Three days ago, Scott and I took an excursion to Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma in San Diego. Since Scott grew up in San Diego, I asked him if he had ever been there before and he said he never had, so this was a fun thing for both of us. Even when we lived there with the kids, we'd never been there before, so this was a treat. I learned things I didn't know before about San Diego. First of all, when you come into San Diego off Interstate 8, you'll take this all the way as far as you can go when the freeway just becomes an expressway. This is down by where we took the dogs at the beach a few weeks ago. Then, you turn left and go all the way down the point to the end of the peninsula and then you arrive. It's pretty easy driving directions.
Once there, I got my National Parks book stamped. When I walked into the Visitors Center, the first thing I saw was this old sailor statue...or so I thought. All of a sudden, he moved and I was taken back...the dude was real! Scared the bageeberz out of me! He got a good chuckle. He said, "You probably thought I was a dummy, didn't you"? I said, "Naw, you just looked like a "man"a-kin". He laughed! But, he was sure life-like!
We looked around the Cabrillo Visitor's Center and then went out to take photos of the bay. Cabrillo sits high on top of a cliff and overlooks downtown, the airport, the port and the bay. Quite the view.
The bad thing was that it was extremely foggy on Saturday, so our view was overcast and fog covered the whole area much of the time, but the fog presented us with some fun photos.
Speaking of photos, Scott bought a new Cannon Powershot G7x Mark II and he's been experimenting with it, so I had a lot of fun taking photos of him taking photos. LOL.
Once we were done at the observatory, I was getting cold. It was 63 degrees - not bad, but the wind was so strong and the fog was so cool, that you needed a jacket so Scott ran back to the car and grabbed my Quebec sweatshirt while I hung out checking out the cool stuff at the visitor's center. I found the neatest things...saying from nature entitled "Advice from a..." by www.yourtruenature.com. These are really pretty cool. I really loved the one called "Advice from a Trail" and also "Advice from an Eclipse". They had a good supply of "water" type advices and I loved reading them all.
Once Scott returned we went next door to the museum and learned a little about Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the first European to set foot on the west coast of the United States and who explored the waters off San Diego, Los Angeles and down into Baja California. He came to the America's by 1510 so he had to be born sometime in the latter 1400's. No one knows of his birth nor his death.
He was prominent in the crossbow in the conquest of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan aka Mexico City. In 1541, Cabrillo's flagship, the San Salvador, a 100-foot full-rigged galleon with a 10-foot draft entered a harbor that he described as "a closed and very good port". It carried officers, crew, slaves, and Augustinian priests. Quite a vast array of people!
Cabrillo used navigational instruments and I device I found interesting that charted their course in rough waters, keeping track of how far off course they went. I can't figure out how it works, but they guys were pretty smart! When we stepped off his ship on a silvery strand of beach, he named it San Miguel, the site of current San Diego.
At the time, there was a storm so he stayed in San Diego for 6 days then went north and found Catalina Islands and San Clemente, which he named San Salvador. When he sailed toward Los Angeles, the sky was smoky and he named the area Bahia de Los Fumos - Bay of Smokes. Interesting to me, that it a perfect name for Los Angeles now with all the smog.
After we left the visitor's center, we took more photos of the statue of Cabrillo and then continued to hike up to the old lighthouse at Point Loma. The fog gave our photos a very eerie and mysterious look and it was so dense and the wind so fast that you could feel the moisture on your face. I'm sorry to say that I washed my hair before we came and it was a disaster when we got home. That's how much humidity was in the air.
The Old Point Loma Lighthouse was a fun little lighthouse to tour. It was a lighthouse for only 36 years because the fog gets so thick where it was located that sailors couldn't see the light. Service there started on November 15, 1855 and was discontinued on March 23, 1891. The light keeper actually moved to a lower area closer to the tip of water so that the light could be seen better near shore rather than up on the top of the hill. Now, that station is part of the US Coast Guard - Point Loma Light Station.
What really attracted me to this lighthouse is that my great-great-great grandfather, Newton Bacon, was the Old Bailey's Harbor lighthouse keeper in Wisconsin and his lighthouse was a birdcage style lighthouse, similar to this one, but taller. I was intrigued to see inside the lighthouse and also learn about the lenses and refraction of the light.
As you can see by the photos, there is a main floor with two rooms and then a very narrow spiral staircase leading to the second floor where two bedrooms were. Near the stairs was a very narrow tall ladder going up to the lens. Very simple. The life was very simple and yet cold and lonely.
I really enjoyed the museum in the out building that talked how the lighthouse worked, how it was furnished and how the light refraction worked. All very interesting. And, just outside the outbuilding was also a small garden. Large enough to sustain your family; small, simple and quaint. The lighthouse today looks just as it did in 1855. It's extremely well preserved.
After leaving the lighthouse, we started back down the hill and discovered yet another find. Point Loma was also had a Military Coastal Exhibit. It was a building used by the Army during World War II as an Army Radio Station. There were also bunkers and ammunition in case of war. Who knew! I was quite surprised by this, but it made a whole lot of sense at the same time.
Next, we were going to walk down to the tide pools, but they were way down the mountain so we walked back to the car and and drove down the mountain. We passed the USCG (US Coast Guard) station (gee, Lisa, Josh and the kids could have lived there!), and right adjacent is the Tide Pools. It's about a 1/2 mile area of shoreline where you can park and check out all the creatures of the deep, except that tide was too low today and there was nothing to see. Boo.
We walked out to the rocks and stayed off the beach because of the weather. But, we got some great shots of the landscape, some divers, sea gulls and pelicans! Also, there was a sea lion swimming about as well. Scott was smart by this time and got his jacket. And, not only that but he got his ski mask and put it on. He's so silly. But, then he pushed it up on his head and he looked like an old gruff sea captain with his whiskery beard. Arrrhh, matie!
And, just for those who love to hear and watch the ocean, here's a couple of different live video.
We had lost track of time and decided we'd better grab some food before we went back to El Centro and the dogs. On the way back toward San Diego, we stopped at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery where rows and rows of graves are lined up on the ocean side and the bay side of the hill. Here, thousands of veterans grave stand still and peaceful in this place. They were in the process of disposing of thousands of Christmas wreaths that stood at each grave with a red bow during the season. It must have looked beautiful. As we drove out, I spied a headstone of a David McCance. I thought it interesting since I have a David McCance in my family tree. What I didn't mention earlier is that when you head toward the monument, you have to drive down the peninsula and enter restricted land is owned by the Navy with Navy quarters and this national cemetery as well!
Back on the road, I was so hungry thinking about those divers possibly diving for abalone when we were at the shoreline, that I wanted seafood. Well, Scott hates seafood so we decided to go to a surf and turf place but then changed our minds and decided to go to Point Loma Seafood instead. I thought it was a restaurant, but it was just a place that you order your food from a counter and then try and find a place to eat inside or out. While I was waiting for my dinner, I took some fun photos of the landscape behind the store and also some photos of the dock, sea gulls and boats. Once they called our number and since there was no room inside, I ate my lunch of Clam Chowder in a Sourdough bowl and one fish taco outside in the cold and I will say it didn't take any time for everything to get cold. Scott refused anything to eat and when I was done I took him to his beloved McDonalds. Gag!
It was a fun trip and we had a great time. The sea air sure made up sleepy and we watched a James Bond movie and went to bed.
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