Living in a destination city like San Diego means there’s never a shortage of things to do.  Today, Kongo and his troop headed out to Cabrillo National Monument in the Point Loma area of San Diego.

In September 1542 Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed a small flotilla of Spanish galleons into what is now known as San Diego Bay and claimed the coast for Spain.  He described it as  a good harbor.  He stayed six days before proceeding up the coast and died after breaking a limb during a skirmish with indians on one of the Channel Islands about 100 miles north.

Kongo was originally just going to check out the sea life in the tide pools but there was a large number of brown pelicans hunting along the surf line that were irresistible.  They looked like a bunch of torpedo bombers driving in for a kill.  Although these big birds are awkward ashore, when they are in the air they are majestic expert flyers.

The California coast here is relatively soft and constantly crumbling which creates the areas in this rocky intertidal zone that we call tide pools — actually depressions in the rocky shore that hold seawater when the tide goes out and trapping a rich variety of sea life.  You can spot small fish, sea anemones, star fish, and barnacles.

The original Point Loma lighthouse closed in 1891 because it was placed in an awkward position.  It was ABOVE much of the fog that made navigation dangerous during certain times of the year.  The photo below, courtesy of Wikipedia, shows the original lighthouse.

From the top of Point Loma one can get some of the most spectacular views of San Diego. Kongo loves showing the city off to his crew.  Interestingly, several visitors to the top of Point Loma saw Kongo’s gang getting their picture taken and now a bunch of grandmothers from Iowa and Indiana have souvenir photos of Kongo.  Who knew?

Cabrillo National Monument is open every day except Christmas from 9 to 5.  It has an excellent visitor’s center that provides much educational material about the history, sea life, and ecology of the Point Loma area.  More information can be found at www.nps.gov/cabr.  On really beautiful days (which is about 90 percent of the time in San Diego) it’s a good idea to get there early so you can get a place to park.  When too many visitors are in the park, the rangers will restrict traffic.

For this post, Kongo used his Canon D40 and two lenses, a Canon EFS 18-55 MM telephoto and a Canon EFS 55-270 MM telephoto.

Travel safe.  Have fun.