San Diego: Cabrillo National Monument & Point Loma Lighthouse

After we left Phoenix, it was officially Spring Break time. I somehow convinced Eric to go to San Diego and San Francisco ("we'll be so far west anyway, we might as well!"). We actually met in Los Angeles back in 2009 and spent 3 summers interning out there. We...didn't really like LA by that third summer. Too crowded and smoggy (so of course we moved to DC?). So you can imagine it was no small feat to convince him to go back to California. In my defense, San Diego and San Francisco are not the same as LA.

The first day we were in SD, it was gorgeous. We could not have picked a better day to check out Cabrillo National Monument.

The views from up here are stunning. It is worth the $5 vehicle entrance fee. My main goal was to see the Old Point Loma Lighthouse, which is up here too.

And you can also see the "New" Point Loma Lighthouse from the whale watching area on the other side of the old lighthouse.

There are also tidepools. This was officially the first tidepool I have seen. We didn't see anything inside them except for some seaweed, though.

The views along the tidepools are awesome, too. I love the ocean and this was the first time I'd been near it since our rather chilly trip to Delaware in October. (I could go to the ocean every day if allowed. Actually, the first summer I spent in LA I went to the beach every single day, 84 days in a row.)

Here's a panorama of the view from the visitor's viewing area at Cabrillo National Monument. If you have some time to get up and here and see SD, I definitely recommend it, especially if you have a nice day.

Anyone else get ocean withdrawal? Lakes and rivers can tide me over, but there's nothing like seeing such a vast body of water.