La Jolla Area, San Diego

 La Jolla in Spanish means "the jewel".  In about 2 minutes of walking around this area it is pretty apparent that La Jolla is indeed a jewel. 

 This is looking down toward the sea caves.

 Beautiful  - that's about all I can say!

This area was noisy with sea lions and birds - also pretty smelly!

This is La Jolla Cove, there were a lot of people out swimming quite a long way from shore.  The waves aren't as high as on a big beach so I guess it lends itself to swimming.  There was even a sign telling about the waves, wind and water temp (which was 66 - 68)

This pretty little snowy egret just plopped itself down right in front of me.  He was kinda shy and would not turn around so I could get a better picture - or he was a brat and teased me until I wasn't watching the waves close enough and got my shoes wet.
We walked along the streets in the town for about an hour and looked at the interesting shops and restaurants.  This would be a fun place to shop!  La Jolla is known to be one of the most affluent communities in the United States.  It was difficult driving and parking and we wanted to see quite a bit in this general area so we drove out to Torrey Pines State Reserve.

This is Torrey Pines City Beach and one of my favorites.  It was a very long beach and I could not wait to get my toes in it!  The sand was sparkly with little gold crystals.  The beach held amazing shells and polished rocks (even a pretty little white quartz one that looks like a jelly bean).  We were super lucky to even find a parking spot and even luckier that it was low tide.  We both set out walking and enjoying the beautiful day.

 Don met a fellow metal detector dude and they had a good time comparing notes.

I met this cool young fellow who traveled across the US on his bike.  It took him 80 days and he is going to fly back home to Vermont on Sunday to go back to his job as ski instructor.  He was a neat kid and only 19.

These are some shots of the Torrey Pines. They are very pretty trees that I had seen in the area and really didn't know what they were. Torrey Pines are one of the nation's rarest pine tree.  Once this tree covered a larger area, now it only grows here and near Santa Barbara.  We did not take the time to stop and walk on the hikes etc as we had quite a few stops we still wanted to make.  Also . . .  we might have missed the turns in this area as the navigator gets a little distracted when there are birds in marshy areas (can you say ADD?).  We had done a fair bit of backtracking by this time already.  It would be nice to come back and spend at least 4 hours just in the reserve.  Apparently there is a beach off this area that is clothing optional as well.

 We stopped at the glider port and watched them for quite a while as well.

There were super good views from up there too. Look how they build houses in this area.  Some have absolutely no back yard at all and are right on the edge of the cliff.
It is too bad La Jolla is about half hour plus driving from where we are.  I would love to spend 2 more days looking at all it has to offer.  The driving on these scary freeways is not fun at all.  Speed limits are 65 mph.  Don was going 70 and people fly past - very unnerving.
On Thursday night the park had a pot luck Thanksgiving supper.  They cooked turkey and potatoes and gravy and we all brought sides.  About 90% of the people in the park live here year round.  Many have lived here over 5 years.  

This morning we took a drive north into the mountains.  The road was very curvy and the scenery was very beautiful.  There were so many photo opportunities but no way can you get out on those narrow roads.  This was in Escondido.

We made our way to Mission Bay today as we had tried to get there on the La Jolla day but went the wrong way once again and that was the last straw for Don.  This would be a great place to walk and bike as well but it was super busy with a breast cancer walk.  The walkers were all decked out and it was quite entertaining anyway.  I have no idea what this guy's excuse was for his get up!  Srsly didn't anyone tell him matching your clothes to your bike was so last year.  hee hee

 Where I come from we have snow routes . . .

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Just another picture of the streets and houses.  This street was super steep - you can tell they don't get ice and snow!