San Diego is a coastal Southern California city located in the southwestern corner of the continental United States. As of 2005, the city has a population of 1,255,540 people. It is the second largest city in California and the seventh largest in the United States. It is the county seat of San Diego County.GR6 The San Diego metropolitan area has over 2.9 million people while the larger metropolitan area, which includes Tijuana, and Mexico with a population over 4.8 million.

San Diego lies just north of the Mexican border (shares border with Tijuana, Mexico) and lies south of Orange County. It is home to miles of beaches, a mild Mediterranean climate and many military institutions, such as the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Marine Corps.

History
The Kumeyaay people have long inhabited the area. The first European to visit the region was Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, (1499 - 1543), who sailed his flagship, the San Salvador, from Navidad, New Spain. Cabrillo claimed the bay for the Spanish Empire and named the site San Miguel. In November of 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548-1624) was sent to map the California coast. He arrived with his flagship "San Diego". Vizcaíno surveyed the harbor and Mission Bay and Point Loma, naming the area for the Spanish Catholic Saint St. Didacus (San Diego). On November 12, 1602, Fray Antonio de la Ascensión, a member of Vizcaíno’s expedition, to celebrate the feast day of San Diego, conducted the first Christian religious service of record in Alta California. Downtown San Diego has been enjoying an urban renewal since the 1980s, beginning with the opening of Horton Plaza, the revival of the Gaslamp Quarter, and the construction of the San Diego Convention Center. The Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC), San Diego's downtown redevelopment agency, has transformed a largely deserted downtown into a glittering showcase of waterfront skyscrapers, live-work loft developments, five-star hotels, and many cafes, restaurants, and shops.

Geography
The city of San Diego itself has deep canyons separating its mesas, creating small pockets of natural parkland scattered throughout the city. Downtown San Diego is located on San Diego Bay. Balboa Park lies on a mesa to the northeast. It is surrounded by several dense urban communities and abruptly ends in Hillcrest to the north. The Coronado and Point Loma peninsulas separate San Diego Bay from the ocean. Ocean Beach is on the west side of Point Loma. Mission Beach and Pacific Beach lie between the ocean and Mission Bay, a man-made aquatic park. La Jolla, an affluent community, lies north of Pacific Beach.

Climate:
San Diego predominantly has a semi-arid warm steppe climate (Koppen climate classification BSh). It enjoys mild, sunny weather throughout the year. Average monthly temperatures range from about 57 Fahrenheit in January to 72 Fahrenheit in July, although late summer and early autumn are typically the hottest times of the year. The average annual daily temperature is 70.5 Fahrenheit. Snow and ice are virtually nonexistent in the wintertime, typically occurring only inland from the coast when present. "May gray and June gloom", a local saying, refers to the way in which San Diego sometimes has trouble shaking off the fog that comes in during those months. The average annual precipitation is less than 12 inches, resulting in a borderline arid climate. Rainfall is strongly concentrated in the cooler half of the year, particularly the months December through March, although precipitation is lower than any other part of the U.S. west coast. The summer months are virtually rainless. Rainfall is highly variable from year to year and from month to month, and San Diego is subject to both droughts and floods. Thunderstorms and hurricanes are very rare.

Culture:
The Museum of Man is one of several museums in Balboa Park.Many popular museums, such as the San Diego Museum of Art, the San Diego Natural History Museum, the San Diego Museum of Man, and the Museum of Photographic Arts are located Balboa Park. The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is located in an ocean front building in La Jolla and has a branch located at the Santa Fe Depot downtown. The Maritime Museum in the Colombia district downtown exhibits historic ships. "Kettner Nights" at the Art and Design District in Little Italy has art and design exhibitions throughout many retail design stores and galleries. "Ray at Night" at North Park host a variety of small scale art galleries on the second Saturday evening of each month.

The San Diego Symphony at Symphony Towers performs on a regular basis directed by Jahja Ling. The San Diego Opera at Civic Center Plaza was ranked by Opera America as one of the top 10 opera companies in the United States. Old Globe Theatre at Balboa Park produces about 15 plays and musicals annually. The La Jolla Playhouse at UCSD is directed by a two-time Tony Award-winner Des McAnuff. The Joan B. Kroc Theatre at Kroc Center's Performing Arts Centeris is a 600-seat state-of-the-art theatre that hosts music, dance and theatre performances. The San Diego Repertory Theatre at the Lyceum Theatres in Horton Plaza produces a variety of plays and musicals. Serving the northeastern part of San Diego is the California Center for the Arts in Escondido, a 400-seat performing arts theater.

San Diego houses many tourist attractions, such as Seaworld, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Wild Animal Park, and nearby Legoland. San Diego's Spanish influence can be seen in the Spanish missions and Balboa Park. Cusine is San Diego is diverse, but there is an abundance of wood fired California-style pizzas, and Mexican and East Asian cuisine. Annual events in San Diego include Comic-Con, San Diego/Del Mar Fair, and Street Scene Music Festival.

San Diego has a fairly large gay population and gay culture. According to U.S. Census data from the year 2000, San Diego had a gay index of 186 (gay male index of 226 and a lesbian index of 144); the national average gay index is 100. San Diego has the largest gay index in Southern California, surpassing Los Angeles (168). Most of the gay community, including the LGBT center and every gay bar in San Diego is located in Hillcrest and surrounding neighborhoods of University Heights and North Park.

Public mass transportation:
The trolley, bus, Coaster, and Amtrak serve San Diego. The trolley (Trolley Map) primarily serves downtown and surrounding urban communities, Mission Valley, East County and coastal south bay. A planned Mid-Coast line will operate from Old Town to University City along the 5 Freeway. There are also plans for a "Silver line" to expand trolley service downtown. The Amtrak and Coaster trains currently run along the coastline and connect San Diego with Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura via Metro Link. There are three Amtrak stations in San Diego, in Sorrento Valley, Old Town, and Union Station (downtown). The bus is available along almost all major routes, however a large number of bus stops are concentrated in central San Diego. Typical wait times vary from 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the location and route. Ferries are also available every half hour crossing San Diego Bay to Coronado.

Maritime Museum of San Diego:
The Maritime Museum of San Diego, established in 1948, preserves one of the largest collections of historic sea vessels in the United States. Located in the San Diego Bay, the centerpiece of the museum's collection is the Star of India, an 1863 iron bark. The museum maintains the MacMullen Library and Research Archives aboard the 1898 ferryboat Berkeley. The museum also publishes the quarterly peer-reviewed journal Mains'l Haul: A Journal of Pacific Maritime History.

San Diego Museum of Art:
The San Diego Museum of Art opened as the Museum of Fine Arts on February 28, 1926. The funders turned over ownership of the building to the City of San Diego. It is located in Balboa Park. The Museum's collections are encyclopedic in nature, with pieces ranging in date from 5,000 B.C. to 2001 A.D. The museum's strength is in Spanish works by Murillo, Zurbarán, Ribera and El Greco.