A Lighthouse and a National Monument

No Balboa Park this week.  On Wednesday Richard, our host, Marty, and I went to Cabrillo National Monument and to Old Point Loma Lighthouse.  They are basically in the same spot.  Both are part of California’s history.

Cabrillo led the first European expedition to explore what is now the West Coast of the United States.  He first landed at was to be named San Diego Bay.  About 300 years later the lighthouse was built. 

The park museum and other buildings are on a cliff above the Bay.  You can see San Diego, Navy Bases, the Bay and the Pacific Ocean.  It is all a Kodak moment. (This link is for all the very young.)

The pictures below are not the best.  The museum was very dark, at the same time light was bouncing off the glass. 



This fine gentleman is in the Cabrillo Museum.  He is a Spanish Navigator.



This is a model of the ship Cabrillo traveled on.



A cut away drawing of the above ship.  The buttons below it would light up and identify sections of the ship.

The following pictures have different shades of blue for the sky and the ocean.  The fog was burning off and at the same time coming back in.  We had grey, blue, almost white all in the space of a few minutes.

                                                          

This is the beginning of San Diego Bay.  In the foreground the submarine base.  And the top of the curve is San Diego.

                                                     

Richard is pointing out landmarks across the Bay.



The dot between sky and ocean is a large Navy plane about to land.  Click to see the plane.



At the top of the hill is the Old Point Loma Lighthouse.



Any idea what this is?  Study it.  Have a guess?



This is the a light for a lighthouse. The lens was 5 feet tall.  The lens for Point Loma was sent back to the East Coast when the lighthouse was closed.  The picture above this one was of the spiral staircase they led up to the light. 

                                                                 

Looking left at the Pacific from the backyard of the lighthouse.



Twenty seconds later I took this picture looking to the right of the lighthouse.  Notice the water color in both pictures.



Point Loma Lighthouse.



Richard walking ahead of us back down the hill.  Blue sky and Blue Pacific.

This is a beautiful place.  Well worth taking Brother Hank and his wife Ann in a couple of weeks.  They wanted to see ocean and beaches.  This covers it all.  There are beaches passed as we drove to the park, and lots of ocean to be seen.