Shelter Island

Shelter Island was once a sand bar in the San Diego Bay. In the 1950’s, it was developed into a peninsula to offer shelter to yachts, as well as shelter for tourists in the form of four Polynesian-styled hotels. It offers one of the best views in the county: from one vantage point across the bay, you can see Mission Hills and Old Town, the San Diego skyline, the Coronado Bridge leading to Coronado Island and the Navy SEALs military base, all the way out to the Pacific Ocean past Point Loma. It’s almost impossible NOT to spot a sea lion swimming in the bay, and on a lucky day you might even see a family of dolphins frolicking between the moored boats. Shelter Island is a popular hangout for fishermen, boaters, tourists and walkers (with a 2-mile roundtrip walking path that parallels the bay.) The only residents of Shelter Island are the ducks, seagulls and, of course, the RV’ers.

Shelter Island is one of the places Tater and the gang spends much of their time. Here, there is always bay front parking that allows for an unobstructed view of the beautiful sights across the bay. With the exception of periodic uproar from jets and helicopters on the Navy Base, Shelter Island offers a peaceful respite that no money can buy (because it’s free…Duh!). Often, we’ll sit inside Tater and watch the sailboats, motorboats, cruise and military ships moving in and out of the bay. Sometimes, we’ll shoot the bull with the other RV’ers and fishermen who park along the bay. And we always find time to walk Lola on one of the many paths or take her for a run on the sandy beach. At night, we move Tater to the street as there is no overnight parking in the lots.

Shelter Island is the perfect place to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life. It’s a place where we can relax and read a book or go for a walk, and ultimately be in the company of people who share similar values.




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This is what I like to refer to as "RV Row"... free bay-front parking (the RV behind Tater belongs to the first RV'er we met named Tommy)


This is a view of the San Diego skyline from Tater


A closer view of the skyline from Tater


These pigeons have no fear. They will fly right into our window if they are hungry.


I can feel their beady red eyes staring up at me.


Sailboats in the Bay


An aircraft carrier heading home


The Shelter Island Fishing Pier (no license required to fish from the pier)


A view of a marina on the back side of Shelter Island, taken from a walking path on Point Loma


Sea Lions are everywhere


Another sea lion


Lola coming in from a swim in the bay


Lola giving me grief for making her swim


The sandy coat is my punishment for making her swim


Ben & I


(sidenote: The sailboat in the first picture at the top of this posting belongs to a sailor named Dave. We didn't know him at the time the photo was taken but a couple weeks after it was shot, while we were nosing around the dock, we met Dave and he invited us aboard for some wine. Dave actually built the boat himself.)

On the Road...Literally!

OK, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to describe a little more in detail exactly what it means to live in an RV in San Diego.

By law (at least in San Diego), we are allowed to park in parking lots at the beaches, bays, cliffs and parks except between the hours of 2AM and 4AM. We are permitted to park on the side of any city street for up to 72 hours straight.

On days when Ben has to work early in the morning, we usually park Tater on the street in front of the hotel where he works the night before. I work remotely from my laptop, so we either get a room at the hotel or I can work from the RV as long as we are within wi-fi range. Eventually, we will have satellite internet but for now I have to work wherever there is free wireless.

Once Ben is out of work, we hit the road. Sometimes we go back to Ocean Beach (always my first choice because everyone knows Ocean Beach rules!). Sometimes we go to Shelter Island (nice and quiet and right on the bay…lots of older, upstanding RV folk stay here). Sometimes we park on Catalina (between Tony’s house and Catalina Lounge… convenient, but inevitably some punk kids will bang on our door or window at night). We also hit up other cool neighborhoods and places we’d like to check out… or go camping and/or check out sites in and around San Diego County (lakes, mountains, desert… anything nature-like that we might want to see).

The best parking spots are on roads that aren’t heavily traveled. Preferably, we will park near a baseball field, an embankment, a hotel or parking lot. If we must park in a residential area, we will park near an apartment complex where there are many tenants, or a house with a tall fence… basically anyplace where we won’t be bothering a homeowner. I know firsthand what it is like to have an RV parked in front of your residence and it can be very intrusive and irritating. So we try to stick to areas where no one will bother us or be bothered by us…and we rarely stay in the same place two nights in a row. We never stay in a parking lot at night because we’d be required to move Tater to the street at 2AM, and no one wants to get up at 2AM to move.

As you can see in the photos below, RV living is quite common in San Diego. We almost always have RV neighbors, no matter where we park.