Wednesday was Veterans Day and in honor of the occasion, the National Park Service waived their normal access fees. Donna and I took advantage of this by visiting the Cabrillo National Monument (CNM) in Point Loma (map), which is operated by the National Parks Service and usually charges five dollars per person for day use.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was a 16th-century explorer. Historians debate whether he was Portuguese or Spanish. On June 27, 1542 he set sail from Navidad, Mexico with a flotilla of three ships – the flagship was a 200-ton galleon called San Salvador, there was a smaller, 100-ton ship called La Victoria and an even smaller 26-oared bergantin called San Miguel. They had provisions for a three-year journey. As they sailed north along the coast of Baja California, they were in uncharted waters. On September 28th, they found what is now San Diego Bay.

The Cabrillo National Monument pays homage to this explorer and also has several points of interest including the old lighthouse which was in operation from 1855 to 1891. It also provides access to hiking trails and tidepools.

I shot a photo of a relief map of the area at the cluster of buildings in the CNM. The lighting was poor and the focus in the photo isn’t great, but it gives an overview of the area that will help put the rest of the photos into context.

Donna and I walked to the southern tip of CNM. The weather was breezy and the air was very clear. Looking south, we could see the coastline all the way down along Mexico and the Mexican Coronado Islands – not to be confused with San Diego’s Coronado Island. The Mexican Coronados are three islands – South Coronado, Central Coronado and North Coronado.

If you look closely at the picture of the islands, you can see two World War II warplanes that were flying around the area. I think they were Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers.

We walked to the lighthouse and lighthouse keeper’s quarters.

As we walked back down from the lighthouse to the main buildings and statue, I kept stopping to take in the spectacular view and shot a few more pictures.

The North Island Naval Air Station is part of Naval Base Coronado which is also the home of the odd numbered Navy SEAL teams (1, 3, 5, and 7).

North Island is on the northernmost end of San Diego’s Coronado Island which isn’t really an island – it’s an isthmus with a narrow strip of land called “The Strand” connecting it to the mainland at Imperial Beach.

We walked down to the statue of Juan Rodiguez Cabrillo, then took a stroll through the gift shop. On the way, I shot a photo of an interesting sign telling about old Point Loma.

We climbed aboard the scooter and rode down to the tidepool area. I was surprised at the number of people wandering around the tidepools. We were on a rising tide and the pools weren’t too interesting at that point. Low tide is ideal. We saw a large sea lion sunning himself and snoozing on the beach. A park service ranger had put out cones surrounding the area to keep people away from the sea lion. Some people think they’re at a petting zoo or something, but sea lions are wild animals and you need to give them space.

We couldn’t have picked a better day to visit the Cabrillo National Monument. The air was very clear with little haze – it shows more haze in the photos than what we could actually see. The vistas were beautiful and we could clearly see the mountains in east county at least 40 miles away.

On the way home, we saw a Fresh and Easy Market and decided to stop as we haven’t been to one in years. Many of them have closed. Unfortunately, this one is also closing. They had a sign outside that said everything was 60% off the marked price. We found most of the aisles were bare, but Donna found a few bargains.

The rest of the evening was uneventful. Donna went to a meetup of a minimalists group she belongs to. I just hung out at the coach. Today we’re off to the Pacific Beach Recreation Center for an afternoon of pickleball.