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Old 10 Mar 20, 03:58 PM  
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Four Moretons Go West EASTER 2018 - Day 15 - Cabrillo Monument & Belmont Park

Day 15 - Sunday 7th April - Cabrillo Monument / Belmont Park / La Jolla

Although we had been to San Diego on our last trip to the West Coast, we wanted to see new things on this trip. One of the new things was the Cabrillo Monument at Point Loma, with the added advantage of a Top Gun House to be found here too.

We were all up by 8.30am and had breakfast in the house. After dragging the boys away from the football on the television, we left the house just after 9.30am. It was a 20-minute drive to Point Loma, we drove through the Navy base and paid $15 to park as it is a national park. As always, our first stop was the restrooms. It must be a popular spot for cyclists as there were lots of them about. We went into the visitor centre and checked out the exhibits. The boys loved learning about all the different ships.




Oh my goodness the views from the top were amazing!



We walked over to the monument and lighthouse, Lee was hoping to see some Grey Whales migrating as this was a popular spot to see them, but it was not to be. We spent a while looking around and enjoying the glorious views.


Next up it was time to find Vipers House (Top Gun) it was easy to find but you are unable to get very close to it. I understand it is owned by the Navy and so you are only allowed so close. Again it was totally lost on the boys but being a favourite film of mine for years I recognised it straight away.



This was as close as we could get

The plan now was to go and explore more of Balboa Park. However, after 40 minutes of driving around looking for a suitable parking spot we gave up. To be fair I wasn’t really sure where to go if we did find a spot. We did learn that sunny Sundays in San Diego are very busy and you have to be lucky or quick to grab a parking spot at the tourist places. We didn’t really have a plan B but the boys said they would like to go to Belmont Park again, we agreed on the proviso we could get a parking spot.
As expected, it was very busy, we managed to get a spot in the overflow car park across the road from the park. We decided to walk on the beach for a bit, it was packed with families playing games and having BBQ’s a proper family Sunday afternoon. We only managed a couple of hundred yards as the sand was so hot, today was probably the hottest day of the holiday. Only one thing to do on a hot day, get a gigantic ice cream. We headed to the ice cream parlour and ordered 2 waffle bowls to share.



The boys wanted to play a game of laser tag in the arcade, they still had lots of their own money left so we agreed. They ended up playing against some American boys who were really good, so they got thrashed but they had a good time. We then bought a $20 card for the arcade and spent ½ an hour winning some tickets. Lee won the jackpot of 1000 tickets on a basketball type game, the rest of us won 700 tickets between us, so we had 1700 tickets all together.


The boys then took an age to decide which piece of tat they wanted to exchange their tickets for. In the end Jacob plumped for a basketball set and Lucas went for 2 mini figures and some candy. We looked around at the rides and Jacob was keen to go on the big dipper. I agreed to go on with him so we paid our $6 each and joined the 10-minute queue.





It was much better than I expected, we both loved it, I was so glad I went on this iconic ride. Before we left Belmont, I purchased a hoodie I had seen yesterday, it cost $37.95. Lee was keen to visit La Jolla to see the sealions, however when we got there, we discovered that most of the cove was closed to traffic due to a car show. There were people everywhere but we didn’t want to give up.

We found an underground car park for $10 at Prospect Place, which reminded me of the film Ghost (google it&#128522. We walked past lots of Porsche’s which looked nice but didn’t really interest us. We eventually got to the cove and Lee was gutted as there were no Sealions around. It must have been because there were so many people around, it didn’t bother the boys as they enjoyed exploring the caves. I was my normal calm self and only shouted at them every 20 seconds to be careful!
We continued walking on the rocks watching the waves smash into them and sometimes soaking unsuspecting people which was quite funny. Then all of a sudden, we came across lots of seals and sealions on the rocks, they were soaking up the sun.



To be fair we should have smelt them. We got as close as we could without invading their space, we did get very annoyed by people antagonising them, why do people do that? We stayed for a while and just enjoyed watching them in the sun, you could work out who were the more dominant ones by the way they took the best spots for sun bathing.



We eventually made our way back to the car which was quite a slow walk as the boys had got their trainers wet so insisted on walking barefoot but were then moaning their feet were hurting!

It was now time for tea and we hadn’t planned anywhere, so we let the boys choose which was a bad idea as they went for Chilli’s again. We like the menu but it might have been nice to try somewhere new. We went to the one on Clairemont Blvd, which was 6-miles away. The food was nice and the bill was only $55 including tip. After dinner we raced back to the house to try and catch the sunset again on the beach.


We got there just before 6.30pm and the sun was just going down but we did manage to get some nice photos. The boys just played together and for once didn’t fall out. There were a couple of people having professional photo shoots done on the beach. It was so nice, how amazing would it be to be able to come down here every night and watch the sunset.




Anyway, the mood was soon ruined when Lucas announced he really needed a number 2! Lee took him back to the house while I stayed with Jacob. We stayed until it got too chilly to sit on the beach, then made our way back to the house to watch impractical jokers before calling it a day.
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Old 27 Mar 20, 11:36 AM  
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Another Top Gun house! I’ll have to try and remember to visit next time we’re in California. Reading your report has made me want to go back badly.
The views from Point Loma are stunning as are your sunset pics
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Old 27 Mar 20, 04:07 PM  
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Originally Posted by smithlane View Post
Another Top Gun house! I’ll have to try and remember to visit next time we’re in California. Reading your report has made me want to go back badly.
The views from Point Loma are stunning as are your sunset pics
The views are INCREDIBLE! and yes i was delighted to find Vipers House
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