16 Facts About San Diego for Inspire 2016!

[TawnyP]

With Inspire just around the corner in June, we are getting excited and planning our trip to San Diego. For those of you who have never had a chance to visit San Diego, we’ve prepared a list of 16 interesting facts about the county to help you get to know the area and maybe inspire you to do some site-seeing during Inspire 2016.

1. California

San Diego is the birthplace of California. On September 28, 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator from Spain, landed in San Diego marking this as the first European exploration of the West Coast.

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2. Farms

With over 7,000 farms, San Diego boasts the most farms in one city in the entire United States.

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3. Cruise Ships 

San Diego is a popular vacation spot that berths over 200 cruise ships in its harbor every year.

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4. Baby Panda 

The first baby panda born in the Western Hemisphere since 1990 named Hua Mei calls the San Diego Zoo her home. They currently have 3 pandas and you can watch them on the most adorable Panda Cam!

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5. Water

San Diego imports more than 168 million gallons of water a day which is 80-90% of its water.  That's a lot of water!

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6. Songs

Many songs have been written about San Diego including, Bing Crosby’s “Where the Turf Meets the Surf,” Eric Clapton and JJ Cale’s album “The Road to Escondido” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Balboa Park.”

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7. Airport

San Diego boasts the United States’ busiest one-runway airport and the world’s second busiest.

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8. Sailing Ship 

The Star of India is the world’s active-sailing ship which was built in 1863 and has its home port in San Diego.

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9. Plays

San Diego has close ties to New York through The Old Globe and the La Jolla Playhouse, which have sent more shows to Broadway than any other city in the United States.

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10. Food

Robert Oscar Peterson opened Oscar’s in San Diego in 1951, which was the country’s first drive-in restaurant. Peterson later went on to found the fast food chain Jack In The Box.

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11. Christmas Tree

The first electric-lit outdoor Christmas tree was housed outside San Diego’s famous Hotel del Coronado in 1904, which also happens to be the United States’ largest wooden structure.

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12. WD-40 

Are you a fan of WD-40? It was invented in 1953 by the Rocket Chemical Company in San Diego. A pretty slick invention, if you ask us.

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13. Missions 

If you’ve ever wanted to see the California Missions, San Diego County houses the most missions in the United States, which include the Mission San Diego de Alcala, Mission San Luis Rey de Francía, Mission San Antonio de Pala and Mission Santa Ysabel.

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14. Anthropology

The most important collections of Ancient Egyptian antiques in the United States are housed in San Diego Museum of Man, an anthropology museum in Balboa Park.

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15. Aquarium

The Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institute in La Jolla is the largest oceanographic museum in the United States. They even have a live kelp cam!

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16. Paranormal Activity

Believe in ghosts? San Diego has been referred to as one of America’s most haunted cities. Some famous ghost haunts include the Whaley House Museum, the Horton Grand Hotel and the Pioneer Park (Formerly Calvary Cemetery) as well as the Hotel del Coronado. They have lots of ghost tours around the city so be sure to check one out. Boo!

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San Diego is rich in history with so many interesting places to explore. We hope you enjoy Inspire 2016 and that you take a moment to check out one or some of these places while you’re in town. Let us know if you do or if you have visited them below in the comments!

Also if you have any awesome places that you’ve visited in the San Diego area that you think your peers should check out, list them below!

*Disclaimer: The Alteryx Community Team is not responsible for any sudden decreases in productivity after watching the Panda Cam. Proceed at your own risk.

[TaraM]

Crystal Pier

I just love Crystal Pier in Pacific beach! You can watch the surfers, take in some gorgeous sunsets, and see the prettiest window boxes. You can even stay in the cottages. 

[cbridges]

They also have little golf-cart style vehicles at GoCarTours.com that have built-in guided tours of the area...kind of like Tom Tom with regional information of interest combined. I've never done it, but I think I will because I've heard great things about them.

And if you have the time and money to extend your trip, they have a huge port for cruise lines to the Mexican Riviera and other locations.

Lastly, if you want to extend your trip northward, the Amtrak train is only about $25 and goes all the way up the coast (I think) but for sure stops in Anaheim (near Disneyland) and Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

I live in the LA area, so Amtrak will be my means of transportation to and from the conference. Beautifully scenic trip along the California coast (so sit on the side of the train with a westward window!)

[TawnyP]

I'm personally a big fan of Gaslamp District because there is so much going on. One of my favorite breakfast joints down there is Brian's 24. They have the most amazing bacon waffles and they serve breakfast 24 hours a day!

There are also a bunch of great breweries in the area and a lot of tours that you can take to visit them all. I'm a big fan of Mission Brewery and Pizza Port. Pizza Port also has amazing pizza!

[Philip]

San Deigo looks like it will be a lot of fun!I hope to get time to visit some of the attractions. I'd really enjoy seeing the aquarium. Thanks for sharing!

[simon]

get your San Diego Gaslamp, brewery and interactive arcgis map here:

http://www.gaslampmap.com/