LA Jolla An Overview Of La Jolla

La Jolla, unbeknown to me prior to my visit, is a popular and trendy tourist spot. I know, it seems I have been living under a rock all these years.

Just north of San Diego, which by the way is another must visit destination, La Jolla has an amazing and varied coastline quoted as measuring seven miles at an elevation of 110 feet. Obviously not all of the coastline is easily accessible with the cliffs and so on but the accessible aspects are pretty amazing.
Unfortunately because it is so breathtakingly beautiful and popular, property at La Jolla is a little pricey.

The architecture is Mediterranean with shutters for windows and interesting colors for the houses, and this probably is a reflection of the history of the area and the weather.

For me, everything was just perfect. from the seals, to the little alcoves on the beach, to the lovely shopping district (and I usually do not like shopping), there was something to take my breath away around most corners.
Although La Jolla is most popular as a holiday location with it's coastline and seals and pelicans and amazing weather, there is a thriving business district which is located on the east side of the town.

And if your thing is shopping, there is a modern shopping center, which we happened on accidentally, well our cab driver did. It's a long way from the shore and something that I suggest you do after you have seen the other sites in La jolla.

Sites like The San Diego Mormon Temple, simply beautiful and hard to miss. Built I think in 1988, it looks like an ice sculpture meets Hogwarts



La Jolla Village
The village has a nice mix of restaurants, coffee shops (thankfully a lot of independents), some pretty amazing art Galleries and boutiques. There is a really cool and trendy buzz to the area and the weather is glorious all year round


The La Jolla Coastline
Simply the most memorable and breathtaking aspect of La Jolla. It is difficult not to be impressed by this coast. The views and the wildlife is amazing.




My only whinge is the difficulty we had getting bottled water when we were actually on the beach. So take your water with you when you visit the beach. Can be incredibly hot and dehydrating.

Having said that, the lack of water on our first visit did not detract from the beautiful sunset, the cliffs, the seals (I obviously liked the seals) and the views.

Talking about views, we were told that the best views of the coastline were by learning to fly with the Torrey Pines Gliderport team. Perhaps next time.

La Jolla Seals Then and Now

This is a picture of seal bay, beg your pardon, 'the childrens pool' when we visited La Jolla

And the picture below is how it used to be

Hmmm, Huge difference

I still have been unable to find out why these seals are being ousted from what is technically their homes

Please support the campaign

Visit the Save The Seals website to find out how you too can make a difference

La Jolla Childrens Pool Seals

I'll confess to you, prior to going to San Diego on a conference, I had no interest in seals, they were just another animal, slippery and shiny.

But during a visit to La Jolla, on a sea front walk [you can't exactly call it a beach] we came across seal bay or what is officially called the childrens pool.

After a few hours of gawping at these marvellous creatures, 3 rather energized but badly sunburnt friends were driven from our seat by the cove by extreme thirst. No where to buy water to drink on this stretch of coast line. We would have happily sat there all day but alas we are only human.

As we walked reluctantly away, we came across a lovely older lady who was obviously talking to passers by but we really could not hear what she was saying above the noise of the crowd

We moved closer and asked, as only a tourist can, what she was on about

Then she burst our little bubble. There are plans to drive away the seals from seal bay.

Hey? But I have just discovered seals..... and they are absolutely beautiful..... and they are not a threat to us in any way and........ so many ands passed back and forth between us three as the planned closure of seal bay [cause that's how we see it] dominated our conversation for the next few hours

As we got back to Mission Bay, we asked a few locals about the planned closure and to our dismay non of the people we spoke to either seemed to be aware or to care

So we decided to start a blog on the seals. Now we probably won't make a big splash in the waters but at least we would have contributed our two cents to saving the la jolla seals