California - last day, Cabrillo Lighthouse

Took a couple of buses but we got to Cabrillo State Park in dense fog. This made the lighthouse, which sits high over the entrance to San Diego Harbor, quite impressive poking up out of the clouds but made photos pretty unimpressive.

Old Cabrillo lighthouse

We walked around the site, explored the onsite displays (inside and outside) and watched a fascinating documentary about the grey whales that pass the area every year on their way from the Arctic to Baja California. It's a huge trip, 5000 miles each way, takes 9 months and they do not eat the whole time. Still the fog hadn't lifted but we walked around the headland to see the newer lighthouse.

New Cabrillo Lighthouse

While up there we saw dolphins and a number of naval ships coming in or leaving the harbor. Each time small naval powerboats "cleared the way" by warning pleasure craft out of their paths.

This submarine had two escort boats, you can just see one behind its tail.
The two sailboats were warned and tacked out of the way.

We left the site mid afternoon and the fog was gradually clearing. The road to the park goes through a naval base and, at one point, is bordered on both sides by cemeteries - quite sobering, especially with Mike and Aimee in the armed forces

We took a number of buses and trams to get to downtown San Diego and met Kathy and Bruce in the Gaslamp district which is an area full of bars and restaurants. We drank 'happy hour' drinks and ate 'happy hour' hors deuves as we worked our way around the area and found that we didn't need supper. Great ending to a great trip.
We loved the area, the desert landscapes and the coast. We found the people of San Diego to be extremely courteous and helpful. This was very obvious to us as we were using public transit and it was rare for a day to go by without someone asking if they could help us while we considered the bus/tram/train schedules. Unfortunately the shuttle driver in Buffalo, on the way home was extremely obnoxious and reminded me that Americans, just like Canadians, are a mixed lot. However we found southern Californians, overall, to be very pleasant.