La Jolla Cove

With the recent and long lasting red tide we are experiencing here in Orange County, my buddy Jeff and I decided to drive to San Diego to dive La Jolla Cove. Neither one of us had dove there before so we had to formulate our dive plans on the fly.

When we arrived the water looked deceptively appealing. Standing at the top of the stairs at the cove we were able to see sand, rocks, and orange colored Garibaldi's through the blue-green water. There were no waves and the waves that did make it to shore were more like stray boat wakes. We watched as the swimmers made their way from the beach to the half mile buoy and back. We sighted a large patch of kelp out by one of the Scripps buoys and decided that this would our first destination. We suited up and made our way to the water.

The water of the interior reef was surgy and visibility looked about 10-12 feet. We snorkeled out a bit took a compas heading and descended in 15 feet of water. Underwater we were greeted by the usual suspects including kelp bass and garibaldi. Our first dive took us through the large beds of kelp and rock quarries split by valleys of course sand. We zig-zag our way to the reef looking for things to see. 63 minutes later I had successfully navigated underwater back to our exact entry point - pretty cool!

During our surface interval we meet the local game warden. The warden was a scuba diver and had dove the area often. He checked to ensure we had not taken any game and then gave us so reconnaissance on where we were diving next - La Jolla Caves. We switched tanks and made our way back to the beach. We again snorkeled out past the tourists and made our way east along the cliffs. We dropped in at 15 feet of water and continued east. This dive was exciting from the start. There were lots of nooks and crannies to find small critters. We found a couple of shovel nosed guitar fish resting in holes. We had a curious California sea lion do a fly by to check us out and blow bubbles at us. The visibility was poor so we decided to go deeper.

Unfortunately as we swam out towards the canyon we were meet by the very red tide we were trying to avoid. We did get below the red tide and swam through the kelp forest. The kelp canopy was thick and turned back the sun to create a dark eerie dive. We decided to swim out of the tide and back towards the caves. As we came out of the sea of red something to the left caught my eye. A very large giant black sea bass, requiring a double take, had caught my eye. It scared the *#%@ out of me. This gentle giant swam up to us to get a better look, just then and second an even larger giant black sea bass arrived on the scene. It was amazing. We stayed for a bit as the two large fish circled us to get a better look, coming so close as I could reach out and touch them - I did not however.

Mother's Day 2007

Mother's Day 2007 was a hit. I prepared a Mexican themed late lunch that consisted of Carnita's, Chicken Enchilada's, and Lamb with all the fix'ns. We had Margarita's flowing and everyone had a great time.

Johanna, Nicole, & Jenny

Moms and Kids

Mac, Ash, & Cam

Great Grandma Nelson & Cameron

Cameron 4 & 1/2 months