20 Fun Facts About San Diego, Ca.
While San Diego is known the world over for great beaches, beautiful weather and such world-class attractions as the San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld San Diego, the region also lays claim to a wealth of historic feats, intriguing personalities and surprising firsts. Check out this lineup of 20 fun facts about San Diego.
1. A Beautiful Botanic Rarity
San Diego is one of only two places in the world where the Torrey pine tree grows. See them for yourself at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.
2. America’s Small-Farm Capital
San Diego County is home to 7,000 small farms – the most of any U.S. county. It also produces the most avocados.
3. Crops From a Pop Star
And speaking of avocados: The Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Jason Mraz owns an organic farm near Oceanside (in San Diego’s North Coastal region) that producers and sells both avocados and coffee.
4. Birthplace of a Burrito
The California Burrito, a taco shop favorite stuffed with carne asada and fries, originated in San Diego. Taquitos, or rolled tacos, were also invented at El Indio restaurant near Mission Hills during World War II.
5. Jack in the Box Pops Up
Fast-food megachain Jack in the Box started out in 1951 as a single drive-through hamburger stand on El Cajon Boulevard, near San Diego State University.
6. First Transatlantic Flight
The Spirit of St. Louis, flown by Charles Lindbergh on the world’s first nonstop solo transatlantic flight in 1927, was built in San Diego by Ryan Airlines. You can see a flyable replica built by some of the original builders at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.
7. Mission Beach’s Historic Roller Coaster
Belmont Park‘s Giant Dipper, a wooden roller coaster built in 1925, is one of only four roller coasters on the National Register of Historic Places.
8. Broadway Bound
Between the Old Globe Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse, scores of musicals and plays have debuted in San Diego and then gone on to Broadway in New York City, including “Into the Woods,” “Come From Away” and “Jersey Boys.”
9. Fast Times in San Diego
The 1982 movie “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” was based on writer Cameron Crowe’s semi-fictional account of a year spent undercover at San Diego’s Clairemont High School. Crowe, who grew up in San Diego, was a rock-critic prodigy who later became an Oscar-winning screenwriter and director of such hit films as “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous.”
10. The Wild West Comes to Town
Wild West gunslinger Wyatt Earp lived in downtown’s Horton Grand Hotel for seven years.
11. Dr. Seuss HQ
Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, was one of La Jolla‘s most prominent residents; so was Dr. Jonas Salk, who created the first successful polio vaccine in 1955.
12. An Endurance-Sports First
The first modern triathlon was held in Mission Bay in 1974.
13. A Historic Bay Crossing
Then-governor Ronald Reagan was the first person to officially cross the San Diego-Coronado Bridge when it was completed in 1969.
14. Comic-Con Goes Global
Just 100 people attended the first San Diego comic convention in 1970. Today, more than 130,000 people attend Comic-Con International: San Diego every July.
15. A Haunting History
The Travel Channel named The Whaley House Museum in San Diego’s Old Town the country’s most haunted house.
16. Skateboarding Legends
San Diego celebrates a local skateboarding legend on Tony Hawk Day, May 29. Hawk grew up in San Diego’s northern suburbs, as did skateboarder and snowboarder Shaun White.
17. Popular Punk Rock
Pop-punk band Blink-182 launched in San Diego’s Poway community in the 1990s and went on to worldwide fame and massive record sales.
18. Panda Diplomacy
The world-famous San Diego Zoo was home to the first panda cub to survive in captivity, Hua Mei, in 1999. The Zoo has a long history of conservation partnership with the China Wildlife Conservation Association. Two new pandas came to live at the Zoo’s Panda Ridge in 2024.
19. Furry Friends
San Diego has the most dog-friendly restaurants per capita in the country.
20. ‘Top Gun’ Soars On
Check out the piano at Downtown San Diego’s Kansas City Barbecue. It’s where Maverick and Goose belted out “Great Balls of Fire” in the 1986 film Top Gun, filmed in San Diego, Coronado and Oceanside. The 2022 sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” was likely filmed in large part around San Diego.