Allesen Wanderland

Category: Uncategorized

  • Welcome to Allesen Wanderland

    I’ve been trying to figure out how to start this for a while now.

    Do I explain what this is? Do I tell you who I am? Do I just dive in and hope you follow? I guess I’m kind of going with a combination of all three.

    I grew up in California and went to UCSD – many moons ago. Back then, San Diego was pretty simple from a college student’s perspective. Campus. Pacific Beach. La Jolla Shores. Maybe Horton Plaza or the Gaslamp if we were feeling adventurous. That was pretty much the map. And it was pretty great.

    I left after college, built a life and a career in the Bay Area and then Atlanta, got my MBA, and then one day finally made my way back to San Diego with a U-Haul, and fresh eyes, and absolutely no idea how much I’d been missing.

    I moved back in May of 2020. The height of the pandemic. I’m sure you remember what that was like, and you know there wasn’t a whole lot to do. By afternoon both my dog, Pisco (pronounced Pees-co and named after the national drink of Peru, the Pisco Sour), and I, would be going stir crazy. So, I’d put him in the car, and we’d just drive. We’d explore neighborhoods I’d never been to, find streets worth walking down, discover corners of this city that hadn’t existed in my mental map of it. There was no traffic, so it was fun and easy, and I never went less than 85 MPH. The city felt quiet and a little surreal and completely ours. He loved it. I loved it.


    The first time we went to Kensington my mouth dropped as I slowly drove through the neighborhood and watched the beautiful houses go by. Tree-lined streets, gorgeous Spanish and craftsman style homes, this incredible village feel tucked into the middle of the city. I had lived here for four years as a student and didn’t even know it existed. The same is true with so many other amazing areas that I would have been scared to go to back then, but now have become some of my favorite places in all of San Diego. My dog and I found most of them together, one slow pandemic afternoon at a time.


    As life came back after the pandemic, our afternoon adventures got harder to pull off. Traffic made it more frustrating to get around, he got older, and had health issues, and didn’t want to walk as much. The weather didn’t always cooperate to leave him in the car if I wanted to get out and explore, and I felt guilty leaving him home to go explore alone, so mostly we just didn’t go. The exploring quietly stopped.


    I lost him this past Saturday.

    I’m not going to try to explain what that’s like because most of you already know. But here’s what I keep coming back to: I want to go explore for him now. I want to see the things I kept putting off because of his health and logistics and guilt and weather. I want to make good use of this time, because if I’m not going to have him with me — then I have to do all the things I didn’t do because of him. Otherwise what was I waiting for?

    That’s why I’m starting this now.

    Allesen Wanderland is where I’ll share everything I find – neighborhoods, hidden corners, local spots, what it actually feels like to live here versus what the brochures say. I’m a real estate agent by trade, so yes, some of this will be useful if you’re thinking about buying or selling a home here. But mostly this is just me, exploring paradise and letting it keep surprising me.

    I’m going to go find the things he would have loved.

    I’m glad you’re here for it.

    — Allesen

  • A Better Way to Get to Know San Diego

    A Better Way to Get to Know San Diego

    San Diego gets flattened into a postcard pretty fast. A beach. A sunset. A fish taco. Nice, sure, but if you are trying to figure out where you might actually want to live, or even just how the city really feels from one pocket to the next, that version is not especially helpful.

    That is where Allesen Wanderland comes in. This is a place for neighborhood details, local perspective, and the kind of details you only notice when you spend time wandering around on purpose. The goal is simple: help you love where you live, or at least get a little closer to knowing where that might be.

    What you will find here

    • Neighborhood perspective beyond the usual talking points
    • Local lifestyle observations that make a place feel real
    • Thoughtful guidance for people moving to San Diego and locals looking closer at their own city
    • A personal point of view without the brochure language

    I am a California native, a UCSD alum, and someone who left San Diego and spend 20 years determined to come back. And when I did, I came back with fresh eyes. Which turns out to be useful. I may notice what longtime locals overlook, and I can also point out when a place is being oversold by people who have clearly never tried to park there on a Saturday.

    San Diego is not one thing. That is the whole point.

    Some posts will be practical. Some will be more observational. Some will probably begin with a walk, a side street, or a question that refuses to leave me alone. All of them will be written for people who want a more grounded, more useful, more human sense of this city.

    Who this is for

    If you are thinking about moving here, welcome. If you already live here but want to understand San Diego beyond your usual orbit, also welcome. If you like local writing with a little curiosity, a little honesty, and a strong preference for places that feel lived in rather than staged, you are in the right spot.

    There is a lot to explore. I plan to keep wandering.