Torrey Pines to Del Mar

Paragliding at Torrey Pines Gliderport

Do you think you can fly? If you think you can, you may want to visit my previous post on the popular flying sports here in San Diego, paragliding and hang gliding. For us, we don't fly, we let our feet carry us from down the beach up above the cliffs! :) Maybe, someday, I may try paragliding, but just as tandem with a licensed paraglider/hang glider, because I am not sure I wanted to go through formal lessons to get license to fly and be involved with the sport. Since we let our feet carry us from down the beach up the cliffs, let me share with you our beautiful Saturday last weekend. To fuel our long day, we started with sweet indulgence from Champagne French Bakery. We had napoleon, three layers mousse cake and French macaroons, and a cup of coffee. After that sweet breakfast, we went to Torrey Pines where we started our wandering. Instead of walking up the bluffs right away, we started walking on the beach first to Del Mar. I had that wish of experiencing my hubby's photographing of the pelicans windsurfing in the waves! But, the day was different, no pelicans wind surfing! :( But nevertheless, I was entertained by these cute sanderlings. 

 Sanderlings busy feasting the crustaceans 

Sanderlings are cute little shore birds that really are fun to watch because they would run towards the retreading water and get so busy feasting on the crustacean or mollusks. They are so quick they wait up to the last minute to run away from the rushing waves coming in. 

 Sanderlings Running Away from the Rushing Wave

If they are a little bit late in escaping the rushing waves, they would quickly fly!

Fly, Sanderlings, Fly

After a while of waiting for pelicans to wind surf but did not see any, we decided to climb up the bluffs instead since that is where the pelicans are flying high now, happily gliding in the wind.

Pelicans Gliding in the Wind

Climbing up the bluffs in between North Torrey Pines State Beach and Del Mar Beach, this was how the first few feet of the trail looked like. 

the trail up the bluffs ( cell phone shot )

Thankfully, part of the trail was only the start, so, despite being almost vertical with little foothold, it was not scary since if you fall, you fall only on the sand. :) The trail up is narrow and a little bit slippery though. One surfer froze on the trail and had to wait for his friend to pick his surf board so he could use his hand scrambling on the slopes. 

trail up ( taken by cell phone )

up @ the bluffs ( taken by cell phone)

As soon as we reached the top, we saw dolphins about to surprise this surfer who was trying to catch a wave.

Surfing Trying To Catch a Wave and Dolphins

If you are this surfer, would you still ride the wave or let the dolphin pass by first? Well, I definitely would enjoy being that close to them! Dolphins always go by group, called pods. After our experience with dolphins in a superbowl parade, whenever we see some dolphins, we know, that just a short distance from them, there would be another group of dolphins. True enough, there were 5 other dolphins who were surfing with the waves that caught this other surfer in surprise.

Surfing Dolphins Caught a Surfer By Surprise

Looking at them, I was scared for the dolphin or for the surfer they would hit each other, but silly me, forgot the dolphins can dive down as the surfer stay up. It really actually came to a point where the dolphins were right below the surfer, but they docked further down. We continued our walk to Del Mar Beach, then, turned back to Torrey Pines Gliderport, for our lunch, up the bluffs with the paragliders.

Paragliders

Looking towards La Jolla Shores

♥♥