Pages

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Cabrillo National Monument and Balboa Park

Josh randomly got a four day weekend for Labor Day, which never happens. We decided to take advantage of his time off and head to Point Loma, which I have been wanting to see for months. 

I've got big plans for Gray and the National Parks system! Mom and I took him to his first National Monument while Josh was at SERE in February. Mom, Gray, and I went to about 4 national parks that long weekend alone! I got him a passport (which is a way for suckers like me to spend money in the park system) so he can get stamps from every national park he visits. He has already been to close to 10, so I'm pretty excited about it! Now that I think about it, maybe I should have gotten my own passport book... Dang. Think Josh would let us travel back across the US so I could get some stamps? I sort of doubt it too. 

I digress. 
Josh and Gray headed to the tide pools. 
We drove down to Point Loma to the Cabrillo National Monument.  The park has some beautiful scenery along the Pacific coast with some tide pools you can walk out to see. We didn't see anything spectacular, but I wonder if we were there at the wrong time of day... Either way, the cliff-y shores were pretty and Gray enjoyed the small caves carved into the side of the cliff. He did not enjoy the sand sticking to his feet. He may be more like his mother than we first realized.
You can see part of one of the tide pools in this shot.
Checking out the mini-caves.
Gray didn't really care for this photo op.
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was the first European to set foot on what is now the West Coast of the USA in September of 1542.  The National Monument was established in 1913 to commemorate his discovery. This statue of Cabrillo looks out over the bay that he first sailed into on September 28, 1542. (mostly taken from nps.gov)
Customary shot of Gray with something he cares nothing about. 
After checking out the visitors center and the statue of Cabrillo, we walked up to the Old Point Loma Lighthouse. The lighthouse was in use from 1855 until 1891 before the light was extinguished. The lighthouse was often obscured by dense fog, so another lighthouse was built closer to the tip of Point Loma closer to sea level, therefore easier to spot on foggy nights.  
Inside the lighthouse.
Looking for Elliot the dragon at all times (Pete's Dragon, anyone?)
Voices on the other end of the line were telling him all about the lighthouse.
He just kept saying his version of 'Hello?' 
Then we drove to Ocean Beach to have a Five Guys burger. If you haven't had Five Guys before, shame on you! They are totally delish! Google lied to us about where the Five Guys actually was located, so we settled for another burger place nearby. We were in a hurry to make it to Balboa Park to see an IMAX movie, Ultimate Wave Tahiti. It is shockingly about surfing. 

Naturally, we couldn't get our check in enough time to drive to Balboa Park, get a spot, walk in, get a ticket, and make it to the movie. We decided to let Gray check out the huge fountain for a few minutes before going into the Reuben H Fleet Science Center to get tickets for the next showing. 
The fountain at Balboa Park.
After getting part of a leg into the water. 
Josh and Gray inside the Science Center enjoying some of the  experiments. 
Overall, we all had a pretty fab day. Gray and I discussed it and we think Josh should get 4 day weekends more often! 

1 comment:

  1. Linda! These pics are amazing. And your post is simply hilarious and sweet. It's been WAY too long. I forgot how funny you are. It's 6:30 am & I'm already laughing.

    ReplyDelete