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.