San Diego, Meditation Gardens and La Jolla Cove Mar 2 - 5th

Saturday's a rainy, dreary day. Not very nice back at home either. At least we're not getting the snow that the upper island is, where there's a "snowfall" warning.

Ray took me out for lunch to Pacific Beach, to see the "High Surf" as per The Weather Network"'s advisory. Unfortunately the clouds opened up again with rain when we arrived. Lunch today is BLT Maine Lobster Rolls from the World Famous Restaurant. They were OK, but we certainly wouldn't call them great. You don't really taste the lobster part at all.  An outing anyways.

After eating lunch, the rain suddenly quit and Ray took the picture below. All the sidewalks have huge puddles. so no strolling along the beach. There were a bunch of surfers earlier as we saw them all walking back to their car,s but I guess the tide isn't right now. High surf.... not!

After fueling up the car, we're back to the coach at 1:30. Time for laundry and baking bread. A quiet afternoon.

Sunday the sunshine is back. Ray's back is still quite sore from all the walking on our trip to Avalon, so it'll be another relaxing day. He went to the hot tub this morning as nice outside.

When he got back, I needed to do a grocery shop so we headed off towards the Von's in Ocean Beach. Our plan is to then eat lunch at Hodad's. This burger joint is featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives by Guy Fieri. We also were told to go there by Frannie and Jerry, RV friends of ours who ate here many years ago.

The place is packed, and apparently yesterday the line-up went down the block.

Huge Portions

Ray's huge vanilla shake.

Ray hoped for some beach pictures, but the clouds came in again. The clouds opened up after getting back to the coach.

Monday's a "down day" for Ray too. I did a shop at Vons and we spent the afternoon sitting in the sunshine on our patio. Drove by this monstrosity just out our park gates. WTF what is this!

Tuesday's a lovely morning and Ray's back is good to go. Off we went to the Meditation Gardens about 30 minutes north of us.

Welcome to Self-Realization Fellowship in Encinitas.


Internationally renowned gardens offer a diversity of colorful plants, meditation nooks, koi ponds, and spectacular ocean vistas – providing a unique inspirational setting where one can pray, study, meditate, or just sit quietly enjoying the expression of God’s beauty in nature.

They have really pretty gardens with ocean views. We were able to tour the "public area". At the top of the stairs we went right first.

Never saw this kind of "flower/fruit" from a small palm type plant before.

Lots of surfers in the water but look at the stairs they have to go down to access this beach.

Several people meditating. You have to be really quiet with only a few whispers.

With sound of the waves, the view of the water and the smells of all the flowers was incredible.

A reflection pool that is currently empty of water. Lovely tile work.

We continued on the paths down to the koi ponds.

They look pretty well-fed lol

Back in the car to drive south to La Jolla Cove and the Ellen Browning Scripps Park, where the sea lions are. We lucked out with a parking spot fairly quickly. Parking is definitely hard to find here. Our spot's good for 3 hours ... perfect, time for lunch too.

Seals, seals and more seals plus one ground squirrel.

At first I only saw a couple of seals playing in the water and then looking closer the rocks are covered in basking seals.

We decided to turn around and walk back up the hill and eat lunch at the Cove House.

Across the street we noticed the Red Bull Car. Two young girls were walking around with coolers on the backs handing out Red Bull. lol Managed to get a shot of them as they left.

After full tummies, we were off to tour the rest of the waterfront. Here is a shot of a Torrey Pine.

I couldn't believe how many more seals there are.

Nesting Brandt Cormorant.

People got pretty close to the seals on the beach, but the seals didn't seem to mind. 

La Jolla Cove is a small cove with a beach that is surrounded by cliffs in La Jolla, San Diego, California. Point La Jolla forms the south side of the cove. The area is protected as part of a marine reserve and is popular with snorkelers, swimmers and scuba divers.

Seals, Cormorants and Pelicans all sharing the rocks in the cove. The smell not great down wind. Glad we chose to eat at a restaurant up wind lol.

We continued on to Sunny Jim's Cave Store. Inside the store features the entrance to a cave where you can take 145 slippery stairs to get to the sea cave. As much as Ray wanted to take a picture of the open ocean framed by the cave (actually an arch) opening, his back and knees would've complained too much.

Ray went down the outside stairs instead.

The Sea Cave (Arch)

Time to head back home. Another great day in San Diego. Tomorrow rain is in the forecast.