A Perfect Day in La Jolla

Megan's best friend in second grade was a girl named Rachel. That year, the two of them had weekly after school playdates -- often at Rachel's house. This gave my only child a taste of living with a lot of siblings, as she also got to play with Rachel's younger sister, little brother and the baby (also named Megan). My daughter was heartbroken when Rachel's dad got a new job down in San Diego. Strangely enough, so was my husband. "They are just the nicest family," he lamented.

So we have stayed in touch, and when I saw that we would have to go down south for Megan's last meet, I called Rachel's mom to see if we could arrange a get-together. Fortunately, they were available.

"What do you have in mind?" she asked. I suggested we meet in La Jolla. After all, who needs a plan when you have five kids and a beach?

I began to worry on Thursday when SoCal got hit by a winter storm. Fortunately, it passed quickly... and Saturday was about as glorious a February day as you could ask for.

I had never before been to La Jolla, which is a beachside community within the city of San Diego. It boasts Ellen Browning Scripps park, beautiful expanse of green lawns on a bluff overlooking a beach, with protected coves, lots of native wildlife. And it is adjacent to a lovely upscale "Village" with art galleries, expensive stores and good restaurants. In other words, something for everyone.

We began our day by crossing Scripps Park to Children's Pool Beach, which really was once a protected beach area designated for children, but several years ago, was overrun by harbor seals, who discovered that it was a nice, safe spot for their children, too. The seals won; it is now exclusively a nesting site for them and it is roped off during pupping season - as it was on Saturday. The good news is that we got to see a lot of mommy and baby seals swimming in the cove (when they weren't basking in the sunshine).

From there, we moved on to a beach designated for humans. I hadn't thought to pack swimsuits... or sunscreen (I was focused on gymnastics and besides, it's FEBRUARY). And as the kids played in the sand and climbed the rocks for what seemed like hours, I realized what a mistake it was to omit the latter! Fortunately, my friend was well-prepared (after all, she is mother to four children between the ages of 3 and 10) and we all got the protection we needed. (In my defense, Gareth usually keeps sunscreen in his car, which was in the shop for the week for repairs after our break-in last month -- so we drove to San Diego in an empty rental).

The kids never got tired of building sand forts and watching the waves knock them down, so it was up to the hungry parents to make the decision that a little lunch would be in order. Rachel's dad actually works in a building overlooking the park and has to live with that view every single day (we really do feel for him). He also knows where the best lunch spots are, and he led us to a beautiful little cafe with a patio facing the ocean. We were told that from 3:00 on, they were only serving coffee and pastries. It was 3:02.

"They probably saw five kids coming up the steps and hauled out the sign," my friend grumbled. So we went to Plan B - walking into the little Village to find a restaurant that served food both the kids and the adults could enjoy. We were having a little trouble with that - until he remembered that there was a nice Hard Rock Cafe with good hamburgers and fries and decent salads... as well as a large outdoor patio that would allow the kids to enjoy themselves without disturbing other diners.

It was just what the doctor ordered. We followed lunch by taking the kids upstairs to Cold Stone Creamery. We moms decided that was too sweet for us -- and not only that, but it was getting kind of chilly out -- so we left the kids with their fathers and walked down the block to Starbucks for our version of dessert.

We then walked back towards the beach to the Sunny Jim Cave Store, featuring an entrance to La Jolla's largest sea cave. The tunnel you enter through the store was dug out over 100 years ago, making this one of the area's oldest ongoing tourist attractions. The 145 steps leading down to the cave are somewhat uneven, and as you get closer to the bottom, they are slippery. It's a bit of a spooky trip down, but it's the kind of spooky that kids enjoy - and the destination is definitely worth it. There is an admission fee to enter the tunnel: $4 for adults and somewhat less for the kids (all eight of us entered for under $30).

The sun was setting when we emerged from the cave, but there were still plenty of beaches and coves to explore -- which we managed to do until it was too dark to play any longer. We'd had such a late lunch that no one was ready for dinner, which is a shame, because I wanted to explore more of the restaurants in the Village (probably just as well, as they didn't look to be very kid-friendly). We bid our friends good-bye and went back to our hotel -- satisfied and tired after a perfect winter day at the beach.

Comments

[Lorna]

those are lovely photos---I envy your ease with digital photography. And of course, I envy your being able to go to the beach and needing sunscreen