international border with Baja California, Mexico.

Probably one of my most memorable birthdays was spent in San Diego.  About five minutes after taking some night images of the city featured in this gallery, a 5.6 magnitude earthquake transpired for a duration of 45 seconds. Essentially stuck on the 25th floor of a downtown hotel which literally swayed back and forth during the quake, it felt more like 15 minutes.   When I eventually got to the lobby, perturbed by experiencing an earthquake for the first time, it was abundantly clear who was from California (those who were laughing, drinking wine, playing with their kids as though *nothing* had happened) and those who were not, like myself (asking whether we needed to evacuate or find shelter)!

Nevertheless, San Diego is quite a remarkable city with fun-loving people who love their sports teams and their incredibly pleasant weather almost all-year round.