Ascending Mount Soledad

Mount Soledad is in La Jolla and means "Solitude" in Spanish. It has the Veteran memorial on its top with a large cross standing there as seen in the inset of the picture that shows the view from up there. You can see 360 degree view of San Diego and up to Escondido in the north and down to Coronado island and Mexico in the south. We parked the car there at Via Capri and descended on foot all the way down to La Jolla Cove, which took about 45 minutes. The way back up took another 45 minutes and was quite a work out. Along the way you see the multi-million dollar homes that have a fantastic view to the ocean.

Coasting the North County Coast

The Coaster is a train that runs between Oceanside and San Diego. We caught it from Encinitas and rode one station down to Solana Beach so that we could walk back along the North County Coast back to Encinitas. The walk took about 1 hour and twenty minutes. Starting the walk from Solana Beach, the first thing you see going north is Cardiff-By-The-Sea, a small affluent town on the ocean with multi-million dollar homes. Then you get into Encinitas which spreads all the way up north to Carlsbad. The picture to the right shows the scene of the beaches that spread along the coast.

The inset to the left shows the Coaster train at the Solana Beach station, the second inset shows Cardiff sign, and the third one shows the Encinitas sign by D street near the Encinitas train station. The second picture to the right shows the path taken during this walk. The San Diego North county starts just north of La Jolla with Del Mar, then up to Solana Beach, then Encinitas (including Cardiff) then Carlsbad then Oceanside. Those are the coastal towns. A little to the east there are extensions to North County such as Carmel Valley east of Del Mar, San Marcos east of Carlsbad, Vista and Escondido. La Jolla is part of San Diego. We will be going to Soledad east of La Jolla shortly and will talk about it in the next posting, God willing.