Busy times in San Diego: Wednesday at Point Loma National Monument, Thursday at Torrey Pines State Park, and yesterday at the San Diego Zoo. Nowhere today unless I get gas, but that's another story...
Point Loma is about as far South and West as you can go without going to Mexico or getting wet. It has a very nice old lighthouse sitting way up on a very high cliff that should have served mariners very well, except for the fact that fog is prevalent at that height... The solution was to decommission the lighthouse after 36 years service back in 1891 in favour of a new lighthouse much lower on the cliff. This first picture is of the older lighthouse.
It's only a short walk from the last picture to a spot where you can overlook the new [1891] lighthouse complex. It is very well manicured and undoubtedly provides excellent housing for senior Coast Guard Officers, but I digress. As opposed to the old lighthouse, this one is behind very high fences and would have been difficult to photograph without the high overlook. It's a few hundred feet lower and likely below the fog level but I'm sure it too has been decommissioned as a manned light in favour of being automated...
Looking away from the Pacific side while at Point Loma, you get an excellent view of the very large San Diego Harbour, the centre of the city with the Santa Anna Mountains [Palomar Range] in the background. The great southern california deserts are just beyond, an adventure for another day.
This next photo is close up of the city made just to the right of the last one.
Torrey Pines State Park is just a little North of the famous golf course and is named after its rare pines that seem to grow nowhere else. Many pines have that windswept look that happens when you live by the sea. The Torrey Pines have fairly large squat pine cones that you may notice in these pictures.
The Park is right on the edge of the Pacific where the cliffs are prone to erosion. This next image sort of gives you an idea of the place.
This next shot is looking south and shows you the type of fine trails available in the Park. We didn't go down all the way because we weren't too keen on climbing back up... We were surprised at the number of Jocks jogging past us [both going up and down], earphones blaring! The park is not far from military bases and those guys are fit!
Balboa Park is a great city park that contains the world renown San Diego Zoo. We've just bought a family membership so we can visit as often as we like, it's that good! It's hard to choose what to visit or which photos to show in this blog so this is the luck of the draw.
These meerkats are funny little guys are always on the move, eating, tunneling, making out, or just looking around.
Sometimes, the animals refuse to turn around and look at the people so you get a few butt shots. Question for the Grandkids: Just who's butt is this in the next picture?
The Zoo has a good display of bears: these two are grizzlies.
They also have Pandas that are being reproduced to repopulate the wilds.
At one point, we walked past the raptor enclosures and this little guy was sitting on top, with one feather out of place, bad hair day?
And last but not least, the polar bear! Yay!
As if the Zoo wasn't enough to fill the day, we had tickets to see Jeff Denham and guitar guy, both well known performers because of the infamous Achmed the Terrorist. We'd seen some of his shows on uTube, where he's easy to find. Have a look and laugh at this amazing ventriloquist. Our tickets were a very generous Christmas gift from Kathleen and Phillip, are we being spoiled or what? And now, off to get gas...
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