San diego, ca - bits & bobs

San Diego’s average daily temperature is 70.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Gaslamp Quarter, which hosts San Diego's Mardi Gras celebration each year, has over 90 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings. These structures span a broad range of architectural styles, including Victorian commercial, Spanish Renaissance revival, Baroque, Oriental, and others.
It’s said that surfing in California got it’s start in 1916 when Hawaiian-born surf icon Duke Paoa Kahanamoku put on a surfing exhibition at Del Mar Pier, north of San Diego. By the mid-1930s surfing had spread in popularity and taken hold in the beach communities closer to downtown San Diego and throughout Southern California.

Daytime Activities | Dining | Nightlife | Parades, Krewes, Events & Calendar

Mardi Gras 2013 is Tuesday, February 12

Southern California (So Cal) Mardi Gras

Carnival in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter: Street Parties, Beaches, Missions, and Wild Animals

San Diego, California Mardi Gras in the Gaslamp Quarter

Mardi Gras in the Gaslamp Quarter
Photos Courtesy of the Gaslamp Quarter Assoc.

Mardi Gras as celebrated in San Diego’s infamous Gaslamp Quarter is more of an open party than a community celebration put on by krewes and secret societies. While there is a parade, and there are floats, the thousands of revelers who celebrate Fat Tuesday in San Diego are here to party and not collect throws, compete for costume awards, or the honor of being named King Rex.

Though not quite as massive as its big sister to the north (Los Angeles), the greater San Diego community stretches from as far north as Oceanside and the Camp Pendleton Marine Base south to the Mexican Border and to the east well past El Cajon.

As one would expect, there are quite a few ways to occupy the daylight hours between, before, and after the Gaslamp Quarter’s big Mardi Gras celebration on Fat Tuesday night.

Daytime Activities | Dining | Nightlife | Parades, Krewes, Events & Calendar

Remember: Fat Tuesday is February 21, 2012

Disclaimer

I have visited San Diego, but not for Mardi Gras. As a result some of this information has been taken from the Gaslamp Quarter Association, the San Diego Convention & Visitors Burreau, and other sources.