San Diego Day 2

Our first planned stop of the day was at Torrey Pines State Reserve.  We had read about this place and that it had several short hikes that resulted in beautiful views of the ocean and beaches.  I guess everyone else knew that, as well.   We had a little trouble finding the actual entrance to the park but when we did find the entrance, this was the first view of the Pacific Ocean we had.  

There was even someone surfing.  It was a beautiful view.  There is a parking lot at the bottom of the park near the entrance.   Most of the hikes start at the top of a mountain covered with Torrey Pine.  We paid $20 to get into the park.  As we were driving the road up the mountain, we noticed that many, many people were walking up the mountain.  When we got to the top, we understood why.  There were two small parking lots and both were full.  The only way we were going to hike the trails in this park was to return to the bottom and hike back up to the top.   We made the decision to forfeit the entrance fee and head for Cabrillo National Monument and the Loma Point Lighthouse.

We were surprised to find a line to get into the park.  It was a beautiful day and  Saturday so a lot of people had the same idea.  We began to "oh and ah" over the views from this peninsula park.  We drove through a naval base to get the the park.   Cabrillo was the first European to land on the west coast and he did so on September 28, 1542.

San Diego skyline.

The tall ship "Americus."

A beautiful view of the Coronado Bridge.  You can see the curve in the bridge.

There is a national military cemetery named Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.  It is so beautiful and peaceful.

Old Point Loma lightshouse.  It was in operation from 1855-1891.  The location of the lighthouse was often shrouded in fog so after 36 years, it was closed and a new one was built in a lower location and ran by the Coast Guard. 

Original lighthouse lamp.

Spiral staircase to the top of the lighthouse

This is a reproduction of the original ship on which Cabrillo said into the harbor.

A statue commemorating the landing of Cabrillo.

The park service also owns the shoreline that is well-known for tide pools.  Unfortunately, today the tide was too high to explore the tide pools.  We did enjoy the views.

I think these are pelicans.

A view of a tide pool.

There is also a sea cave but access to it was closed because of the high tides.

The new lighthouse manned by the Coast Guard.

We saw this church and I liked it so I took a quick picture.

We returned back to camp at 2:00 p.m. and this time because everyone is in parks and the beach, we actually drove the 50 miles in an hour.  There were no slowdowns or complete stops.   We ate in Temecula at a In N Out Burger.   We had never eaten at one before.  The food was good but very basic.  There only four things on the food menu:  hamburger, cheese burger, double/double burger and french fries.  There is no chicken or anything else.   The place was packed so it is very popular in California.

We were back at camp by 4:00 p.m. and finally we had time to sit in our lawn chairs and relax.  Carol really needs to rest.  He was not able to walk up to the lighthouse because of his knee.  I went up the short trail alone.  Standing for long periods of time like we did yesterday on the USS Midway plays havoc on his knee.  It started at the Balloon Fiesta and has flared back up again.  He has a doctor's appointment the week we get home and he says he will talk to the doctor about it.   I hope the knee can feel better because we have more hiking to do in the next couple of weeks.

We loaded the car tonight in anticipation of getting out early tomorrow.  It is only 200 miles to Death Valley so we won't have far to drive.  According to Weather Channel, the temps will be around 90 during the day and down to 60 at night.  Not bad for Death Valley.  Our campsite has 50 amp electric and water so we will be cool in the motorhome.