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A city this generous doesn’t just welcome you—it hands you a map and dares you to follow your curiosity. We land in San Diego on a points ticket, grab a budget Turo with unlimited miles, and set off to turn the weekend into a living treasure hunt built around a geocaching block party called “Signal’s Island.” From push-scootering through Balboa Park’s Spanish Revival plazas and the new Comic-Con Museum to logging Adventure Labs woven into art, gardens, and a towering zoo statue, the day unfolds with pace and purpose.

The coast ups the stakes. In La Jolla, a sunrise sea-kayak tour becomes a geology lesson as we bounce through surf, trace a fault line between limestone and harder rock, and make the call to skip churning cave mouths—then pivot to Sunny Jim Sea Cave via a hidden staircase inside a rock shop. That same spirit of play leads to a rare webcam cache on a tide-lashed pier and to a plate of ocean-fresh fish tacos at Duke’s, where the view is pure Pacific. Community fuels the journey: we swap stories at a beach bonfire welcome, run into TV producer Dave Barsky, and hear that Mike Rowe listened to our Dirty Jobs episode and loved it.

San Diego’s Navy roots open a pop-culture loop. We eat barbecue at the Kansas City Barbecue—the Top Gun bar where Goose pounded “Great Balls of Fire”—and later chase a virtual cache at the restored Top Gun House in Oceanside, complete with a Kawasaki out front for that Maverick shot. The block party itself delivers real activities: gadget caches tied to Adventure Labs, a coconut cream pie contest, path tag left-right-center, and costume flair worthy of Gilligan’s Island. Add an omakase-level meal at Sushi Ota and a CITO cleanup on Imperial Beach, and the weekend turns into a model for city adventures that blend exploration, service, and story.

Ready to build your own San Diego treasure map—packed with geocaches, sea caves, pop-culture stops, and unforgettable bites? Subscribe, share this episode with your travel crew, and leave a quick review to help more curious listeners find the show.

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