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We started the morning attempting to watch a sunrise behind a cloudy sky and gazing at the city lights in the distance. A pod of dolphins greeted us by leaping out of the water, dancing through the waves. The sun slowly but surely broke through the clouds to warm our skin. A pilot hopped aboard the ship to help guide the boat through the unfamiliar San Diego waters. I think I can say for all of us that as we watched the boat get closer to San Diego we all became increasing more excited to walk ashore and test out our sea legs.
Walking off the boat and on to the pavement was a fever dream. When I was walking, it was not in a straight line and when I was standing still suddenly, I was swaying. All of us were testing out the new sea legs we were gifted from being on a rocking boat for the past five days. Some of us were even thinking that it was time to start taking Dramamine again to alleviate the “land sickness”. But before we could fully get used to the land, we were packed into Ubers and headed out for our adventure in San Diego.
The first stop of the day was to La Jolla Cove. Once there, we watched the sea lions basking in the sun, including two wrestling for a prime spot on a rock. While we watched, I tested out my sea lion bark to see if any would reply to my call (Translation of my barks: “How cold is the water?”, “What’s your favorite food?”, among other questions and comments). Although I received no answers, I will continue to practice my sea lion bark. While I was busy perfecting my call, the others were climbing the cliffs, taking a dip or two in the ocean, and scouring the rocks for crabs and anemone. By the end of our beach adventure, a few of us were hungry and ready to indulge in sushi. We walked up to a local sushi restaurant and devoured some of the best sushi I’ve had but the fun didn’t stop there, we quickly decided that we had to have gelato and walked over to then eat some of the best gelato I have had. It was a food lover’s ideal lunch after a beach day. We ended our San Diego adventure with some thrifting where people found a few clothing items to take home. At this point we were all exhausted after our day and ready to get back to the boat to eat our last dinner from the chefs.
-Mora Kozleski
