San Diego would have been another hour beyond where we went. But I have been to Old Town San Diego before and enjoyed Mexican food and giant margaritas there.
Today the weather was beautiful, 62 and sunny, and we went tidepooling at Dana Point and then explored Laguna Beach. Had a fun day, my daughter loved it, and that made Dad very happy. Although, we both are pretty wiped out and sore from climbing all over those rocks at Dana Point for an hour-and-a-half!
With mask & snorkel? That's the way to do it. Also I sort of did that down in Culebra although most of it was really reef diving but a lot of it was in shallow tidepools. A true tidepooler (who has read Euell Gibbons) will carefully get sea urchins out of there, open them with a knife, and eat the eggs. Not as bad as it sounds. Sea urchin eggs are actually quite tasty. Really just another form of caviar and it is served in sushi restaurants as "uni."
If you are ever a bit north of there, try skin diving in the Kelp beds off Malibu. I remember one August when I dived in those kelp beds EVERY DAY of that month. Spearfishing. LOTS of sea life in or near the kelp beds. I always saw sea otters up close. Also it was kewl to see sea lions swimming below the surface. Small sharks and big manta rays. Best of all was a whale that came close to shore. I swam within about 15 feet of it. We sort of stared at each other for about 5 minutes. Strange experience to look into the intelligent eye of a whale.