This Month BLOKE TRAVEL takes you to San Diego California. A short flight of about 2 hours and 20 minutes from El Paso, TX. Despite San Diego's reputation as a Republican stronghold, the gay neighborhoods are as out-of-the-closet and gay-friendly as anywhere. Couples hold hands, gay papers are stacked at store entrances, and straight businesses advertise in the gay press. 

San Diego's gayest and most cosmopolitan neighborhood is Hillcrest, centered at the intersection of Fifth and University avenues. Bars, coffee shops, restaurants, bookstores, and kitsch outlets - many of them gay-owned - stretch along University from Third Avenue to Park Boulevard.

The strip also features America's only all-gay Ace Hardware store. Several other neighborhoods - including North Park, University Heights, Normal Heights, and Kensington - have large gay populations and a smattering of gay businesses.

The bear/leather scene is centered in North Park. There are about 30 gay bars (plus eight more 15 miles south in Tijuana) and a full range of gay businesses and organizations in America's sixth-largest city.

Black's Beach, an extremely popular nude beach with a half-mile-long gay section, is one of San Diego's unique gay offerings. It is 12 miles north of downtown below the Torrey Pines Glider Port. (Exit I-5 West on Genesee Avenue.) The sun shines in San Diego more than 300 days a year. The ocean is warm enough for swimming about half the year.