Shark watching!

Here Sharkie, Sharkie, Sharkie!

A few weeks back I found a website called Groupon.com. They have pages for most of the major US cities, and the basic premise is that companies drastically reduce their prices, 40-60% in most cases, on everything from photography to massages to golf. The catch is that they only offer these deals if a certain number of people buy them. It's really a great deal; the company gets exposed to more first time customers and the customers get a great deal. Buywithme.com is another similar site.

The other day I saw a coupon by La Jolla Kayak. Jen and I always talk about how we need to do more things around town, so I jumped at the chance for us to do something fun here in SD. It was even better than we'd hoped! We shot down to La Jolla shores to pick up our life jackets and drop off our wallets in the lockers at the store. Despite the reservations of both Jen and the sales girl, I insisted on taking our digital camera to get some pictures. I mean, it was in a Ziploc sandwich bag, what could possibly go wrong, right???

We walked the two blocks from the store location in La Jolla Cove down to the beach, which was fun since it was my first time there and La Jolla Cove has a great beachy, laidback feel. We definitely need to go back soon to hit up some of the restaurants. Down at the beach we hopped in our two person kayak and headed out to sea. The girl at the store had given us a quick rundown on the route we should take, so we hung a left just past where the waves were breaking and headed toward the caves. Within minutes, we were surrounded by leopard sharks! It was crazy! We probably saw fifty sharks total, and I couldn't get enough of them. Jen wasn't quite as enthusiastic, but I think she enjoyed it anyway. We cruised over to the caves next, saw a bunch of orange garibaldi fish, cruised through the kelp beds, and made our way over to the rocks by Ellen Browning Scripps Park. The rocks were crawling with double-crested cormorants, and even sea lions! Our rowing techniques could use a bit of work, so we splashed ourselves every now and then, but the sun was out (it was about 75 degrees!) so it was great to be out on the water. All in all, it was a blast, and if you happen to be coming to SD for a visit any time soon, expect that we'll definitely be suggesting a kayak trip!