A Weekend in La Jolla

This weekend, we both had the Friday off work for Veteran's Day, so we made the most of it!

We started off with a lie in and then drove an hour south to go on a little hike. I'd chosen to go to Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve. Which is a park in San Diego County. The entrance was a little confusing, with one gate being closed, but we made our way in. It's a very long skinny park, so we walked for an hour or two in a straight line along the river, criss-crossing the water and going in and out of trees. 

At the end we got to a waterfall, which did have a decent amount of water flowing through it, probably due to the amount of rain we'd had earlier in the week. 

We had our lunch and made our way back just as the sun was beginning to go down. We carried on our journey with another half hour to the south. We arrived at our hotel in La Jolla, San Diego and managed to find a parking space without a time restriction, right outside the building. 

We checked in and found they had given us complimentary scones from a bakery we had actually visited before. We got changed out of our hiking clothes and went for dinner at a Thai place we had  passed on the way in. It was very tasty and we like that it's still warm enough for us to eat outside, even in the evenings. 

After eating, we went for a little walk to get some ice-cream for dessert, and made our way down to the cove. As we approached we could hear sealions barking, and when we reached the top of the stairs to the beach, we heard more and more! It was very loud and when we looked down, the entire beach was covered, with sealions trying to sleep, climbing over each other, swimming about and playing. It was smelly if you got too close, but we stayed on the steps. 

The next morning, we ate our small scones first thing in the morning, and then went out for brunch. Because of how hilly La Jolla is, lots of the cafes around have a sea view and we did too as we ate our avocado toast and drank mimosas. 

Then it was time for our main event of the weekend! We walked along the coast walk, up on the cliff overlooking the ocean. We arrived on the other side of the cove and got dressed into wetsuits and picked up our snorkels and flippers! 

We were in a group of eight and we started by paddling out in our double kayak. As we were leaving the beach, we saw lots and lots of leopard sharks lying on the warm sand in the shallow water. The sea was so clear that day so we got a really good view of them as we paddled by.

We went as far as some caves, where we all jumped out to do some snorkeling. There was no beach here, and you could only access it by the water. 

The main fish was garibaldis, which is the State marine fish, big and bright orange, which made it very easy to see and take pictures of. We'd bought a special phone case which sealed shut, but had clear panels so we could take pictures through it. 

We went in the cave and saw a spiny lobster too which was pretty big! I saw a young garibaldi which was bright blue and lots of grey/brown fish too. 

We paddled about a bit, looking at all the fish, but after a while, I got cold and headed back to the kayaks. I pulled myself up, and while we were waiting, I saw something big splash in the water. When the rest of the group came over, someone said they saw a young sealion, so it was probably that that I saw! We had a quick second dip in the water when Mitchell accidentally tipped the boat over, but after that we kayaked back to the beach.

We got changed and got a cup of tea to warm up. It was a warm day, so it didn't take too long. We walked back along the coast and went to shower. We went out for dinner that evening at a Mexican restaurant and had a very big, very slow dinner as we watched the sun set. 

We went for another walk to see the sealions that night, which were just as busy and noisy as the day before. 

Sunday morning, we checked out and took a last walk around the town. We then drove to Downtown San Diego to meet Asta! We had thought about going to visit her in Texas this weekend, but it turned out she was attending a conference in San Diego instead! So we went to the conference centre to meet her for lunch which was really nice. It was so good to catch up about how her work is going and hear about what the conference was like. 

After lunch we walked through the Gaslamp Quarter and back to the conference center, and then it was on to our last stop of the weekend. 

There was a Jurassic World exhibition in San Diego, and we went to visit it on the way home. They had lots of animatronic dinosaurs, and props from the films, like a jeep and a gyrosphere. All the staff were dressed up as rangers and they had some interactive stations too. There were lots of kids, but it was fun to see the big dinosaurs. 

We had a really good weekend and had lots of fun seeing all the sea life!

Lots of love,

Emily and Mitchell

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