Tide Pools at Cabrillo National Monument

We had our first visit to Cabrillo National Monument back in 2012 when I was VERY pregnant with Messy Boy.  We checked out the Visitor's Center, saw the amazing views of San Diego Harbor, and Bruce and Dancing Girl checked out the lighthouse (I wasn't about to squeeze my very large baby belly through a little spiral staircase).  We had since heard great things about the tide pools there, and had been wanting to go check it out.

A very pregnant me and Dancing Girl back in 2012

So, while the eastern part of the U.S. was battling freezing temperatures this weekend, we headed to the tide pools in our shorts and t-shirts (I know...Carolinians, be jealous). We looked up the tide charts (it's best to get there an hour before the peak low tide), and headed out for the day.  Cabrillo is a National Park area, so there's usually $5 fee per car (or you can use your National Park Pass...free for military), but because it was President's Day weekend, it was free.

Cliffs at the Tide Pools

Unfortunately, a free park day also means a very crowded park day. We headed straight for the tide pool area only to find a sign that said parking was full.  But, there's no other way to get down to the tide pools(you're not allowed to park in the main parking lot and walk down the street because there's no sidewalk or shoulder to the road) so we had to go drive circles around the parking lot until we found a space. Even then, the actual tide pool parking lot was full and had other cars waiting, so we  chose the ocean view parking lot and just walked from there.  

Once you get to the path, there are stairs that take you down to some cliffs. I'm going to be honest, there were a few spots that made me kind of nervous with the kids because we were closer to the edge than I would have preferred. I would prefer them to stay a football field away from the edge, but that's not possible. So, we did our best to hug the cliffs and kept a tight grip on the kids, and everyone was fine.  In fact, I was the only who slipped, but that's usually how it goes. It was a good thing that we wore our Keens because the tide starting coming back in and there was no way to avoid stepping in water. 

Stairs leading down to the tide pools

We were hoping to see some octopuses (I say octopuses, you say octopi. Tomato, tomahto.), but we we were either there at the wrong time or in the wrong spot for those guys. We saw a ton of crabs and sea anemone though. The anemone were so pretty, and since they weren't poisonous, you could touch them and watch them close around your finger. Dancing Girl and Messy Boy refused to touch it, but Bruce and I thought it was pretty cool.

Sea anemones

We were having so much fun that we didn't notice that we walked all the way to the tide pool parking lot.  And, by then the tide had come in so much that we didn't want to risk going back the same way. Thankfully, Bruce volunteered to run back to get the car to come pick us up.

By the time we were all loaded back in the car, the kids were starving and exhausted so we headed straight to The Corvette Diner for some burgers and balloon art.

Have you visited Cabrillo? What's your favorite part to see? Have you done anything else with your kids that made you a little nervous but in reality was safe and totally worthwhile?