14 interesting facts about San Diego, California

1. San Diego, California is the seventh largest city in the United States.
2. San Diego is California’s second largest city with a population of 1.3 million in the city proper, and almost 3 million residents throughout the county.
3. The Hotel del Coronado on Coronado Island is the largest wooden structure in the United States.
4. It has long been inhabited by native people (as early as 20,000 years ago), but the first European to set foot here was the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who sailed into San Diego Bay in 1542.
5. San Diego, California is rimmed with seventy miles of beaches.
6. The world’s oldest, still working ship, the “Star of India” built in 1863 has her home port in San Diego. She has completed 21 circumnavigations.
7. San Diego's Zoo is home to a pair of giant pandas, and when Hua Mei was born here, she was the first baby panda born in the Western Hemisphere since 1990 (she is now in China).
8. There are many world class attractions such as the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Sea World San Diego and LEGOLAND to mention only a few.
9. Each year over 200 cruise ships berth in San Diego harbor.
10. San Diego, California is famed for the best climate in the United States.
11. Charles Lindbergh took off from San Diego in 1927, on the Spirit of St. Louis, headed for New York, and then non-stop to Paris and into history.
12. San Diego, California is home of the first European settlement on the West Coast.
13. San Diego Bay covers roughly 8 square miles and contains about 300 million cubic yards of water
14. Legal drinking age is 21. Across the border in Tijuana, it's 18.