While we were in the San Diego area we camped in between San Diego and Carlsbad. Carlsbad is where we have family, and so we got to spend some time there exploring and it’s such a cute area. We fell in love with the small downtown area and the fact that you could park down there and be downtown at little shops, cafes, and also walk to the beach.

Always on our list (especially when we’re with Jess who is more of a donutaholic than us) is finding amazing donut shops. If you are in Carlsbad you MUST, I repeat, MUST go to The Goods. I even mentioned it in our San Diego Post. They were that good. I am still dreaming about that Nutella donut. Oh my yum. 

We’re not always unhealthy … we also found a really cute juice bar that’s right downtown and in a shipping-container-turned-shop! As well as Swami’s cafe, just a street over from the ocean, that had delicious salads, juices, and acai bowls. In Carlsbad there is also Mikko Sushi which I mentioned in my last blog post – the sushi was delicious and they even had poke bowls, much to my cousin’s delight.

Carlsbad also has a couple of really cute murals, one right next to the juice bar, like you can see above. They also have their famous tiger mural. I really loved this one… probably my favorite mural so far. I think that’s the graphic designer and avid color lover coming out in me.

My cousin also took us to a cute outdoor bookstore. Well… it was kind of a bookstore. It was a leave a book take a book type of place. Outdoors and always open! The other place she brought us while she was giving us a tour of Carlsbad was the Succulent Cafe. You guys. If I lived in Carlsbad you know you could find me here at least once a week. You can sit outside amongst the succulents, with free wifi, and delicious coffee. What more can you ask for?

We were lucky and were able to be in Carlsbad on a Wednesday when they have their weekly farmers market! Fresh sourdough bread, artichokes, strawberries, and asparagus are what we purchased. And that was definitely holding ourselves back because of our tiny RV refrigerator.

If you want to experience more of the “farm life” there are strawberry fields you can pick your own strawberries at. As well as a gorgeous flower field. Stunning. We didn’t go inside because the price was a bit more than we wanted to pay, but you can drive up behind the field and see them as well, and since it was a cloudy day this was perfect for us.

Carlsbad and San Diego definitely stole our hearts and made us fall in love with Southern California. If the cost of living there wasn’t so high, it would definitely be on our list of places to consider moving to. For now, though we’ll have these pictures and memories of this trip, and a trip back to visit will definitely be on our list!

Have you been to southern California, or is it on your list of places to visit?