Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Giant Pandas (Day 5)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
San Diego Zoo (Day 5)
Saturday, January 24, 2009
La Jolla Cove (Day 4)
These are the rocks we walked on at La Jolla Cove. (This is just a few blocks away from the seals.) If you'll notice, the tops of the rocks are light grey while the rest of the rock is kind of brown. It's kind of sad, but these grey spots are where people walk and have killed all of the moss, etc. I was really nervous walking at the tide pools on the first day - there were some very slippery spots! But, after walking all over these rocks, I got pretty comfortable.
I believe there are 7 caves in La Jolla. You can actually go kayaking into the caves!!! We decided not to do this, but Alexandra and I almost made it to the one "real" cave that you could walk into from a store. We just ran out of time! It is just about a block from this spot.
Scripps Aquarium (Day 3)
This is the first camera I've ever owned that has an "aquarium" setting and I'm just amazed at the quality of photos I can take at an aquarium!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Seals (Day 2)
This seal was our favorite - mainly because he was the closest. We walked out almost to the end of the walkway (see top photo) and he was lying on those rocks by the walkway. So, he was only about 15 feet away from us. I took lots of photos of him. Sometimes he'd stick out his tounge or move a bit or scratch himself. (No, I don't really know if it was a boy or girl - I'm just calling him a "him.")
But, I was really sad to see a hook in his mouth when I looked at him with the zoom lens. Can you see it? It's on this side by the corner of his mouth. You can see a short piece of wire curling around a few times, too. But, it does look like it has probably been here for some time and the seal is doing fine. (Also, you can note his ear "holes" - another sign that these are seals.)
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Cabrillo National Park Tide Pools (Day 2)
On the left is a green sea anenome which is opened, and on the right (the whitish "tube") is a tube snail. The tube snail starts its life with a coiled shell, but as it grows, the shell straightens.
A photo of Alexandra out on the slippery rocks. I was really timid at first, but my sil kept helping me along. After awhile, I was getting around pretty well!
My sil and Alexandra, who were both usually ahead of me!
On a Plane to San Diego (Day 1)
On the first day, we flew the 3.5 hour trip from Texas to San Diego. We sat next to a friendly young college student who was on his way back home to Mexico. He actually grew up in Texas, but is getting his Masters in geology in Mexico. Alexandra thought we had the BEST seat-partner on the plane because he had his little dog with him! We enjoyed talking to this young man, playing with his dog (who stayed in his travel bag), and watching the movie - The City of Ember.
After the movie, we enjoyed watching the scenery out of the window. The mountains were beautiful and Alexandra really enjoyed seeing all of the fields. They were so many different colors - and shapes!
I wish I would have gotten a photo of more round fields - there were lots of them together. There are just a couple of them in this last photo in the lower left corner.