Wild Animal Park

These Okapi are the only animal related to the giraffe. They have long blue tongues, like giraffes.

Pink flamingos. The Land Rover is part of the exhibit.

Abyssinian Ground-Hornbills. (Thanks to Larry from Missouri for this info.) They looked prehistoric.

One of our favorites, the gorilla exhibit. Signs warn you not to make eye contact.

Pelagic Trip to Los Coronados, Mexico

Fred and I took a Pelagic Birding Trip as part of the San Diego Birding Festival. To Fred's dismay and regret, the bus left at 6AM. According to Webster's pelagic means "of, relating to, or living or occurring in the open sea." With birds, it means birds which spend the greater part of their time at sea. The albatross is an example of a pelagic bird.

Here we are waiting for the boat at Harbor Island. Fred is by the tree, with the blue cap.

A black crowned night heron watches us dubiously. There were five or six of these, that we saw, as we walked onto the dock.

Downtown San Diego, from the boat, through the fog. The sun is trying to burn the fog off, and eventually succeeded. We had a beautiful day despite the earlier dismal forecasts.

Sea lion. Our guides told us that the sea lions do this to cool off. Looks like fun.

Pelagic Trip to Mexico's Los Coronados Islands

An America's Cup yacht goes by as we leave the harbor. The harbor near Shelter Island is "America's Cup Harbor."

The highlight of the trip was this Blue-Footed Booby. A very rare bird indeed for Los Coronados Islands.

Pat Coe of California spotted the Blue-Footed Booby. She was the star of the trip.

Los Coronados as we pull away from them.

Sunset Cliffs and Point Loma

Fred and I drove out along Sunset Cliffs. This peace symbol, on Cormorant Rock, is new since last year. Apparently the cormorants wanted to make a statement.

We got to our favorite lunch spot at Point Loma, just below the visitor center and enjoyed the warm sun. See my bird blog at www.birdlist.blogspot.com for pictures of some of the birds we saw there.

This is the view from the Visitor Center. There were four submarines at the docks.

San Diego Bay, with the fog coming in.

Point Loma, San Diego

It was foggy today at Mission Bay, so we drove up to Point Loma to see how things were there.

When we got there, it was quite sunny and hot.

Miata at Point Loma. San Diego in the back ground.

The original Point Loma lighthouse. The current lighthouse is below this. Fred and I stayed there once when we knew the Coast Guard person living at the light house. We heard the fog horn up close and personal all night long.

The Cabrillo National Monument visitor center, with downtown San Diego in the distance behind it, and the Cabrillo statue on the right.

La Jolla

We decided the Miata deserved a good washing, so took it to our favorite car wash in La Jolla and gave it the "gold" treatment. Then we cruised with the top down through La Jolla. We had lunch outside in one of our favorite places. It was a beautiful day, but we did manage to find a parking space (Betsy's Rule: if you find a parking space in La Jolla along the cove, take it, even if you weren't going to stop!) The pelicans and cormorants were enjoying the day too.

Waking Up in San DIego

Here's a view of our first morning in San Diego this year. From top to botton, the view across the Mission Bay; two views of sunrise, and the view from our window. Today will be spent getting organized, going grocery shopping, perhaps lunch in La Jolla. The good weather comes this weekend, we hear.

We Arrive in San Diego

Here is Art and Kathy's Miata parked in front of the condo while we unload. Picture taken from the balcony of our unit. Tough view, huh? Below, Fred gives the Miata a pat for a job well done after parking it in its garage, around the corner from the condo.

Yard Art, Coronado, San Diego, CA. Some people have pink flamingos, some people have frogs playing violins.

Coronado Beach, San Diego, CA. We saw these two women walk by with this kite shaped like a "junk" and later found them flying it on the beach.

Mission Beach, San Diego. I found this random beach art for Valentine's Day.

Balboa Park, San Diego, CA. The America's Cup! No, just a remote control sailboat in the fountain at Balboa Park. I always get the urge to create a tidal wave when I see one of these....