Exploring near Home

I read on a blog that this past weekend was free entrance to many national parks so I did a search to see if anything fairly local was on the list. Much to my joy (because I am a sucker for free things!), there is a national park right here in San Diego--Cabrillo National Monument. Since we have never been there and would be picking up my mom from the airport at midday, we decided we would just check it out. We really had nothing to lose--we were in the area anyway since this was only about ten minutes from the airport and we could just leave for home if we did not find anything to do.

What great poses!

It was overcast and a bit chilly, but it was not raining so we picked up Mom and headed for the park. We started down by the water where there can be tide pools if you hit them at the right time. We did not hit them at the right time since the tide was halfway back in. However, we got a few good pictures and enjoyed one little pocket of marine creatures. The anemones were fun to tickle and get to feel and watch as they sucked inside themselves.

On the rocks with the boys

With Dad and Gma B

Our tiny tide pool

Then we headed up to the visitor center where we talked to a very enthusiastic-about-the-park volunteer who was so excited that we were getting to explore the park that day. We followed his directions up to the lighthouse and to the whale overlook. Alas, no whales! But we did enjoy exploring the lighthouse and seeing what life was like for the lighthouse keeper and family.

In front of the lighthouse

I am so glad that we took advantage of free entry day. It was a fun little outing and something out of the ordinary for us. Here's to exploring in our own "backyard"!