Pacific light on California’s southern edge

San Diego grew up around a deep natural harbour. Point Loma curls round its western side, the Coronado peninsula closes it to the south, and the downtown towers stand directly on the water. It was here, in 1542, that Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo became the first European to land on what is now the west coast of the United States, and here that Spanish friars founded the first of California’s twenty-one missions in 1769.

The climate is mild in every season, and the city lives outdoors. Surfers are in the water at dawn off Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach, cyclists ride the bayfront paths, and the coast north to La Jolla is a run of cliffs, coves and tide pools. In late spring a marine layer often keeps the shore grey until the afternoon; locals call it May Gray and June Gloom, and it lifts as summer settles in.

Mexico is part of daily life. The border crossing at San Ysidro is a trolley ride from downtown, and the food shows it: fish tacos in the Baja style, carne asada, and the California burrito, which wraps grilled steak and chips together. In Barrio Logan, the historic Mexican-American neighbourhood south of downtown, murals cover the pillars beneath the bridge to Coronado, and the city’s many small breweries pour for the evening.