HAERR TRIPPIN'

La Jolla: Fun in the Sun

We have returned to Southern California for a number of reasons, most of which will be revealed on the blog eventually.

Friday's foray was to La Jolla Cove, a place etched into Steve's childhood memories.

We had never seen so many brown pelicans in one place. Besides being visually stunning, our olfactory senses were very stimulated.

This small pelican is one of the best known and most prominent birds found in the coastal areas of the southern and western United States. It is one of only three pelican species found in the Western Hemisphere and one of the only two pelican species which feeds by diving into the water. What a show they put on!

This is also a major gathering spot for seals and sea lions due to its abundant food supply, strict environmental protections, and ideal natural terrain for resting. The cove is part of the San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park Ecological Reserve, which features the La Jolla Submarine Canyon. This deep-water canyon funnels nutrients up from the deep, creating a rich food web teeming with fish and squid. Because the cove is a protected ecological reserve, commercial and recreational fishing are prohibited. This leaves plenty of prey available for the marine mammals.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972) protects all species of marine mammals swimming in our country’s waters. Here, it strictly outlaws harassing, touching, or harming them, allowing the colonies to thrive unbothered by historical hunting pressures. Seals and sea lions must leave the water to rest and give birth (a process called "hauling out"). The cove's sandy beaches, particularly the man-made Children's Pool, and adjacent rocky cliffs offer safe spots out of the water.

Most of Steve's childhood memories were formed in the Children’s Pool. Built in 1931 as a safe, wave-protected swimming area for children, it was commissioned and funded by local philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps. The 300-foot concrete seawall was designed to tame the area's hazardous currents.

Following the passage of the previously mentioned Protection Act, the seal population in the area began to rebound. By 1993, harbor seals started resting on the beach inside the seawall in large numbers. In September 1997, the city closed the beach to human swimming entirely due to high levels of fecal coliform bacteria caused by seal excrement. Today, the beach is a famous, protected marine mammal rookery for harbor seals and is no longer used for swimming. The seawall remains a popular public walkway for viewing the marine life up close. Looking down upon it, I think we both felt sadness at the loss of all those human beach memories which will never be made. Hmmm.

We just had to meader about in the City's historic park. Influenced by the American picturesque park movement, Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Park has a 3.8-acre lawn and heritage plantings that include groves of gnarly trunked pink melaleuca (Melaleuca nesophila), an Australian native plant; exotic dragon trees (Dracaena draco) from the Canary Islands; several Monterey cypress (Hesperocyparis macrocarpa); and a row of Mexican fan palms (Washingtonia robusta).

Originally known as La Jolla Park, this area was set aside by developer Frank T. Botsford as the focal point for the creation of the 1887 subdivision, La Jolla Park. Located close to La Jolla's sea-level caves, the park offered access to the sheltered Cove and views of the sea arches and other rock formations along the coast. On the La Jolla plat map, the park was linked to the main commercial street, Girard Ave., so that residents and visitors could easily access the coast.

It also, surprisingly, is home to the Abraham Lincoln Centennial Memorial, set inside a boulder and dated February 12, 1909. It was placed by the people of La Jolla beside a flagpole that no longer exists. I keep asking, "Why?" How interesting.

Our visit at the Cove ended on a sad note when we learned more about this iconic lifeguard call box. Sculpted by artist Paul Sibel and installed in 1995, it features an acrostic puzzle embedded in the box poetry that spells out DAVID C. FREEMAN, honoring a legendary La Jolla bodysurfer and lifeguard who drowned there in 1994.

At first glance, the green-weathered lifeguard box looks like a barnacle-infested stand, but upon a closer look, we started to pick out strings of words meant to pay tribute to the heart and soul of La Jolla's valiant lifeguards, past and present.

Tranquility, adrenaline rush, spiritual healing, gentle breeze, rebirth, stoked, reefs, friends, euphoric, and free spirit–are among the many words that beautifully describe the all-encompassing core essence of La Jolla’s coast and all it provides to those who celebrate and respect it. It’s a vital code that “demonstrates the power of primal engagement with the forces of nature in all sorts of fields and pursuits."

I was comforted with the fact that the lifeguard box is functional during the summer months, containing a phone to contact nearby lifeguards during an emergency. History is found in the most unique, and sometimes beautiful, places.

Our spirits lifted as we strolled La Jolla Shores to dine deliciously al fresco. Our day concluded with a cozy, several hour visit with Steve's cousin, a La Jolla native.

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TAHOEing with Friends

Our Memorial Day Weekend was spent outing & abouting with friends. The weather was changing from the tease of an early summer to the reminder not to put alway our sweaters yet.

With Chris and Jan we walked Cove East.

The wind was fierce but the company was delightful.

Afterward, we all hung out catching up on each other's news and sharing future plans. It was a long overdue get together.

Tuesday found me and Karen on the Hawley Grade. This trail is steeped in history. According to South Tahoe Now, "In 1854, Asa Hawley established a trading post in Lake Valley. Construction began for a wagon road as the grade was gentle enough to safely travel, unlike the existing Carson Grade, where block and tackle had to be used to get the wagons over into Lake Valley. The new route was completed in 1857 and further improvements were done by El Dorado and Sacramento counties. Hawley's Grade was, for a short time, the route to take. Built to convey miners and the like to the Mother Lode country, the Hawley Grade was a reverse route as well when the 1859 discovery of silver happened in Nevada territory. As the Hawley Grade's purpose was to bypass the steeper road, so the Hawley Grade was itself bypassed in favor of an even shorter path, the wagon-and-stage toll road down Meyers Grade (today's highway 50), completed in 1860."

Luckily for us, it was lined in wildflowers. I guess the old adage, "April showers bring May flowers" is true as we had never seen so many, especially this early in the season.

One is rewarded for this uphill hike by a waterfall at its end. What a glorious morning in the Tahoe sunshine.

Later that day, snow arrived and made us all thankful we had gotten out in IT when we could. Historically speaking, snow has fallen in Tahoe, every month of the year. This was not a surprise but a welcomed reason for hot tea and a good book.

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Our First A's Baseball Game

As any Bay Area baseball fan knows, the Oakland Athletics (now known simply as the A's) are in the process of relocating to Las Vegas. While their permanent Vegas stadium is being built, the team is playing their home games in West Sacramento, from 2025 through 2027. They are borrowing the River Cat's minor league field.

I am not a huge fan of Facebook but without it I would not have found this screaming deal... Tickets, in pretty decent seats, for $8 each. I bought them for the first day game that fit in our schedule. Both boys were in, too.

I was giddy to see a Major League game in a minor league stadium. I had to know more about the difference to be fully impressed with our good fortune.

While the internal diamond rules are exactly the same for both, the fields differ drastically in stadium capacity, outfield dimensions, lighting quality, and overall fan amenities (though I didn't notice this difference at all).

There certainly is a size/capacity difference. Major League fields are massive, multi-tiered structures designed to hold 30,000 to 50,000+ fans. Minor League ballparks are definitely more intimate, often holding between 5,000 and 10,000 spectators, bringing the crowd much closer to the field. Also, here at the A's game there wasn't the strict "stay in your own section" patrolling. We enjoyed wandering.

There was also a sense of relaxed fun. I thoroughly enjoyed this cameraman's shirt, "School is important but baseball is importanter!"

How cute is Stomper, the official mascot of the Athletics? He is a 6-foot-6-inch anthropomorphic elephant who wears jersey number 00. He made his debut in 1997, and remains a fixture of the team.

But why an elephant? Turns out, the team's association with elephants dates back to 1902 when they were based in Philadelphia. New York Giants manager John McGraw insulted the Athletics by calling them a "white elephant". In response, A's manager Connie Mack defiantly adopted the elephant as the team's symbol... And it still is 124 years later.

Okay, this had us all really laughing. The A's Big Head Race (officially the Hall of Famer Big Head Race) is a beloved in-game entertainment tradition where oversized, caricatured versions of Oakland Athletics legends race against each other. Debuting in 2013, it has become a staple of the team's home game.