There are easier ways to make a list of things to do in San Diego.

You could scrape the internet. Aggregate the hits. Let something fast and efficient assemble a clean, endless scroll of recommendations. It would be quick. It would be comprehensive. It would be… fine.

That’s not this.

This issue was built the slow way. By living here and by asking a simple question over and over: Would we tell a friend to do this? If the answer was yes, it made the list.

At the center is “101 Things to Do This Summer,” a list that’s not meant to be finished, only lived with—argued over, added to, and carried around all season. Along the way, we take to the road in “Life Is a Highway,” chasing new restaurants, hotels, and roadside stops up the 1 and 101, and imagine the perfect round in “The Dream 18,” built from the best golf holes in San Diego.

Elsewhere, you’ll find the meals that stuck with us, the trends we had to experience in person, the artists and locals shaping the city right now, and a calendar full of reasons to leave the house.

It’s not definitive. It’s not exhaustive. It’s not trying to be.

It’s a reflection of a place that’s impossible to finish—and the deeply human act of trying anyway.