Tag: Pacific Ocean

Tsunami

SDSpivey

Tuesday evening, an earthquake occurred off the coast of the Kamchatka region of Russia. It caused tsunami floods in that region, as well as Japan and Hawaii.

The waves hitting Russia were up to 12 feet high. Many Russian ships and nuclear powered submarines were damaged, in a nearby port.

Warnings were spread across the US west coast on Wednesday morning, but fortunately, the wave hit southern California at a low tide, so damage was minimal.

There are hundreds of boats in the San Diego marinas, I’m sure the owners were crapping their pants when they heard.

Strange that if I had stayed a couple days later, I could have been affected.

Pacific and pacified

SDSpivey

Even though I have flown over the Pacific Ocean several times, I’ve never actually seen it. (I prefer aisle seats, so can’t see out the window.)

The coast is only 3 miles away, but I have already walked way more than anyone should ever do, so I Ubered over to the edge of a park.

There were cliffs here, maybe 60 feet high. Certainly higher than you’d want to fall. Luckily, there was a set of stairs leading down to the “beach”.

At the bottom, there was a small area of sand, but mostly rock shelves and just stones about head size. You could walk around, but it was precarious. I was convinced I would end up either with soggy shoes, busted head, or salt-ruined phone. You will have to read to the end to find out which…

It is called the “pacific” but it is no calmer than what I have seen on the Atlantic or Gulf, so bad name?

My free tourist map had stated there were caves. Nope, they are just deeper indentations into the cliff wall. If I can touch the back with one hand and the other is still outside, it isn’t a cave, IMO.

The rock shelves had small pools in them, small crabs and sea anemones flourished within. But it did mean you’d have to constantly watch where you step.

After checking everything out, it wasn’t a large area, I headed back up the stairs and walked southward along the ridge, looking for another way to get down to another beach area.

I mentioned before how San Diego feels so foreign, this was no different. The top of the cliff area felt like a desert, dry and dusty, with brown prickly grasses and bushes.

I did see an actual sandy beach area, with a couple of women and their dogs, but I saw absolutely no possible route down. Well, actually going down would be easy, but you’d not like the landing nor would you ever get back out.

I never rains in southern Cali, but when it does, man it pours.

There were many washout areas, causing even more chances to slip and end up at the bottom. I managed to find a spot where people had carved out a few stepping holes, so I didn’t fall and die. I know, you are so relieved.

Once at the bottom, I would walk along exploring the area, trying to dodge the waves from washing over my shoes as I slipped around an outcropping.

A couple of men with 2 young girls were down on the same beach. One was digging in one of the “caves” and was trying to uncover something partially buried. I had climbed up shortly after them and noticed they had all left their shoes at the top of the cliff, I should have thought of that.

I went down the coast for a bit longer, but I was looking at a map on a information sign and realized I was basically at the end of the park. So I headed inland, hiking through the desert, climbing higher and higher. I zigzagged through the bushes, finding dead ends and loops back, not going forward.

Eventually, I did find a path to a parking lot and was able to get to where I could get a ride back to the hotel.

Climbing that far left me quite sweaty. I should have gone to the room and rested or cooled down, but I still wanted to go to the Chinese History Museum, so I was dropped off at the bus stop and rode to the convention center.

I had thought the museum would be local history, but it was more general Chinese history. It was good and not much admission.

Without anything else planed, I just went back over to the crowd to costume watch.

There were 4 ladies in “princess” outfits standing together. A little girl walked up and was awed, she had princess-overload.

I have seen quite a few Fantastic 4 outfits, but I just realized that many of the t-shirts are just the ones given out by the blood bank for donations.

I went to eat then went back to the room for a nap, nearly 3 hours.

Tomorrow will be another busy day, so I should rest up.

Walking count: Hard to measure a zig zag path, but probably about 3 miles on the cliffs and 3 downtown, so total to date is 25 miles.

Ok, I will tell you now, a wave did wash over my shoe once, but it is leather so my feet stayed dry. Although, time will tell if salt spray will ruin my phone or not.