u/GKRForever

Hello everyone!

My wife is starting her medical residency at UCSD and so we're excited to call San Diego home for at least the next 3-6 years!

We arrive June 1, and she starts ~June 20. In those 20 days, I want to help her fall in love with the city and find some of her favorite spots so that once the craziness of residency begins, she'll have some comfort places to go to.

Some of our favorite things we're looking for:

• Happy hours. Particularly oysters, burgers, tacos.
• Breweries. Wife LOVES craft beer, particularly (hazy) IPAs, but loves a wide variety of beers
• Restaurants. Looking for at least one nice special occasion place, one nice "deliver when you're exhausted" place, and one cheap and delicious/no frills/hole in the wall place
• Gym. We're both trying to get into better shape, and don't love being around crazy fitness influencer-y type people. I heard joining the Y is pretty good, and they almost all have outdoor pools?
• Vet. We have 2 dogs, one of whom is a senior diabetic dog with pancreatic insufficiency (he's fine/healthy/happy and expected to continue living "like normal," he's already 11, but finding good local veterinary care is important)
• Coffee. My wife was a barista before medical school, is obsessive about/appreciative towards excellent coffee
• Any other favorites! With the above items that gives us a good "base" of things that we know we use frequently, but I'm sure there are any number of things that we're missing (fav thrift stores, parks, hiking trails, etc.

Thanks for any help!

One important housing note: we are renting temporary housing for June before ideally signing a lease in July, as many in this sub have recommended looking for "For Rent" signs rather than just going based on what's Zillow.

I suspect that Bay Park / Mission Hills / Hilcrest is where we'd ideally land, but potentially looking at Linda Vista, Sierra Mesa, Birdland. We have 1 service dog and 1 "regular" dog so looking for a 2+/2 SFH with a fenced in yard. Our budget is about $4500/mo (we also were looking at Clairemont/Bay Ho, but they feel a little too sterile suburban - though this is perhaps the wrong read. University City/UTC seem interesting as well).

Hello everyone!

My wife is starting her medical residency at UCSD and so we're excited to call San Diego home for at least the next 3-6 years!

We arrive June 1, and she starts \~June 20. In those 20 days, I want to help her fall in love with the city and find some of her favorite spots so that once the craziness of residency begins, she'll have some comfort places to go to.

Some of our favorite things we're looking for:

* Happy hours. Particularly oysters, burgers, tacos.
* Breweries. Wife LOVES craft beer, particularly (hazy/juicy) IPAs, but loves a wide variety of beers
* Restaurants. Looking for at least one nice special occasion place, one nice "deliver when you're exhausted" place, and one cheap and delicious/no frills/hole in the wall place
* Gym. We're both trying to get into better shape, and are more “average joes” than “globogym” in our gym preference. I heard joining the Y is pretty good, and they almost all have outdoor pools?
* Vet. We have 2 dogs, one of whom is a senior diabetic dog with pancreatic insufficiency (he's fine/healthy/happy and expected to continue living "like normal," he's already 11, but finding good local veterinary care is important. It makes me super sad to think about, but our next vet will almost certainly be the one helping us manage his end of life care 😢.
* Coffee. My wife was a barista before medical school, is obsessive about/appreciative towards excellent coffee
* Any other favorites! With the above items that gives us a good "base" of things that we know we use frequently, but I'm sure there are any number of things that we're missing (fav thrift stores, parks, hiking trails, etc.

Thanks for any help!

One important housing note: we are renting temporary housing for June before ideally signing a lease in July, as many in this sub have recommended looking for "For Rent" signs rather than just going based on what's Zillow.

I suspect that Bay Park / Mission Hills / Hilcrest is where we'd ideally land, but potentially looking at Linda Vista, Sierra Mesa, Birdland. We have 1 service dog and 1 "regular" dog so looking for a 2+/2 SFH with a fenced in yard. Our budget is about $4500/mo (we also were looking at Clairemont/Bay Ho, but they feel a little too sterile suburban - though this is perhaps the wrong read. University City/UTC seem interesting as well).

Edit: Thanks everyone for your replies/suggestions/DMs! Greatly appreciated and please keep them coming! Promise I'll respond to folks today or tomorrow -- we're currently en-route to San Diego, roadtripping along route 66, but will respond when able!

I should also say that we’re older than most new residents - I’m 37, wife is 32. So we don’t need to be near all the super trendy / clubby stuff (though we’d love to visit from time to time!), and much prefer neighborhood breweries, happy hours, and the ability to sleep without super noisy neighbors.