Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo and his National Monument

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo led the first European expedition exploring the what is now the US's Pacific Coast. He arrived in San Diego bay in September of 1542 and declared it a "very good, enclosed port." The National Monument commemorating his journey was established in 1913.



The Old Point Loma Lighthouse is a short walk away from the statue of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo. The lighthouse was built 422 feet above sea level. It seemed like a perfect spot to serve as both a harbor light and coastal beacon. Unfortunately, the light was often obscured by low-lying fog and clouds. The lighthouse was in service from 1855-1891, when construction of a new lighthouse on lower ground was completed. You can walk through the old lighthouse and see how the Keeper and his family lived when the kids had to row a boat across the bay to Old San Diego to get to school.



At the western entrance to Cabrillo there are also outlooks from which, in season, you can see the annual migration of Pacific Gray Whales. Tide pools below are home to anemones, octopus, troglodyte chitons, sea hares, crabs and a wide variety of mollusks among a variety of other creatures.

Click here for additional photos.

Punta Reyes National Seashore

San Francisco has lots to offer, and I'll be sad to leave without eating my bread bowl of chowder and cioppino on Fisherman's Wharf, but we again decided to use our limited time to do something we'd missed on past trips. Punta Reyes National Seashore is just north of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This ancient home of the coastal Miwok also has interesting maritime and ranching history. The bases of craggy cliffs and rolling hills are pounded by timeless waves. Spanish explorers and merchants later navigated this shoreline, some ending up one of the wrecks that dot the coast. Others transporting goods for gold miners, dairy farmers, and lumbermen. The Point Reyes Lighthouse was built in 1870. It was interesting to read excerpts from the lightkeepers' logs. It's hard to imagine living and raising a family in those days in this windiest, foggiest place on the Pacific Coast. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1975 when the U.S. Coast Guard installed an automated light and turned over other operations to the National Park Service. Also in the area is a refuge of reintroduced Tule Elk. Depending on when you visit, you can sometimes watch migrating whales and an elephant seal colony. We saw a big harbor seal swimming below the lighthouse, and a few deer. Oh, and there were lots of happy-looking California dairy cows wandering the cliffs as well. Click here for some pictures of this beautiful area.

Joshua Tree National Park

"Strolling on, it seems to me that the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by the comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other places but scattered abroad in spareness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock." - Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

Joshua Tree National Park was amazing. Click here for some photos.

San Diego I

We didn't have much spare time in San Diego this year, and we visited many of the big attractions last year, so we picked an area we'd never visited before to check out one afternoon. Click HERE for a few pictures of San Diego's Mission Bay area and up to La Jolla. The most popular things to do in town are, of course, the world-famous San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park (not to be missed), Tijuana, the Gas Lamp District, Old Town, Legoland and Sea World. It looks like we may be back here before the 4th of July, so there may be an update to come. Next stop: The Inland Empire.

Wichita to Cali

With 3 short days to drive from Wichita to San Diego, we decided to get a head start and get going directly after work on Saturday. These are some shots from Arizona and California along the way.

Wichita, KS

The City of Wichita grew from trading posts set up at the confluence of the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers in the late 1800s. The "Keeper of the Plains" still stands watch from this spot where the rivers flow together. There are lots of parks and museums in this area, and we visited several, including the Mid-America All-Indian Center Museum.

Brick-lined streets, historic buildings and lampposts, good restaurants and informative signage make up Wichita's Old Town. It's set where the old warehouse district was located, not far from the Santa Fe and Rock Island railroad tracks. The original names are still visible on a number of buildings (see below).

"The Keen Kutter brand of tools was created in 1879 by E.C. Simmons of St. Louis, MO, a pioneer in the use of catalogues as a major sales tool. The tool manufacturer was owned by Morton-Simmons Hardware Company of St. Louis, MO and sold tools throughout the country. Today, the building has been restored to a 115-room hotel in the heart of Old Town, with the façade and distinctive brick tower true to their original form." --Credit: Historical information excerpted from Wichita Century (Wichita Sedgwick County Historical Museum, 1969) and the City of Wichita Historic Preservation Office.

One night we saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean at the Warren Theater. It's a regular movie theatre with extra wide aisles and a call button on the seat to summon a waitress to bring a fresh salad, pizza, cold beer (in an actual glass), or more traditionally more popcorn and candy.

For some additional photos, Click HERE.