La Jolla

When I walked around the park where we are currently located I realized that we are sitting in a canyon, Rose Canyon to be exact. We are totally surrounded by hills.

By the time we got out the door and started touring today it was well into the afternoon. About all we had time for was a quick drive up the coast north of San Diego to La Jolla, "Jewel of the Pacific". It is popular for its sandstone cliffs and coves. Our first stop at one of its beaches found us in quite a crowded area, it was even difficult to find a parking space. A young man in the truck in front of us was stripping down in the back of his truck and donning on a wet suit (he did attempt to cover himself with a blanket while he was doing so). When we saw that guy a few minutes later he was diving into the water with his surf board. It was a cool breezy day with overcast skies but many others were also in the water enjoying the high waves of the ocean.
Our next stop was at a place along the coastal road where John just was curious to look at the beach just because he could not see it from the road. I chose to stay into the warm car until John insisted I had to see what was on the beach. It was quite fortunate we did stop because there we saw harbor seals.

Further up from that area both cormorants and seals were hanging out together on the cliffs. What a great sight! Here the seals were quite active and noisy. I think they were trying to claim their piece of the rock.

At that same stop we saw another group of cliffs, some with large caves in them which had been carved out by the ocean's waves. Sitting on a ledge of those cliffs was a flock of pelicans.

It certainly ended up being a very serendipitous afternoon with many surprises. We concluded our day by walking through the beautiful La Jolla shopping district where we found a wonderful restaurant (good food with reasonable prices), something which also was not in our plans for the day!