First comes the barking. California sea lions rest on the rocks at La Jolla Cove, and their hoarse chorus drifts up the cliffs before you see the water. Downtown, you hear a trolley bell, ship horns on the bay and, on Sunday afternoons, the Spreckels Organ rolling across Balboa Park.
Beyond the postcards, North Park pours local beer on Craftsman streets, Little Italy holds a weekly market and Barrio Logan keeps its murals under a bridge. Summers are warm and dry, winters mild, and May and June often start gray. A Local Friend can open a door you would never have knocked on, like a neighborhood taco shop or a canyon trail behind the houses.
