One of the things I wasn’t able to do with Pisco the way that I wanted to, was to explore La Mesa on foot. I mean, we did walk down the main downtown street – La Mesa Blvd – which is lined with restaurants and old historic buildings. And we went down to the historic La Mesa Train Depot to see the original depot building and the old train cars, but the neighborhoods were not something that Pisco was interested in doing. Partly because of his age, La Mesa is after all known as “The Jewel in the Hills,” and hills and age don’t mix well; but also because there are fewer people walking in the neighborhoods who might pet him, and there are absolutely no restaurants that might give him food. He was a very strategic dog.
So, this weekend I arranged to go walk around the neighborhoods in La Mesa. For those who don’t know already, I run a Facebook Group for women over 40 (yeah, I’m old, in fact I’m old enough I may have to start a group for the next age group up), and I’ve been arranging “neighborhood walks” for the women in my group. We’ve done Bird Rock, which was lovely, but landed on a rainy day so only one brave soul came out, and we did indeed get stuck in a downpour right at the end. Amazing neighborhood though, the homes there are so beautiful, and there are spots to get some stunning ocean views – definitely worth trying again.
We did Mission Hills which was one of the first neighborhoods that I fell in love with when I moved back to San Diego. The beautiful, stately Spanish and craftsman styles homes, the wide tree-lined streets, the cute little shopping district. It’s no wonder it demands a high price tag.
And we did Del Dios, which is out by Lake Hodges, and is known as a bit as a haven for artists. It has amazing views, with homes that have been personalized by the artists. You’ll find art installations hidden around every corner, interspersed with the horses and succulent gardens. I’ll do a post about this one in the future.
And of course we did Kensington because it’s my absolute favorite, and we’ll probably do it again as well. The Spanish style homes can not be beat. We also found out that the people there are incredibly nice – one neighbor brought water out to us because she saw us walking in the heat (it turned out to be quite a hot day), and then she ended up inviting us (I think there were 8 of us??) into her home to show us around because it had a historic designation and I had been curious about it. The house was beautiful, the neighborhood makes my heart happy. I hope to live there one day.
But this weekend, I had arranged La Mesa. And sadly, I only had 1 person turn up. Now, part of me wasn’t that surprised, because, well…..La Mesa. If you’re not from here, let me tell you a little bit about La Mesa.
La Mesa is an inland city within San Diego County of about 60,000 residents. It’s about a 20 minute drive from La Mesa to Ocean Beach, downtown or the airport without traffic. It has a trolley stop, so it’s actually a great place to live if you work downtown, or in Mission Valley. And to top it all off, the schools in the area are highly rated, there is good shopping available, and Sharp Grossmont Hospital is even located in La Mesa. But, La Mesa is inland. One thing that people in San Diego are prone to do is be a bit stuck up about living close to the coast. And since La Mesa is east of the 15, it’s honestly out where most people in San Diego never go.
But, here’s the thing people don’t get….. La Mesa is WONDERFUL. If La Mesa weren’t so far from my best friend, I would probably live there. The architecture in La Mesa is a mix of mid-century ranch homes, craftsman bungalows, Spanish revivals, moderns that have replaced tear-downs, and oddly, some homes that kind of look like they belong in the mountains. There is an adorable downtown area with antique shops, and boutiques, more coffee shops than you can count, and some really good restaurants (we went to Casa Gabriela afterwards for lunch and it was quite yummy). There is a farmer’s market every Friday afternoon that I have been dying to check out, and the city has multiple annual events including a Flag Day Parade, classic car show, Taste of La Mesa Village, and halloween and holiday events as well.
The surrounding neighborhoods are an eclectic mix – there are sections that just look like your basic southern California flat mid-century neighborhood full of ranch and bungalow houses, others that are more craftsman-y, and then there are the hills, which are my favorite. The hills have winding roads going up them that remind me of the Hollywood hills. They’re lined on both sides with cool houses and you can get amazing views from all sides.
When people move to San Diego, especially if they are younger, they’re told to look at North Park, Pacific Beach and Little Italy. If you have money, you’ll be told about La Jolla, Coronado and Del Mar. And if you have a family, you’ll be told Carlsbad, but if you have a family and money, then it’s Carmel Valley and Encinitas. All of these are more coastal. Pull up any list of “best places” to live in San Diego and the names on the lists are always coastal, and always the same. And I’m not going to argue with them, I think anyone who can afford to go coastal probably will.
But, what these “best places to live” lists do, is they make people overlook the fact that there are amazing places to live in San Diego county that are just a little bit inland and less well known. And guess what? You’re still in California, and you’re still living the San Diego lifestyle!
The other thing these lists do is make is so that if you can’t afford to live in one of “the best places to live in San Diego” that people think either they just shouldn’t move to San Diego, or they’re going to hate it, or they aren’t as excited about where they’re going to live. And that’s just a shame in my book, because there are so many hidden gem neighborhoods in San Diego that no one has ever heard about.
La Mesa is actually one of the places that I use as an example when I try to explain to people that when you move to San Diego, you don’t have to live at the coast to enjoy San Diego. You can be just 20-30 minutes from the beach and have amazing views in a place like La Mesa for a fraction of the cost of somewhere like La Jolla.
And honestly, I’d choose La Mesa over North Park. And let me tell you, saying that out loud may get me thrown out of San Diego. But La Mesa doesn’t have the homeless population that North Park has. La Mesa is easier to get around than North Park. La Mesa has parking. La Mesa has a trolley. La Mesa has a real Target (not that we’re shopping at Target anymore, but you get the point). La Mesa has Trader Joe’s. La Mesa has lower price per square foot, so you can get more space. La Mesa has a lot going for it.
Now, I mentioned how much I love the hills in La Mesa, but I will say, they can also be a drawback. They make walkability in some areas a bit more challenging. For example, if you’re really in the know, you can find the hidden La Mesa stairs. These stairs are in the Mt Nebo/Windsor Hills area and while the streets literally corkscrew up the hill, these stairs allow you to walk directly up or down the hill without having to walk all the way around and around on the street.
The original plan for the neighborhood walk this weekend was to tackle a few of the staircases, but in all honesty, it had taken everything in me just to show up (grief is real, it’s unpredictable, and you don’t get to decide when it ends), so climbing 245 stairs was not something I had in me that day. Luckily my friend, after already climbing a good bit of hill just to get to the start of the steps, was perfectly fine skipping them as well.
And then we saw another woman preparing to climb the stairs, and somehow we ended up talking to her, and she was recovering from surgery but was training because she was going on a cruise, and wanted to be able to climb this lighthouse that had 300-and-something stairs; and next thing I knew I was being peer pressured into climbing the stairs with her. We still only went up from one street to the next – there were 2 more streets to go – but I’m proud of me for doing something rather than nothing.
Above is the picture I took when we were just planning to take a picture and say we saw them….. and then a picture of me actually climbing them. I climbed them Kilimanjaro style….pole pole (pol-ay pol-ay)…. which means you go really slowly and the goal is to never get out of breath. The best part of the stairs is that if you turn around when you get to the top, there are great views (see above). It was overcast this particular day (thanks May Gray), but we could still see some hills in the distance.
My favorite thing about these neighborhood walks is that you see things you would never see if you are driving by. For example, we saw this one house that at first glance looked like it must be the haunted house on the street. As we looked closer, though, we realized it looked like a stately Craftsman, but it was under this huge old tree, and was behind a big hedge with stuff all over the place, so was hard to see. It had a massive wind chime hanging over the porch and an old (fake) well pump, and a bucket and pulley system to bring the water up (also fake/not usable). Once we spent some time looking at it we realized it wasn’t the home of the neighborhood witch, but rather the neighborhood artist.
Then there were these statues of lions wearing sunglasses. And of course the fuzzy and flowering cacti. This Victorian gingerbread home captured my attention as well. And this modern version of a Spanish style home had us mesmerized.
This is one of my favorite things about La Mesa – the diversity of architectural styles. I love that there is a historical element being retained which you can see in some of the old craftsman and Spanish revival styles homes that still hit the market from time to time, as well as in the amazing art deco buildings that line La Mesa Blvd downtown. But then you’ll see the modern element coming in as well as the aging and not well taken care of homes get torn down and replaced with newer options.
I still probably need to go back and explore some more of La Mesa on foot.
The nicest part of La Mesa is called Mt Helix and there are some incredible houses on it. It also has a park at the top with an amphitheater where they have concerts, and a food and wine festival, and other community events. I’d like to attend an event there at some point. The hill itself, while windy and narrow, has a pedestrian path that lines the road making it easy for folks from the surrounding neighborhood to walk up to the park.
There are parts of La Mesa that are great for first time home buyers (yes, at San Diego prices), and a whole area with condos that are quite nice, and are less expensive than their coastal counterparts. One of those areas is called Severin-Grossmont and it’s known for it’s mid-century contemporary ranch homes. This would be a fun neighborhood to walk around and see what people have done with their homes and their often fairly large lots.
Lake Murray is another great thing that is in La Mesa. It’s a lovely lake with a walking trail, and you can kayak and fish, and there are lots of places to have a picnic or watch the sunset. Pisco particularly enjoyed watching the ducks and geese. I have yet to walk all the way on the walking trail – it’s an out and back. We went once and didn’t make it very far. I didn’t go back because there were times I’d take him to a trail like that, and we’d make it about 10 feet before he’d say “no way, Jose”, so I wasn’t rushing to drive all that way for nothing. Which means, I need to plan to get back to Lake Murray again soon.
So what do you think? Does La Mesa sound like a neighborhood you’d enjoy?
If you’d like to see more about La Mesa, I did make a video about it which you can check out here. In the video, I actually drive around La Mesa, so you get a different perspective: