Day 10 – Jan 20 – Carlsbad, CA – Day 5

Today was a half-do-nothing-day and a half-do-something-day.

As usual we took our time over breakfast and worked on the puzzle a bit, played computer games a bit and generally did nothing for a bit.

Somewhere around noon we decided to go for a walk down to the marsh we had been told about.  We knew the middle of the day would not be the best time to see many birds but we figured we would enjoy the walk and perhaps find the two geo-caches that were hidden along the pathway.

This palm needs a frond cut.

We were correct in thinking we wouldn’t see many birds.  We could hear some little ones chirping in the eucalyptus and acacia trees but we couldn’t see them.  There was some waterfowl paddling in the lagoon but we were not close enough to try identify them either; not that we know the names of a lot of bird species.

Nor do we know the names of hundreds of flower species, but I always enjoy taking photos of flowers.  Flowers always remind me of my Daddy.  He loved to grow flowers and he loved to photograph flowers.  I don’t grow many  but I love flowers and I love to take their picture as well.

I don’t know what this plant is. It may be a camillia, but I am not sure.  The flower bud is the size of a small banana and the ‘fruit’ or seed is like a cone. 

This is the only one we saw open and it looks like it is on the far side of the bloom. We did have success with our geo-caching and were able to locate both of the caches along the trail.  The Batiquitos Lagoon Ecological Reserve is a protected salt marsh.  According to the trail signs there are not many of this type of ecology left in California.

We could see the Park Hyatt Hotel up on the hill as we headed back along the road to the resort driveway.  This shows how farl I needed to climb to get home because our condo is further up the hill behind the hotel..It was a nice day for a walk; sunny and just warm enough to be comfortable.  We enjoyed the walk and will make the loop again while we are here.