Day 1 Comes to An (Exciting) End!

After we left Seaworld, we grabbed a quick dinner at Mcdonalds (better than paying Seaworld prices!) and then played around with the GPS and decided to drive to the San Diego Temple before hitting up the beach.  We found it fairly easily, but the parking lot was so busy-we had absolutely no where to park.  Thus, we ended up just driving around to ooh and ahh at the building, and then headed back to the freeway to get to La Jolla Cove.  That entire area was pretty packed too, but thanks to my driving expertise, we found a prime parking spot.  La Jolla has an awesome green belt of grass that parallels the rocky cliffs leading straight into the ocean.  I love the ocean and beaches, but I have never experienced something like the Cove.  I fell in love with the way the waves exploded all over the rocky outreaches, how the water foamed into the crevices , and how the small stretches of beach seemed flawless-untouched, nearly.  It was 8pm at this point, and the sun was starting to sink into the horizon, casting a lovely golden/pink hue over everything in sight. It was absolutely breath taking.  There's no way pictures could capture how beautiful it was.  My camera battery was already blinking at me, and I knew I only had a few frames left, so I had to be picky.  We got a great one of us as a family:

And another of the kids standing in front of the sea lions-how cool is that?  Those sea lions were just resting on that rock behind the kids, and it was so cool to see them out in the wild!  We watched them bark at each other, jump into the water, and paddle away for a long time-just so, so cool!

My favorite shot of the ocean-I cannot erase this from my mind.

Not a great shot of me, but I don't care-this is my bliss.

I took the kids down the slope where we hiked along the rocky outcroppings for a ways.  We came to a small group of people who were just sitting on the rocks.  I wasn't sure why until we got close-they were sitting a mere 10 feet away from a group of sea lions, who were just sleeping in a large pack in front of them.  I found a spot and settled down with the kids, including Jackson.  The sea lions, at one point, started to get up, bark at each other, and one in particular started barking at us viewers-and came waddling towards us!  I was just about to get the kids and move away when he settled back down with the others and fell back to sleep-or something like that.  It was amazing to be that close to them.  I get the feeling this is a pretty popular spot to come observe-the folks around us were blissfully relaxed, like they do this all the time.  Once in a lifetime experience for us Arizonians!

After hanging out with the sea lions, I took the kids back up to Jared and James, and the kids ran around the green belt playing freeze tag and climbing whatever tree they could find.  It gave me a chance to watch the sun sink into the ocean, finally setting just after 9pm.  I have never seen that before.  It was like a huge ball of fire slipping into the water, silently and without bravado.  Just gorgeous.  Once again, I found myself in awe of the world we live in and how beautiful it can be.  I am so glad I got to see that and share the entire experience with Jared and the kids.

The exciting part came as we were heading back towards the car.  An ambulence and a fire truck pulled up just a little ways down from where we were at, and a helicopter suddenly swooshed passed us overhead.  It headed towards the actual cove where it stopped and just hovered.  Suddenly, a man started descending into the cove.  We realized it was a water rescue of some sort.  We walked towards the area to see what was happening-not super close, just close enough to hopefully get a feel for the situation.  The helicopter dropped the guy off, and then rose back up to circle the area.  At some point, the ambulence and fire truck drove away, and the helicopter returned to lower the rope.  A few minutes later, two people started to rise with the rope-a guard with a red floatie thingie, and a rescue basket that obviously had a person in it.  Once they were up in the helicopter, it took off, I'm assuming towards the hospital.  Crazy that we saw that-I am sure search and rescue like this happens more often than not in CA.  We checked the news later that night, and it turns out a 20 year old and a 16 year old were cliff jumping and got caught in a riptide; they were tossed up on the rocks and got hurt pretty bad.  The 16 year old was hurt, but was in stable condition-she was taken by ambulence.  The 20 year old was the one brought up in the helicopter and was on life support-he had basically drowned, and ended up passing away two days later.  Super, super sad, and a testament to the power of the ocean-not just water, that's for sure.

Anyhow, we got back to the hotel just after 10 with very tired, but satisfied children.  We got everyone in bed fairly quickly, and they all fell asleep without complaint, including Jackson.  Jared and I were tired, but awake enough to sit out on the patio and watch an episode of MasterChef that we had missed-gorgeous weather, and cold enough to wrap up in a blanket!  We were super pleased with the day, which lasted just over 14 hours from the moment we left the hotel, to the moment we arrived home.  Looking forward to another fun-filled day tomorrow!