Finding A New Trail

 Sunset near Torrey Pines Gliderport

 About a week ago, while watching sunset at Torrey Pines Gliderport, we saw several people walking on the trail below and East of the cliffs. Not familiar with the trail, and it was already dark, we decided to go back some other time to explore the trail where it seemed a lot of students and surfers take. Today, we got a chance to explore this non-formal trail near Torrey Pines Gliderport.
Our hike started at Gliderport, but instead of going down the formal trail, we first walked directly south on the trail which parallels the ocean. After a while, it was up and down, quite steep in some sections, but not yet intimidating.

 the very long quiet shoreline from La Jolla Shores Beach to Torrey Pines State Beach

( quiet because there is no car access below the beach, except at La Jolla Shores Beach and Torrey Pines State Beach )

 looking south towards La Jolla Shores

The top bluffs area here are actually some of our favorite spots in San Diego for sunset watching, and also for cliffs and ocean photography. Each time we are here, we are reminded how beautiful but fragile our world is. It also feels like we are transported to some other place, like Patagonia, haha, and not San Diego. For a while, our traveling minds wander somewhere as we see the scenery. 

 looking north towards Torrey Pines

( this may look scary, but hubby was pretty safe, he was on the trail actually which was not really that close to the edge, but it looked like he was at the edge )

We always feel thankful that the scenery in San Diego is so geologically diverse. It feels like we are on vacation whenever we explore its outdoors, from the ocean, to the ocean cliffs, to the mesas and canyons, mountains and valleys and desert. We need not go far to explore various scenery.  Anyway, we continued on the trail that goes down eastwards, and then, turns southwest towards the ocean. Though this hike is short, but probably one of my most challenging hikes, haha. I had to walk on five a lot of the times here. 2 legs, 2 arms, and a butt. My hiking pants and backpack were too dirty after the hike from all my buttwalk. :(

 a tiny bridge to cross, haha!

 he was walking straight, but I was hugging the walls in this section

 one of the easier parts of the trail

 and then, we could no longer go down

From here, though we saw sole marks below, but we stopped because there was a sudden drop from the edge of the rock where hubby was standing. We wonder how those hikers were able to go past here. But anyway, despite we were not able to go down to the ocean from here, we still think the hike was so worth it since this is something we have not seen before in San Diego. 

 can you see the drop?

As we look down actually between these rocks, it was like a slot canyon, we wish we could explore the bottom slot, but we just have no idea how to go down, as the rocks were vertical and smooth, we could not find any foothold. So, we just took some time to enjoy the scenery from there.

 Looking at the ocean below, so near, yet so far ( we had to take another trail down )

If the hike down was very challenging for me, the hike up was a lot easier. I no longer have to do the butt-walk, I still needed to walk on four sometimes, but definitely I did not need to walk on five.

 the trail going back up

Cell Phone Photography: One Early Morning At Lake Poway

The photos of Lake Poway here were taken last Saturday when we hiked Mt. Woodson from Lake Poway. I was so excited to see fogs right above the water in the lake from afar. I knew the fog will soon be lifted because the sun broke in strongly. I ran to the shore of the lake as fast as I could, but I was LATE. When we reached the lake, the fogs above the water were already low lying clouds hugging the surrounding mountains. The photos here were taken at about 9:30 am. I know, we were not that really early :) . Hiking Mt. Woodson from Lake Poway is one of the local hikes we do most often, so, we were hiking light. Thanks to the evolution of cell phone, allowing us to hike light but still be able to take pictures.

Lake Poway

The Joys of Boating

my home city by the bay

One of the popular activities in my home city is boating. Being a city by the bay and by the ocean, with numerous inland lakes, boating is one of the major recreational activities of the residents. People that go boating find peace and relaxation from their time spent on water. Spending time with family, friends and loved ones on a boat is one of life's most enjoyable moments. We do not own a boat, but I do feel the exhilarating joy each time we take a boat to go to the middle of the sea  where we experience ocean wildlife differently than when we are closer to the shore. It is inspiring for me to know that boating is not limited only to the rich and famous.

Some of the parked boats here are used boats for sale

Sometimes, when we take a walk along the harbor, we find used boats for sale that to my surprise are not that very expensive at all as what I used to think before. I used to tease hubby before that probably we should consider shopping at used power boats trade store so we could have our own power boat, even just a simple one, like in the picture below.

let's take a boat ride to go around the bay and the ocean

The thought of owning a boat actually first came to me when we went to Channel Islands National Park. I was so awed by the thousands of dolphins surrounding the boat we were on. They were enjoying their bow wave ride, jumping, dancing, which I loved to think they were dancing for us.

 Dolphin Following our Boat

 dolphins riding the bow wave

dolphins from afar dancing in glee :)

We actually really for a while entertained the thought of getting a boat, when we learned there are many free boat launching ramps around San Diego. No wonder why so many houses have boats, while those who could afford for boat parking pay for boat parking space in some yacht clubs around the city, where there are a lot of them. 

one of the many yacht clubs and marinas around San Diego

However, we did not want to plunge into something that we will regret later, so we spent a lot more time thinking. We realize there are many things or activities we could not decrease the time doing them if we get a boat, such as hiking. We both know hiking would be our major outdoor activity. Though it would be nice to have a boat when we go deep sea snorkeling or take the boat out for whale watching, however, because of our many other activities, we decided that getting a boat was just a passing dream for us, haha!  

Whales from one of our boat tours along San Diego Coast

If and when we dream to see whales up close in the middle of the sea, we could always just take the whale watching boat tour, and the rest of the year, we could explore the world on foot hiking. We wanted to keep hiking as our major hobby and physical activity. Hiking has helped us to exercise without effort at all, and we love it so much we could not reduce our time exploring the slopes. For those however who finds more happiness exploring the deep sea more often and take boating as hobby, it is really comforting to know that this hobby is not really as expensive as what I used to think. Maybe, because I came from a place where people who own boats are usually only the rich and famous. In my new home city, boating as a hobby could be pursued by average families because there are many in excellent condition used boats for sale. It's a joy for sure, once you have a boat, you get to experience the ocean and the bay differently. Automatically, the pelicans will be your number one fan. :)

Great Horned Owl in a 180 Degree Head Turn

Great Horned Owl in a 180 Degree Turn

When it rains, it pours. It was only two days ago when I wrote about our overflowing joy on seeing nesting owl for the very first time during our hike in McDowell Regional Park. Perhaps the owl learned how elated and happy we were in seeing them, that soon with the help of visiting family we learned how to spot owls from the back of our house by way of their hooting sound. You can find my post on my observed behavior of the great horned owl as I got a chance to observe them more from home in my previous post two days ago. Today, we saw owls from home again.

I guess, our eyes had been trained now to spot them. Definitely, it was not easy spotting them since it seems they camouflaged with the surrounding.  At first, hubby saw from our bedroom window the owl below that looked like a ball since he was not facing us.

The Owl We Saw from Our Bedroom Window

I went out of the house to take a picture of the owl we saw. I was not so happy that the owl was not facing us, and obstructed by a lot of pine leaves. As I was about to go back inside the house, hubby pointed out to me another owl in another tree.

The Other Owl ( this is the same owl in the very first picture above )