tcastleb

So I had today off and decided to try something new. I went to Torrey Pines State Reserve, home of the rarest pine in the US--the Torrey Pine (and right next to the famous golf course that the US Open was at last year.) There are lots of hiking trails; I did close to four miles of them, I think. And I'm really out of shape. There were all kinds of folks jogging up and down the hills, and I was huffing and puffing and getting mad at myself for taking the longer trail back to the parking lot. I made it though. Yaay!

Here's a torrey pine:


And, hey, yucca! I think this is near the aptly-named Yucca Point.



And, dude, check out the views. Just . . . dude.



And there's a trail that goes to the beach.



Though one does need to be careful around the cliffs; there have been rockfalls, and people have gotten killed. Not often, but there was one last year.



And that darker rock in front is actually a large, flat rock separate from the cliffs. People had to figure out very creative ways to get between flat rock and the cliffs to the other side of the beach, because there are some knee-deep parts (that green water there) around flat rock. There's a skinny trail on the cliffs, or, if the tide's out, you can go between flat rock and the ocean. Or a few climbed the rocks.



I uploaded 60+ photos. They're over on my flickr page as usual.

Look, I made a new icon with my kitty, Mina.

Wanted to go to Disneyland today, but with the threat of rain, I decided to stay in town. Been hankering to go visit the Birch Aquarium anyhow, so I did that instead.

And, for kelly_yoyo I found this guy, who was darn hard to get a pic of. Actually, all the fishies were hard to get pics of because of trying to use the flash and the flash showing up on the glass. The color is better without the flash, but the critters move, so they turn out blurry. -sigh- With the flash, it's actually a bit dark. The picture program I use has an "auto adjust" option, so I hit that, and they turn out all right.



This is a bell jellyfish. They were nifty.



This was my favorite critter--a sea dragon, a rather leafy-looking sea horse.



Check out the camouflage on this stonefish.



This is the biggest exhibit, properly called the Kelp Tank.



And a lionfish. Bonus points for those who know a certain SF TV show with a pet lionfish. Extra bonus points if you know what said fishy's name is/was.



And this statue outside kept reminding me of Star Trek IV. Likely also because I got a bunch of original Star Trek DVD's from the library and had a mini Trek-a-thon.

Had the day off, so I went to the beach. I put the UV filter lens on the camera, so it worked better, methinks. But the water was darn cold, and my toes went numb and stayed numb even after I got home.

Look, I got the gull in the air! :>)





And this I thought was cool; that's Point Loma way in the distance, and there's a lighthouse toward the end of it.



More rocks.



And more birdies.



Time to go was the sand off my feet . . .