Independence Day Weekend, San Diego : Part 1

2010.07.04 in personal

As always, there are a lot more pictures on Flickr, but below are the highlights from my trip on the 3rd.

This trip started based on a recommendation from some random La Jolla news site talking about things to do this weekend — their suggestion was to go to PrepKitchen on the 3rd, get a large quantity of takeout, and pack it in your picnic basket for the 4th. Since I'm not planning on having a picnic, I figured I would stop by and see what they had to offer instead. I had a wonderful turkey sandwich, and was quite pleased — I would highly recommend a trip, and will likely be returning in the future!

But the food itself wasn't the most interesting part of the beginning of today's trip — the area surrounding it was. For once, I felt somewhat "at home"... Downtown La Jolla seems to be the part of San Diego that I'd been missing; it felt more like the middle of Burlington or Cambridge than the rest of San Diego, with the random and varied restaurants and small shops and things. Eastern La Jolla (where I live) is very confusing, because it lacks reasonable (read: non-fast-food, non-mall-chains) food and other things. Other places I've been, like Kearny Mesa, or San Diego itself (the Marina and Balboa Park, at least) all felt... less welcoming. I was very happy, anyway!



After lunch, I wandered down towards the ocean, very quickly stumbling upon a whole bunch of seals! There were lots of people standing on the breakwater observing them, and there were signs warning that we shouldn't disturb the seals, as they need rest after swimming for long stretches. They would occasionally make those noises that seals make, but other than that weren't moving around very much — napping, indeed!





I walked south along the ocean for about a mile and a half, trying to stay off the sand and on the rocks or grass (I only have sneakers, at the moment!). I ran into a few squirrels... if you want to call them that. They're sort of bizarre, coming from the East Coast, but still easily identifiable (some of them were extremely fat, though...).





There were lots of tidal pools — I wish I'd had more glass with me (and better shoes) so I could have investigated some of the crabs and things up close... next time!





I got in a little bit of trouble taking this picture, and never quite got the shot I wanted. I had to drop down into the channel, and had some autofocus oddities (understandable, I suppose, with the moving water and the super-varying depth), and wasn't paying lots of attention, so I ended up with very wet and very sandy sneakers. Luckily, they dried before long, and I didn't really mind — though the water is quite cold!





I made a circle back around to Fay Ave., where I had already had lunch, and stopped at the Cold Stone Creamery, which I would recommend even more than PrepKitchen. However, if they offer you a bottle of water, take it; if they don't, get one! The ice cream is extremely rich, by design, and they fold all sorts of stuff into it (I watched them fold a brownie, some sort of chocolate chunks, and something minty into mine, it was pretty awesome...).



After the ice cream, I headed up the coast, towards my bus stop, passing by Scripps Park and a very crowded, tiny beach on the way, as well as a cave, and some kayakers! There was a contingent of very messy pelicans (and a variety of other birds, but mostly pelicans) watching over the swimmers, stopping occasionally only to stretch out their big beaks. Mike likes pelicans, so I sent him a nice picture of a few :)





All in all, today was a good day! I was planning on going to Coronado for their parade, but that would have required a 2+ hour bus ride at 7AM, and that just wasn't going to happen. I'm actually quite glad that it worked out the way it did, because I found a very happy area instead!