Wednesday, July 15, 2015

San Diego Day 5


What an exciting day full of outdoor activities!   We went hiking, kayaking, snorkelling and paragliding!  Now I’m dead tired from all that fresh air - I’ll do my best to write something decent! 
Our first thing planned was paragliding - we were there a little early so while we were waiting, I hiked down the cliff - using the little path - to the beach.   It was quite beautiful!  Unfortunately, the winds were not strong enough and we couldn’t wait to see if they’d pick up so we left for the Torrey Pines Park to go for a hike before our appointment for kayaking.  

We got to the park in no time.  We did a 1h25min hike.  It was beautiful and SUNNY! Thank goodness for sunscreen!  We hiked up the mountain and down to the beach where we saw an osprey from pretty close.  beautiful sight! We made it back to the car on the beach seeing an egret on the way as well.  Did you know that the Torrey pine is the rarest pine tree?  It can only be found in two places - here and some island.  We got to the got and drove off to our next stop: kayaking and snorkelling! 

We get there, no parking anywhere - there is a major problem with parking everywhere here - L.A. and San Diego.  No one has parking lots - I guess there is no room for them! It’s a bit of a pain in the ass.  Anyway, back to the kayaking.  We fill out our form and off we go.  We are in a group of about 15 to 20 I guess.  I’m sharing a kayak with Sophie - Remi has his own kayak.We paddled our way to some “caves” and we get in the water to snorkel a little bit.  The water is freezing cold (at least I thought it was).  Good thing we are wearing wetsuits!  I didn’t stay in very long as I was shivering but I did manage to see some beautiful fish - bright orange and the young ones were a paler orange with blue dots.  We got back in our kayaks, went in a “cave” and then paddled back to the beach.  We could see the gliders in the sky so we decided to go back and try to our luck.  We also so Dr. Seuss’ house!  How neat is that?  The best part was when we got to the beach- we caught a wave that brought us in- it was fun! 


We got to the glider port, filled out the thousand forms and off we went.  Wow!! I can’t express how cool it was!  I thought it would be like in a hot air balloon - but it’s not quite the same thing.  You should’ve seen the houses on the cliffs!!!!! OMG!!! You can’t even imagine! All glass, one made me think of Ferris Bueller’s Day off house!  Incredible!  To think there are people that are this rich in the world while others starve to death… 

We were supposed to go to Crazee burger for dinner but again, parking problem!  This place is horrible when it comes to parking.  Instead, we went to the Cheesecake Factory - I should’ve just gone to the hotel… first the order was put in the computer wrong so my family was done eating before I got my plate.  Then, I made a mess with my tall glass of water, lastly, I almost had a heart attack when a lady, who was walking by our booth yelled to her dad - it started me so much I almost screamed!  That would not have been funny! 

I’m now sitting in bed, ready to go to sleep! 

Other things worth mentioning:
  • took 20 000 steps
  • the vegetation is pretty cool here - various cacti, palm trees, sage…
  • saw an osprey, egret, hooded oriole, California towhee, black phoebe
  • we saw a pet pig that could do tricks
  • sea lions smell really really bad

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