La Jolla Cove

On Sunday when I was telling one of my friends that I had decided to go to San Diego she asked me what fun things I was planning to do. I told her I really wanted to go to the beach and see a whale, since this is whale watching season. It seems like even though I have been to San Diego a lot in the past 6 months I haven't made it to the beach very often, so that seemed like a good goal.

Well, Monday it was rainy and cold and Tuesday it wasn't really raining but it was wet and cold. That left today for our beach excursion. The oldest daughter, the son-in-law and the grandson had been to LaJolla Cove and seen lots of seals so the youngest son wanted to go there. I thought that was as good a beach as any and so off we went.

When we got to the beach the oldest daughter did a fabulous job parallel parking on Coast Blvd. (even though she swore she couldn't do it and got a little freaked out) and we were off to see some sea life.

We watched this group of seals and sea lions from the cliff above the Children's Pool for a while.


It was fun to watch them flop through the sand, swim in the surf and to see the mamas taking such good care of their babies.

Then we decided to move on and see what else we could find. We saw a beach with a few animals and people up quite close to them so we headed down the stairs for a gander.

The seals and sea lions seemed completely at ease with us checking them out. We got close enough to take a couple of pictures and then moved up the beach to let the grandson play with his sand toys.



and to take a few pictures of ourselves.

While we enjoyed the beach, people continued to move up close and watch the seals and sea lions. All of the sudden we heard a voice from the cliff above us, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Please move away from the seals.You are too close. Please move away from the animals."

Everyone looked around to see who was speaking. When it was discovered that the spokesperson was just a regular lady and not someone in authority, everyone kind of just went back to what they were doing.

Apparently, this was not the desired response and the woman decided to get closer to the offenders. She climbed the fence and rushed out to the edge of the cliff above the animals and once again began loudly urging the people to leave. She yelled, she cussed, she stomped her feet and ranted. I thought she was pretty scary and so did the sea lions and seals because all of the sudden they began to look concerned and agitated where before they were quite peaceful. The woman continued to carry on and other people decided to yell back at her. She took pictures of the "criminals" and they took pictures of her. She never aimed her camera as far over as we were, so apparently we weren't on her list of "stupid, idiotic, humans".

I thought it was interesting that this individual sincerely cared about the wildlife and really wanted them to be safe, but in her zealous display she probably caused more harm than good. The mommy seals only felt endangered after she appeared on the scene.

Sometimes I think I do the same thing. With the best of intentions, I rush in and try to enforce my will on a situation and often I end up making things worse. Maybe I can remember this experience next time I want to jump in and "fix" something. Evaluate if it really needs to be fixed and if it does, thoughtfully figure out the best way to handle it, hopefully without raising my voice.

When the excitement died down we climbed back up the stairs and headed over to La Jolla Cove. On the way we saw lots of ground squirrels eating the flowers. They were pretty cute.

The grandson liked to tell them "GRR..." and watch them run. He thought it was so fun until one of them ran down the edge of the cliff out of sight. Then he was really worried because he thought it had "falled down" into the water.

After we strolled through Scripps Park we stopped to watch a big group of seals and sea lions sunning on the cliffs above the cove. As the tide rolled in the waves would come up and splash over them, but they didn't seem to be bothered. We decided these were the anti social animals of the area because their cliffs were pretty inaccessible to the humans.

La Jolla Cove has an underwater ecological area with artificial reefs so apparently it is popular with scuba divers. It was interesting to watch people swim out into the cold ocean to explore. Most of them were clad in wet suits, but one brave soul was wearing nothing but a speedo. Scary!

The grandson got kind of bored of watching the sea life and decided to try his hand at street entertainment. Here he is playing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on the bench and singing along.

I found him entertaining even if no one else did.

It was a beautiful afternoon and a fun way to end this trip to San Diego.

Can't wait to come back again. Maybe next time I will actually see a whale.

Making Sugar Cookies

Today the oldest daughter and I decided we wanted to make some sugar cookies. The grandson thought it was a great idea.

First we had to make the dough.

We have a favorite sugar cookie recipe that came from our next door neighbor, Kate. Every year we would go to their house and make sugar cookies at Christmas time and this was the recipe that we used.

Holiday Sugar Roll Out Dough

1 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar

1 cup margarine

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp almond flavoring

2 ½ cups flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

Cream sugar and margarine. Mix in egg and flavorings. Stir dry ingredients together; blend into sugar/margarine mixture. Refrigerate 2 – 3 hours. Heat oven to 375. Bake 7 to 8 minutes.

After the dough sits in the fridge for a couple of hours you need to put a lot of flour on the table where you are going to roll out the cookies.

This is more fun than making the dough.

A lot more fun.

Then you get to cut out the cookie shapes and put them on the pan and cook them.

You have to get really close to make sure the cookies are cool enough to frost and make sure you blow a little if they aren't.

Then you make the frosting.

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp vanilla

Water to make icing consistency.

Try to remember to not add too much water because then you have to add a lot more sugar :).

Then you get to frost your cookie. You have to concentrate really hard and make sure you do a good job.

Then you get to eat your dog bone cookie.

That is the funnest part of all!

We like making sugar cookies!

Puppy Love

I will be the first to admit that I am not a dog person. Give me a nice cat any day. I have never really felt a great deal of love for Baja doggy. She is cute as dogs go, but dogs are jumpy and smelly and just not my favorite.

Plus when you mix her with a two year old it usually means trouble. When one of them wants to be left alone, the other one just has to get in their face.

The constant poking, barking, biting, pulling, chasing, yelling, crying drives me crazy.

However, I must hide my feelings well because Baja seems to really think I like her. She is always the most welcoming family member when I arrive at her house for a visit. She is SO happy to see me. I don't get the reception that the son-in-law gets when he comes home from work, but it is a close second.

Today the grandson and I were upstairs playing toys while the oldest daughter was gone to a doctor's appointment. We left Baja downstairs with the back door open in case she needed to go potty. It was very likely that she would since earlier the grandson had fed her an entire package of Girl Scout Samoa cookies while I went to the bathroom. (I should have known he was up to something when he didn't even ask to go potty with me.)

When we came downstairs we could tell she was in trouble just by looking at her face.

It had been raining and she decided to dig in the mud and then proceeded to haul it all into the house with her and bury it in the couch cushions. I wasn't very happy. I threw all the clumps away and then started sweeping up the mess. That was when I saw the present Baja had left for me.

There in the pile of dirt was a tiny heart made out of a piece of grass. It made my own heart happy.

I guess Baja's not bad for a dog. In fact, when the grandson isn't around she is almost likeable.

At least she keeps me warm when she cuddles with me on the couch. It's nice to be loved, even if it is by a puppy. I guess I should try to like her back - at least a little bit.

I Just Can't Seem to Stay Home

Since the day the youngest son moved back to Arizona, about a month ago, he has been wanting to take a trip back to California. I didn't encourage him too much because I thought it wasn't really necessary. When I realized he was going to go whether I encouraged him or not I thought, "that's OK. He can go if he wants to, but I just saw the grandson and the oldest daughter for a week and I don't need to see them again". We are planning a trip to California in March for Spring Break and that isn't that far away. I was decided.

However, as his departure got closer I just couldn't think of a good enough reason to stay home, so I asked him if I could tag along. He was happy for my company, as long as I agreed to pay for some of the gas. So...

Once again I find myself in San Diego and I'm happy to be here.

Who wouldn't be happy to see this cute, smiling face?

Tonight, after the grandson went to bed, we played Scattergories and then the oldest daughter and I put a puzzle together. It is a Dowdle puzzle of San Diego. It was fun to work on and had some interesting details.

The grandson's favorite part was the temple.

I am embarrassed to say my favorite part was the buff surfers.

We had a hard time figuring out why there were legs waving out of the top of one of the buildings, but once we completed the scene and read the words we realized they weren't legs but elephant and giraffe heads poking out of the zoo.

There's lots of exciting things to see and do in San Diego and I'm excited to see and do them for the next few days.

Today I am thankful for

one on one time with the youngest son.

Sunday dinner that I didn't have to make.

an amazing Gospel Doctrine teacher who loves the scriptures and makes me want to love them more.