The Living Coast Discovery Center - Chula Vista

The Living Coast Discovery Center is an environmental education center with marine animal and bird exhibits located in the Sweetwater Marsh Unit of the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge in Chula Vista.  The area is under the management of the U.S. Fish and Game.

Fran and I were here last in November 2017, which I blogged HERE.  Today I brought my brother and his wife to enjoy a new to them destination.

Since my last visit the center has added some beautiful aquarium exhibits.

We found NEMO!

Morey eel

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The little seahorse is pretty unique

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Moon jellyfish

In addition to the aquarium exhibits are terrarium exhibits.

Western fence lizard ?

The remaining displays are much as they were during our 2017 visit.
Such as the shark tank;

with its manta rays.

Outside, this little ruddy duck was enjoying his morning bath.

The oystercatcher was just strutting through the enclosure.

The Bald Eagle is the symbol of America:

and is separated from the Golden Eagle, which is the symbol of Mexico, by the ‘border fence’ of their enclosures.

From the Discovery Center we went to explore the Sweetwater Marsh at Gunpowder Point.

Kelp was harvested off the coast, then barged, to the Hercules Powder Company processing located here.  The 1500 employees worked at 11 processing plants that produced potash and cordite for WWI.

All that is left of the processing plants are the numerous concrete foundations.

And a few signs along the trails.

From Gunpowder Point, views across the bay to Coronado are vivid.  Here the Hotel del Coronado is shown (center right) dwarfed by the high rise condos.

Next to the Discovery Center is a new RV park.  Sun Outdoors is lacking mature landscaping, but has a great location.  A bit too expensive for us.

A fun and educational way to spend the morning.  Fran’s morning tennis match completed about the same time we were ready for lunch.  We picked her up at home and headed to Old Town.

This day we chose Barra Barra. 

Their food portions are ridiculous, but a good Margarita is only $7.

Our group on the deck at Barra Barra

Over on the Casa de Reyes stage the beautiful Mexican dancers were performing in the traditional Folkorico dress.

For Marty and Juanita’s final day here we went Cabrillo National Monument to look for whales.  From January through March thousands of Gray Whales will pass Point Loma on the way to their calving and mating grounds in Baja California.  Then return to their Alaskan feeding grounds during May and June.  That’s 10,000 miles round trip!

Nice clear views from the lighthouse

all the way to the Coronado Islands.

But alas no whale sightings.  We did have clear views of the san Diego area including the other side of the Hotel del Coronado from the view we had yesterday at Gunpowder Point.

My brother Marty and wife Juanita about to check out life as lighthouse keeper.

This is the USS Tripoli at Naval Base Point Loma.   Not often have I seen an assault ship in port.

From Point Loma we dropped into Ocean Beach for lunch.

We’ve never seen so many Lido class sail boats at Hospitality Point.  The red in the left-center is a power boat, which lead us suspect this must be a sailing class.

Our destination for lunch is the W.O.W Cafe on the OB Pier.

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The rules for tourists on the OB Pier are posted here:

Last year the pier was suffered heavy storm damage.

The end of the pier remains closed from that storm damage.

The W.O.W. Cafe is currently our favorite spot for a grilled mahi-mahi fish taco.  Hungry?  order it as a plate, with cold slaw and clam chowder served biscuit-and-gravy style.

Or follow my lead and order just the taco, still a full meal.

My son took a picture of this pelican some time ago.  It is still hanging by my laptop.

Fran is carrying the lunch leftovers while this seagull is following her along the rail just hoping she might offer something.

If you’ve walked the pier, have you noticed the marbles embedded in the concrete?

An elderly artist gal places them there in the mornings to add a bit of artistic charm.  As a tribute to her, the W.O.W. Cafe has its own artistic charm on their floor.

The floor is now concrete, it was rustic wharf wood before the storm.  The added paint dots add a nice touch to the marbles on the pier.

Juanita is an excellent cook.  Each visit she will prepare something different.  This trip she whipped up a chili relleno con pez marlín.  Poblano chili stuffed with marlin, carrots, potatoes, corn and topped with onion.

AWESOME!

When us brothers get together there’s a bit of red wine to be consumed.  We have the dead soldiers lined up in their order.  The Monks of New Clairvaux in Vina never disappoint.  And my favorite Mexican wines from Monte Xanic faired very well.

The La Cetto on the right is from an XOXO (7-11) Marty brought from Mexico.  It’s the best value.

Living Coast - Chula Vista’s Discovery Center

There is evidence of a native hunter gather population in the Sweetwater Marsh area 8000 years ago.  Today the Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge is a preserve allowing for the water fowl to return.  The Living Coast Discovery Center is located on Gunpowder Point just off the E Street exit from I-5 in Chula Vista, where a free shuttle carries visitors to the Discovery Center.




The Discovery Center’s official greeter is a sea turtle at the main entrance.


The animals within all the exhibits are rescue and cannot be released back into the wild.  So even though there is a definite zoo-like appearance, if the display animals were not protected here, they would not be alive today.  I expected a lot of sea life.



I have just finished reading Camino Island by John Grisham, where the loggerhead turtle binds Mercer as young girl to her grandmother.  I’m not sure if I have seen one before, at least I’ve not made note of one before.  They get big, really big!


In addition there are educational displays include composting and gardening.


Although there were other attempts at businesses in the Sweetwater Marsh, the most successful was  Hercules Powder Company, which fermented kelp in 200 large redwood tanks to extract potash and acetone to make gun powder for WWI.  Footings for the tanks can be seen along the trail.



There's also remnants of the pier where the kelp barges would unload.  From here the kelp was pumped up to the processing plant.


A different view of Coronado and San Diego can be seen from the tip of Gunpowder Point.


I was last here about 25 years ago, shortly after it opened.  Back-in-the-day there were few exhibits and less educational opportunities, but there were more trails and easy access to the marsh.  The trails today are wide and well maintained but not very extensive.   Unfortunately the signage along the trails has not held up well, either. 



The trails are all spurs off a main out-n-back main trail.  Each of the spurs would terminate at a viewpoint with a rest area and a reminder to remain on the trail.



I returned to the Visitor Center past a water garden, which uses selected plants to help purify the run-off water before it enters San Diego Bay - not sure why it is covered.   The selected plants are grown onsite in the hot house.


Before getting on the shuttle back to the parking lot I took a side trip through the aviary.  Again I’m told these are all rescue animals.  Still has the zoo feeling of incarcerated animals.





Despite the lack of an extensive trail system I still logged over 2 miles.  If you decide to go be sure to check groupon for 2-fer, $16 for two.  Or ask for the senior admission, although not advertised it will take 20% off the normal $16 admission price.