Distance from San Diego Intl. Airport: 16 Miles ($35 Uber)
Length of stay: 7 Nights
Average nightly rate: $200 USD/Night
As the end 2015 gets closer and closer I begin to get more and more exited as I accomplish my travel goals for the year. As i have mentioned in my past posts, status with hotels and airlines is one of the most important things to frequent travelers. In the beginning of the year I set a goal to reach American Airlines Executive Platinum, the highest tier of traveler for the airline. It takes 120 segments (flights) or 100,000 miles traveled to reach Executive Platinum. It has a various amount of benefits from free first class upgrades to %100 mile match bonus to priority check in and priority boarding to 3 free checked bags and so much more. I also set out to reach Gold status with Hilton which is a little more difficult, it takes sleeping 40 nights in the year at hilton hotels to reach Gold. With gold status you are entitled to free room upgrades, free breakfast for you and a guest daily, %25 points match bonus and so much more as well.
I received an email this week saying I finally reached Gold! Reaching gold this year gives me status with Hilton all the way until March of 2017, it gives me every reason to stay at Hilton's wherever I may be traveling. On the airline side I am still pushing to reach Executive platinum.
As you can see above, I only need 5 more segments to reach my goal. Segments basically means flights, I already have at least 3 more trips planned for the rest of 2015 which equals 12 segments (4 flights per trip) so I am confident I will reach my goal.
I received an email from American Airlines this week offering to boost my status up to Executive Platinum for $1,199 lol! Anyone with a brain could use half of that money and take a vacation and reach 5 more segments. I just thought that would be funny to share cause I'm sure there are people out there that actually pay for the boost.
I had the blessing of returning to California for a week to one of the nicest hotels I have been to. There is something about the California coast that feels unrealistic to me. It feels like an endless paradise because no matter where you look you are in awe. The people are different (in a good way), people don't seem to take themselves as seriously as they do on the east coast. Everyone is more relaxed and mellow, maybe i'm wrong but thats the vibe I get every time I get to visit.
The Flight
Flying every week I have had the opportunity to fly in almost every style of plane in the industry. It has gotten to the point that when I book my flights I look at the style of plane flying that route. If I see that one of my favorite planes are flying a route with more layovers or at later/earlier time I will go out of my way to ride on that plane. I have fallen in love with American Airlines retrofit planes, this includes their Boeing 767-300 and 777-200. I saw that the red eye returning from San diego to Miami had a 767-300 planned for the route so I booked that flight. This plane has a 1-2-1 first class configuration with fully lay down pod seats. It is basically your own little private suite.
(First Class Cabin)
It's flights like these that making traveling a pleasure, I honestly don't even want to get off the plane once we land.
San Diego
This week I won't go into detail about food or hotels, I wanna talk more about the sights and the places I discovered. A California vacation is one that isn't hectic, its more about finding the cities treasures and absorbing them. One morning I woke up and decided I wanted to find a cool beach, I went online and started searching and I came upon a beach named "Seal Rock". I figured that was just the name of the beach but when I looked it up on Trip Advisor it was filled with pictures of Seals just hanging out on the beach. I rushed to the beach hoping that I would get to see some wild seals!
It's hard to see in this picture because it's a pano but the seals are just relaxing on the sand. There wasn't as many as there usually is but it was an amazing experience to see them in the wild. The beach is roped off about 30 feet from the water so people don't mess with them but I was still mind blown. These are the kind of things you don't see on the east coast.. After leaving this beach I drove down the road and found a cliff by the ocean, California beaches are full of huge rocks and cliffs. I pulled over and just sat there for about 20 minutes and looked out at the ocean. The pacific is truly intimidating, its hard to explain but I have intimate respect for it.
If you visit San Diego I highly recommend Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines. For being in San Diego it is an affordable luxury hotel. Every room has a balcony looking out at the Pacific Ocean as well as the famous Torrey Pines Golf Course. The PGA plays the Farmers Insurance open here every year, it is probably one of the nicest courses i have seen in my life.
San Diego is only about an hour drive from Mexico so it is naturally filled with Mexican roots and culture. My co workers took me to Old town San Diego which is "The birthplace of California. There is an area there called "Fiesta De Reyes" filled with little craft shops and authentic food stands and live music.
We sat down at the main restaurant which had a great atmosphere. There is one thing I love about dining in California, most restaurants are open air. I love nothing more than enjoying a meal outside. This Mexican restaurant served AUTHENTIC Mexican food, I had the most delicious Ceviche I have ever tasted as well as a delicious tortilla soup.
(The Margaritas where good too :))
This trip taught me something super important, it is crucial that we don't limit ourselves and that we always set personal goals. You must concentrate on your own life and not compare your self to the lifestyle of other people or the situation of other people. There will always be someone on top of us and some one below us. If you live your life constantly trying to be like some one else you will destroy your self. 2015 has probably been the best year of my life, I have accomplished more in one year than I personally thought I could. I continue to grow by acknowledging my blessings and always being thankful to god and humble to the people around me. I challenge you to wake up in the morning and count your blessings, no matter how happy or how sad we are there are people around the world with real struggles that we are blinded of. If you are traveling to California or have questions about travel in general feel free to message me through Google Circles.
Thank you to my good friend Brian Gale for the constant motivation.
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