I will be in San Diego for a conference at the Sheraton Hotel and Marina the first week of May. My 26 year old daughter will fly in to meet me at the end of the conference and we will have all day Friday and Saturday to see sights San Diego. We will not have a car. We will spend one day at the zoo and at Balboa Park. Any recommendations for a restaurant in that area? Also, what can we do for the 2nd day? Should we take a trolley around to see sights? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Right next door to the SD Zoo is the Prado which is pretty good..we like to sit on the back patio and have drinks and app's.
I would do either the Old Town Trolley or the Seal tour which takes you out on the harbor..you can also take a harbor cruise.
It will be the weekend of Memorial Day weekend so there should be fireworks on the bay.
Are you at the Gaslamp Sheraton or Harbor Island?
If Gaslamp, take the water taxi over to Coronado and have lunch at the Hotel Del and rent bikes or Segways.
La Jolla is gorgeous but you need a car and taxi is around $40 each way and a day car rental is about $20 at the SD Airport.
Fish Market Downtown at the sushi or oyster bar is excellent.
C-Level on Harbor Island has great bay views and have drinks and the lobster mac n'cheese with truffles is quite good too.

www.sdhe.com
www.hoteldel.com
www.thefishmarket.com
www.cohnrestaurants.com

ksucat: La Jolla is gorgeous but you need a car and taxi is around $40 each way and a day car rental is about $20 at the SD Airport.

Actually, it's quite possible to get to La Jolla from downtown San Diego by bus (and trolley). It's a bit of a long ride, but it's fairly direct: blue trolley to Old Town then #30 bus to La Jolla (it takes I-5 to Pacific Beach and then on up). I did it a couple of weeks ago, not nearly as bad as it sounded. $5 per person for an unlimited day pass on MTS public transit. Use Google Transit (via Google Maps) to find the best bus/trolley routings.

We will be at the Harbor Island Sheraton. I'll research the Old Town trolley and also the seal tours.

you can take the train to several of the North county beach towns- its really easy to do- my favorite is Carlsbad- train stop is in the middle of town- you can walk around town, go to the beach - wine and dine. There is a great outlet mall there but you would have to take a cab to get to it. There are several nice restaurants in Carlsbad Village - you can rent bikes - lots of things to do.

The train does not stop in La Jolla but does stop in several other beach towns.
My daughters favorite beach is Moonlight Beach in Encinitas - you can take train there and walk a few blocks to the beach.

Hi Andrew!
I don't recommend the transit system here since she only has really one day to sightsee and I'd hate to see them on a 2 hour each way to get to LJ..being a native SD, I've taken that #30 bus with several transfers and that is why I suggested the car rental which you can get for under $20 per diam.
Glad it worked for you but for the most part, our transit system unfortunately is not set up like other cities which I love using as much as possible.
Trolley and the Coaster are better served to go to Carlsbad and Solana Beach which are great coastal towns.
Hope you had a good time while you were here!

sunbum..you can walk to Island Prime which is a Cohn restaurant from the Sheraton and I provided a link in the first post.

We spent two full days at Balboa Park, and didn't go to the zoo.
We also thought the USS Midway was excellent--spent about four hours there.

ksucat, I used the MTS and North County Transit buses for three days a couple of weeks ago when I was down. I originally had a car reserved for the last two days, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good the transit system was the first day, so I canceled the car. Using Google Maps to navigate the buses and trains (with my netbook always with me) was essential, though, for doing more than simple routings. In general, I thought the buses were clean and on time. The connection to La Jolla is easy and the #30 runs often during the day. When you factor in the time to get back to the airport, rent a car, find your way out of the airport...then bring the car back (fuel it up) and get back to the hotel, I don't think you'd be saving much time vs. just taking the bus...IF La Jolla was only only destination. Naturally, the car gives you a lot more freedom and flexibility to stop at more than one place. But if you want merely to get up to La Jolla and back, the bus works fine.

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Which of hte north county beach towns is the most "charming", i.e. Capitola-ish?