I had seen all the parks in San Diego already (Sea World, Legoland, Wild Animal Zoo (whatever it's called), and saw the Zoo in Balboa park maybe 10 years ago). Turns out it takes more than 2 days to see the rest of San Diego. 3 days would have been ideal :) Either way, while the days were packed, I got to see everything I could given the time, especially on that very busy Sunday I flew out and described below. Got a few shots from the plane: As soon as I arrived, I went to the waterfront to visit the Maritime Museum and got an included cruise:
the midway, which I went to visit later
You can see all the pictures of the Midway. I then spent the rest of the day in downtown San Diego and the gaslamp quarter: I also got to see a critical ride: Once the conference was over, I went to Balboa Park to see the Science Museum. It wasn't the best one I've seen, but entertaining nonetheless. They did have good IMAX movies running, so I went to see 3 in a row :) After the conference was over, I went diving off the San Diego Coast (kelp and wreck dives), which considering it was 6 dives in one day took 12 hours :) The next day, it was my only day left to visit San Diego (2 in total) and I had a flight out that evening, so it was going to be packed. I started with Cabrillo National Monument:
The naval base is well visible from up there