By Phyllis Zauner

San Diego is an outdoorsy type of town that’s a rare blend of old-fashioned, small-town spirit and big-city ideas. With an average temperature that doesn’t vary more than 20 degrees, summer or winter, it has everything going for it without the smog and crowds, which makes it a real windfall.

The oft-repeated slogan that in San Diego every place you want to get to is “just 20 minutes away,” sounds like a promise of heaven to freeway-weary travelers, but it’s true.

Nature gave San Diego a head start with its picturesque setting and a Pacific coastline that boasts 70 glittering miles of scenic, unspoiled beaches between Mexico and Orange County. Palm trees sway in gentle coastal breezes. The Laguna Mountains, 50 miles east, are visible most days. And residents of California’s second-largest city have the rare treat of breathing air they can’t even see.

Much of the “good life” that San Diego offers to both locals and vacationers centers around its waterfront, which adds up to fun for everyone, whether afloat, afoot, on a bike or in a car.

Mission Bay, for instance, can be a vacation in itself—a place to swim, sun, rent a sailboat, explore on a rented bike, fish, cruise on a rented paddleboat and picnic.

It hasn’t always been so enchanting. When explorer Juan Cabrillo came upon it in 1542, it was a tidal swamp. Swatting mosquitoes and noting it was too small for ships, he named it Bahia Falza—False Bay. The name and swamp both stayed around for centuries before finally being given a more dignified name, Mission Bay. The mosquito hatchery remained, though, until 1945, when the city raised some $50 million to turn it into a recreation area without equal.

Fishermen can feed their bait to an assortment of bass, flounder and perch, and since the bay offers direct access to the open sea, they can also sign aboard a deep-sea fishing boat for albacore.

One of Mission Bay’s most popular attractions is Sea- World, where dolphins, penguins and a killer whale perform like pros on cue. But SeaWorld is more than a theater for hammy fish; it’s a lush, green park with a surprise attraction around every corner.

San Diegans are proud that theirs was California’s first city. The Revolutionary War was still raging in the East when a gentle Spanish priest, Fr. Junipero Serra, came slogging through the underbrush from Mexico to claim the bay and environs for Spain. Startled to find the natives naked, he decided that here, indeed, was a job to be done. He built a mission, and a small adobe village grew up around it. Now shored up and reconstructed, Old Town is a colorful section where visitors can step back into history, listen to Mexican music, browse through candle or pottery shops, savor a Mexican lunch or visit Whaley house (built in 1865 and now the home of an active ghost, some say).

More evidence of San Diego’s zeal for making the most of its land space is Balboa Park, which lies just north of the downtown area. Once this land was a scrub-covered dumping ground so unyielding that gardeners used dynamite to plant trees. In its 125 years, the park has matured and flowered, with acres of green lawn and gardens—among them, the Japanese Friendship Garden.

San Diegans have a love affair going with this park—all 1,400 acres of it. Once, it was the site of the 1915 Panama Exposition, and it still retains an architectural bouquet of Moorish and Spanish facades that line the Prado Walkway. Time after time, the buildings considered “temporary” began to deteriorate, and the citizenry passed new bond issues to preserve them.

Now, they’re filled with wonderful museums and art galleries. One of them houses the world’s largest model railroad. There’s a sports museum, space theater and science center, and an automotive museum. A clear standout is the Aerospace Museum, a drum-like building stuffed with some 70 planes and memorabilia. It demonstrates through the actual machines much of the history of powered flight. With men orbiting the moon, the feat of Charles Lindbergh’s crossing the Atlantic may have lost its luster—until you stand beside the Spirit of St. Louis replica and imagine yourself crossing the ocean in it.

The old Globe Theatre occupies a corner of Balboa Park, fashioned after Shakespeare’s London theatre and performing his plays. In summer, costumed dancers perform on the green.

But the biggest draw is the superb zoo. Its 100 landscaped acres are crossed by a maze of winding paths that bring visitors up close to an ark-like variety of wildlife. Gorillas have their own jungle, complete with jungle sounds. All the big animals are here, and some beasts that probably would be news even to Frank Buck.

A few miles north on San Diego’s coastline—actually a part of San Diego—is the village of LaJolla (La Hoy-Ya), society’s contribution to San Diego. Palatial estates, owned by many of America’s first families, lie on its verdant hills, enjoying magnificent views of the Pacific. Exclusive shops, excellent restaurants and spray-drenched cliffs, make “The Village” well worth a drive up the “Gold Coast”— a drive that will match anything to be found along the fabled Mediterranean Riviera.

Another place of elegant charm is the Hotel del Coronado, across the graceful bridge to Coronado Island, a fashionable resort of bygone years that has survived to remind us of days when the Grand Life was an ultimate achievement. Built in the 1880s, and wired by Thomas Edison himself, it has hosted every president since Benjamin Harrison, as well as Queen Elizabeth’s uncle, Edward, Prince of Wales. (It was here he met his future wife, Wallace Simpson.)

Coronado’s charm has not been lost on Hollywood, either. In 1959, Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis cavorted on its beaches while filming Some Like It Hot. A walk through the hotel’s Hall of History evokes visions of Coronado past, with corridors of display windows housing photographs and memorabilia.

But the Crown Room is the hotel’s crowning achievement. The paneled dining room seats a thousand under a cavernous, arched ceiling and crown-shaped, sparkling chandeliers. It’s not necessary to stay at the hotel to enjoy all this, but to do so is an elegant treat.

Of interest to golfers is the new $12 million championship golf course owned and operated by the Barona Band of Mission Indians. Just 30 miles from downtown San Diego, this is the first course in California to be built on Native American soil. It is so challenging that when it opened in January, it took over a week before anyone was able to break par.

There’s much more. Tijuana is trolley-close, 15 miles to the Mexican border. There’s Point Loma, a national park honoring Juan Cabrillo, the Portuguese discoverer of California. There’s a carousel at Seaport Village, originally operated at Coney Island in 1890. There are restaurants to be sampled, accommodations to love. And nothing beats watching the golden sun at eventide, as it drops into the Pacific like a coin slowly being released into a piggy bank.

Sun-drenched San Diego has it all!