We saw a brochure for the New York’s Niagara Power Vista. The power plant offers free tours. On our last day in New York, we hurried over to the Vista when Ben was off of work. Unfortunately, the brochures were not updated with COVID restrictions and they now required reservations and were full for the day. The woman at the office did give us directions to a service road that led to a fishing pier at the base of the plant. She told us the views there were pretty good too.
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She was right! There was a small visitor parking lot at the base of a hill (before the gated employee entrance). We walked down a few flights of steps to the metal walkway. The waves from the river and plant occasionally splashed up onto the walkway. It was right on the river and we saw butterflies, a snail on the fence post, fighter jets, and some birds.
If you are in the area, I think this is worth a stop!
Galveston was only about an hour and a half from our campground and we wanted to see the Gulf of Mexico.
It was a nice day out, sunny and about 70 degrees. Parking close to the main area was a little challenging. However, if you don’t mind walking a little bit and playing frogger to cross the street, there was some free “beach access” parking on the street (on the non-water side). All parking on the water side of the street was paid from what we saw.
Cool benches on the sidewalks, water side
There were several fishing piers jutting out into the gulf. They looked like rocky outcroppings. There was one huge pier with rides called Pleasure Pier. Crazy name. We walked to see it, however unlike other piers we have been to, there was a general admission. You could not just walk on it to check it out, even if you were not riding any of the rides.
Nick found a few shells and we watched the waves for a little bit. We saw several cargo ships in the distance.
The Gulf’s water was a little chilly, so we did not wade in it. Because it is fed from rivers, it often has a muddy look from sediment coming in from the rivers, so you don’t have the clear waters of the ocean.
We went back to Balboa Park to explore. Any close parking seems to be challenging to find, but we did manage to find a spot about a 1/2 mile away. There were lots of outdoor vendors and buskers out. It was a busy happy vibe.
We walked around a little bit. We were hoping to see the Spreckles Pipe Organ show, but they have moved it to a virtual show (Covid). The buildings in the park are beautiful and have really neat architecture. Even the building housing the organ has ornate details.
We finished our day with a drive up to Torrey Pines Natural Reserve. It was extremely pretty. There was a paid parking lot nearby, but also some parking right next to the beach. Our truck really enjoyed the parking spot looking at the ocean. We had started keeping the swimsuits in the truck in case we want to stop somewhere while exploring, which worked out great at Torrey Pines. Their beach looked amazing, so we got changed and grabbed the boogie board. There were bigger waves than we had had before, but we still had lots of fun.
There are also hiking trails at Torrey Pines, so I’m hoping we can go back and walk around the park. It is a really pretty area.
After our swimming in the ocean and exploring the boardwalk, we still had one last mission for the day: find a hammock spot. Ben had been wanting to hammock for awhile now. The last few campgrounds did not have areas close by to hammock at, and what says relaxation more than a hammock near the beach? I found a few hammock location recommendation online: Mission Beach-we had already been there and the park itself seemed crowded, Sunset Cliffs-gorgeous but we didn’t see any trees that would work, Torrey Pines Reserve-looked neat, but would probably be better if we spent more than just hammock time there.
We finally arrived at La Jolla Cove. This was a little further north than the Children’s Pool. We lucked out and found a parking spot nearby. I’ve got to say parking in San Diego is not meant for trucks. We saw several sea lions sun bathing on the rocks as we pulled in, as well as several groups of kayakers in the water.
Ben went to scope out the trees for hammock hanging, while we hunted down the bathrooms. The center there was under construction, so they had a line of port-a-lets near the street. Once Ben was in his hammock, the boys and I walked around and explored. We saw several spots where the sea lions were resting and sleeping in sleep piles. We even got to see a few baby seals! (People still amaze me, and not in a good way. There were people going right up to the babies. There were signs at the various beaches we’ve been to saying if you scare the mothers they may abandon their pups.) We heard a few of the sea lions vocalizing to each other in the water. (VIDEO: Sea Lions)
I went into the tunnel; neither one of the boys wanted to take their gym shoes off and come in with me! There were a couple of small fish among the rocks. It was pretty neat!
We headed back to the tree area. The boys grabbed their books and climbed up in a tree to read. I was one happy momma.
Today had a lot going on. Condensed version: swimming at the beach, electric scooters, hammocking, and sea lion watching.
We had walked the beach and visited beach areas, but we had not gone swimming in the ocean yet! Ben really wanted to go to the ocean, so we picked Mission Beach for our first swimming here. There is a lot more parking around here than at some of the other beaches. We brought the boogie board we bought at Costco for the boys to try.
The sun was out and the temperature was around 80. The water was colder than I was expecting it to be, but we adjusted pretty quickly. The waves were the perfect height for us, probably too small for surfing but good for the boys to try out the board. We had lots of fun in the water, but it definitely wore us out! The boys did ok on the boogie board. (VIDEO: Ocean Waves)
We rinsed off at the outdoor showers and headed back to the truck to get changed into regular clothes. We grabbed some tacos for a quick lunch. Ben had been craving fish tacos since we were so close to the ocean. We thought we could surely find much fresher fish this close to the ocean. The lobster was shipped in from Maine, but some of the fish was local. We tried two different restaurants at Mission Beach for the tacos: one was fresh fish, one was fried fish. Ben liked the fresh fish better, as you could actually taste fish not just fried.
After eating, we walked the boardwalk from Mission to Pacific Beach. It was fun walking and seeing the different storefronts. After the swimming and the walking, we were tired but still had to walk back to the truck. (I want to say it was 1.5-2 miles each way.) San Diego has a ton of rental electric scooters, both the traditional stand up and ones that have seats. We rented two different brands: Razor and Wheels.
I liked the Wheels better. They seemed to have better control over the speed (turn handle like a motorcycle), and two brake handlebars. The Razor did have a basket though. These things can really go! You have to download an app to rent and pay for the scooter. I think they were both $1 to unlock, Razor was $0.37/minute (plus a sales tax and a San Diego Registration Fee for $1.53), Wheels was $0.32/minute (with a Minimum Fare of $3.49). Razor actually unlocks the scooter when you scan to rent it. Wheels, however, just doesn’t have electric power, but you could still use it to scoot along with your feet (which we saw several people doing). You ride until you decide you are done (or the bike dies), and then you need to use the app to finish your ride/charge. The meter keeps running until you end your ride on the app. Both of them required that you take a picture of where you left the scooter as well. Wheels ended up being cheaper, as they had a cheaper per minute rate and did not charge a sales tax/registration fee.
It was lots of fun, although a little scary when we were near cars. I think it was probably a one time experience, but they were super nice to have when you’re tired and have to get back to your car!
Check back tomorrow for our adventure in hammocking and sea lions!
Our passes weren’t until 11:00, so we packed up some snacks and lots of water. Everyone dressed in wicking clothes so we would dry off faster. We headed towards Zion a little early because I was worried about parking. The Visitor Lot fills up really quickly and although you can park in the town of Springdale and take their shuttle to Zion, I really wanted to park inside the park. I figured that after hiking we would be tired and would want to be able to leave as soon as possible.
We picked up our hiking gear (Zion Guru) and went into the park. I would say we got there around 9:45/10:00 am and the lot was half to 3/4 full. We had already put on our socks and boots at the store. Zion’s Visitor Center was closed (COVID), but they had lots of informational signs outside. We read those for a while and then attended a Ranger Program at 10:30. It was about mountain lions and was pretty interesting. Did you know they can leap 45 feet?!
A little before 11:00 we boarded the shuttle and headed in. We were going to do the Narrows hike that does not require a permit (Bottom-Up), the one that starts at the end of Riverside Trail (stop 9 on the shuttle). It is listed as a moderate to strenuous trail; how hard the hike is depends on water depth and flow.
The start of The Narrows Trail at the end of Riverside Trail.
It was surprisingly busy. The river was pretty shallow at the entrance point here, although it is still cold. You could probably walk here with just sandals on. The farther in you go, there are sections that got up to upper thigh on me. (Later in the hike, we heard other people talking that it was chest high farther down. The man was at least 6 foot tall, so I’m glad we didn’t get that far!)
Some spots in the river were clear and you could see the rocks and judge your path. Some spots were murky, I’m not sure if it was the crowd that stirred it up or the algae, but you couldn’t see the bottom. We were so glad to have the hiking poles to test the depth in front of us.
We saw plants growing from the walls, lots of different sizes and colors of rocks, Mystery Falls (a waterfall), Wall Street (narrowest part), and the Floating Rock (boulder in the middle of the river). We made it a little past the floating rock and decided to turn around. The Narrows is an in-and-out hike, and we were already tired. Everyone, except Will, had fallen at least once.
On our way back, Nick fell several more times in a row. We stopped and made sure he ate some peanut butter crackers and drank more water. After resting a few minutes, we started back again.
Ben jarred his back when he stepped in a hole. I tripped on a rock I couldn’t see and fell face first into the water. I will say I am glad we had on the water shoes that went above the ankle. I am sure I would have twisted something if I was in gym shoes. Will was still the winner at the end of the trail and had not fallen once!
We were exhausted when we were done. The shuttle line was long, and I would say we waited 45-60 minutes. We did see some deer and wild turkey while we waited. (YouTube video of walking the line for the shuttles.)
We returned our gear and headed home to take showers.
It was a once in a lifetime experience and really neat! If you were to hike the Narrows, I would definitely recommend renting equipment. The neoprene socks helped with the cold water and not having wet cotton socks rubbing on our feet was definitely a plus. The water shoes/boots were surprisingly helpful. Even the broom handle-ish walking stick seemed better suited than our normal walking sticks.
