Great weather and miles of beaches are only two of the reasons San Diego is so popular with tourists. Its many major attractions include a large number of "firsts."

Iberian navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo brought his three ships to Ballast Point on September 28, 1542, while seeking the mythical Strait of Anian (the Northwest Passage) for Spain, and became the first European to land on the coast of Alta California. This site is home to the most-visited landmark in the United States: Cabrillo National Monument. The lighthouse here was erected by the US government in 1854-55 and stands 510 feet (155.45 meters) above the sea. In 1891 it was replaced by a lower light; foggy weather or low clouds obscured vessels' view of it.

The two oldest churches in town are the San Diego Mission and the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception. The Chapel was built in the 1850s as the home of a Connecticut Yankee and had the first wooden floors in San Diego. Don Jose Antonio Aguirre, a wealthy rancher, purchased this adobe for $350 and converted it into the Old Town's first church.

The old mission dam, much of which is still standing at the upper end of the Mission Gorge, was part of the first irrigation and engineering project in California. It was constructed during the first decade of the nineteenth century by the priests and Indians of the San Diego Mission.

Often called "The Plymouth Rock of California," the San Diego Presidio was the site of the first non-native settlement on the West Coast of the United States. On July 16, 1769, Father Junipero Serra erected a cross and dedicated the Presidio and Mission of San Diego de Alcala. Jedediah Smith, "The Bible Toter," arrived here on New Year's Day in 1827, completing the first journey overland to the Pacific made by an American.

Fathers Crespi and Gomez, while on the 1769 Portola expedition to find Monterey Bay, performed the first baptisms in Alta California at La Cristianita. A few days after leaving the San Diego Presidio, the expedition's northward journey led it into Cristianitos Canyon on the present Orange County line. Scouts told them that there were two small children dying in an Indian village nearby. The priests found one baby dying at its mother's breast and another small girl dying of burns. Father Gomez baptized the baby, naming her "Maria Magdalena." Father Crespi baptized the child, naming her "Margarita."

A plaque at the site of her nursery commemorates the life and influence of the woman who envisioned San Diego beautiful. Kate Sessions gained world renown as a horticulturist. She was the first woman to receive the international Meyer Medal in genetics.

Rancho Santa Fe began as Rancho San Dieguito, a land grant of nearly 9,000 acres made to Juan Maria Osuna in 1845. The Santa Fe Railway Company later used the land to plant thousands of eucalyptus trees for use as railroad ties. In the 1920s Rancho Santa Fe became one of the state's first planned communities unified by a single architectural theme, the Spanish Colonial Revival. Lilian Rice, one of California's first successful women architects, supervised the development and designed many of the buildings.

While you won't be the first visitor to fall in love with San Diego, you also won't be the last!