19. San Diego – La Jolla Sea Caves & Old Town SD

We spent our last day in San Diego doing as much sightseeing as possible. First, we headed to La Jolla for the beautiful beaches, sea caves, and seal and sea lion-viewing. We parked near The Cave Store & paid the entrance fee to take the tiny tunnel down to the sea cave. It was hard to believe that two men dug the entire tunnel by hand 1902! Water was trickling down the walls & along the sides of the uneven wooden stairs. My new claustrophobia issue popped up again…

We came to the bottom & popped out onto a deck inside the cave. At first glance, it seemed like we were alone down there. The longer we looked around, we realized we were surrounded by crabs walking along the boulders.

And then Chase spotted a baby seal snoozing on the rocks! The woman working at the store said that it’s become a regular here.

*Continuing our tour of meeting all the dogs everywhere all the time.*

After the cave, we walked along the coast & then down to the beach to see the sea lions & seals.

We were stopped short by all the birds on a cliff. We realized it was a group of adults & babies! The older babies were almost as large as the parents. We giggled at how the parents almost swallow the babies’ entire heads when they feed them! The adults sitting on nests would get up to stretch periodically, and we spotted eggs and tiny babies in all the nests! Sometimes another adult would arrive from the beach, bringing seaweed to the other adult on the nest, & it would slowly build-up the sides of the nest!

The seals & sea lions were so much fun to watch!

After this we headed to Old Town San Diego to step back into life in 1800’s California. We stopped at a Himalayan restaurant at the edge of town & filled our bellies on the best Indian food we’ve ever had.

We then headed down the main street into Old Town. We stopped at a El Campo Santo, a mid-1800’s cemetery. At the turn of the 19th century, a road was built that went through the cemetery. There are small metal discs embedded in the road & sidewalks, pointing out graves below the surface that have been found. The kids read every single marker & sheet of information here!

There was so much to see & experience here!

*The Whaley House – America’s most haunted house!*

We’re quickly realizing the best place to stop is always the Visitor Information Center. We wandered in, talked to the man working there, & we asked if he’d recommend the tour of the haunted Whaley house – admission would cost us $60 for a 30-min tour! (Sofina quickly pointed out, “That’s $2/minute!”) The man recommended the FREE tour at the Mormon Battalion Museum. We headed there, & we were blown away by how immersive the experience was! I wish every museum could bring history to life in this way! We were taken back in time to 1846 & became a group of Mormons who had just joined the US Army & needed to march 2,000 miles across the southwest during the Mexican-American war.

The tour was led by two 1840’s Mormon sisters and a group of Mormons who appeared periodically in digital picture frames. We were led through rooms that immersed us in each portion of their journey. We were too busy enjoying the experience to take pictures or video – but the YouTube video below shows it all!