San Diego - Part Two

I hope I can keep all this information and pictures straight.  We have done and seen a lot of things in the last few days and we did not have any wifi for a couple of days so I could not do a blog.
We spent an enjoyable day at Ocean Beach and Point Loma.  This beach was a lot different than Coronado Beach.  It was full of surfers, "hippy" types and fishermen .  We spent tons of time just watching them all!
There is a super long pier that you can walk along and people fish along there and the birds hang out looking for freebies.

We watched the surfers for a long time.  It appears surfing is a lot of sitting on your board waiting for the perfect wave.  It really looks fun and I would love to try it.  Or at least I would love to just sit on the board and play in the waves.

 I took a ton of pictures of the surfers and even a video.  When I looked at this one it sorta freaked me out!  Looks like this guy is going head on into the pier.  No idea why he was that close.

 This guy sat and waited for the fishermen to throw him treats (and other gross stuff)

 This pelican was fishing, very successfully!  It is amazing how fast they dive into the water head first.

 See that little colorful car front on the left?? It was actually a table for 2.  There was a bar type table along the front of the restaurant and the window had no glass so you could look out at the street. There was lots of surfing type decor.

The main street was full of fun shops, surf shops, and restaurants. We stopped to walk along and then have lunch at Hodad's.  It was featured on diners drive-ins and dives.  We both had burgers and wow they were soooo good

Then we headed to Cabrillo national Monument at Point Loma.  It is the spot that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and crew (first Europeans)  first set foot on what would become the west coast of the United States in 1542. I think I also read that it is the second most visited monument after the statue of liberty.  This is a beautiful area and we walked around for a few hours exploring and enjoying the ocean.  Along the way there is a lot of military buildings and a huge graveyard for military.  It was quite something to see and really sobering to see that many grave markers.  I wasn't sure if it was disrespectful or not to post those so thought it might be best not to.

 The views from the point were amazing.

 They call this area the whale highway.  Gray whales migrate to Mexico in this area between December and March.

This area has the largest kelp forest in North America.  It is interesting to look at, all the yellowish bulbs are what helps it to float.

 I am standing on the beach in Shelter Island  - it is a very narrow little strip in the bay.  You can see all the sails from the yacht club in the water on the other side.  There are hotels and what not on this little area too.

We watched guided missile destroyer come through the bay by Shelter Island on its way to port in San Diego harbour.

 One day we drove out to the Blue Sky Nature Preserve.  The homes on the hills in this area looked very expensive and beautiful.

I wanted to show you the tree tops of the Coast Live Oaks but somehow got my head in the way!  These trees stay green year round and the leaves do not look like oaks at all.  They have tons of acorns which feed many animals.

It was a really nice hike and we could have continued to Lake Poway but someone (ahem Don) did not want to climb up the mountain.

This is another beach called Imperial Beach.  It also has a huge long pier that you can walk out and enjoy the view or catch some fish if you like. It was very busy that day as there was a marathon in progress when we got there.

 These were the tiniest little flowers, the size of your fingertip that covered a lot of ground as we walked down the main street.

 Dolphin statue (although I am sure you figured that out already)

The houses in this area were really cute.  Lots had sea themed decorations in the yard or on the home.

This is a shot from Imperial Beach.   We have seen so many awesome things already I can hardly believe it.  I wish we could stay here for the winter! The drawback is the driving every day on the crazy Interstates. This is not something either of us would enjoy for a long period of time.  Might have to pull up a spot on the beach and become a beach bum!