Children's Pool La Jolla — Attraction in San Diego

The Lifeguards here are ON POINT! It was 1997, and a younger 17 year old surfer/swimmer me, was at the mercy of Poseidon's rath. He whipped his waves over me, pulling me further away from the land for which I once stood upon. Knowing my ocean training I went into action. I couldn't swim to left. The crashing of the waves against the cliffs and rocks was strong enough to sink a ship. I couldn't swim to the right. There were rocks and a wall. I was stuck. All I could do was paddle and try to stay afloat. A Lifeguard saw me struggling and sprinted from his tower like Usain Bolt, sprinting for the World Record. He threw his red buoy out to side as his full sprint, turned into a dive. He went head first into a wave and popped up on the other side as if the sea answered to him. As I struggled to keep my head above the waves and my eyes on him, he continued to swim at me with his golden hair drifting behind like a cape. I saw him throw his red buoy into the air again. This time it was in my direction, as he swam with the speed of Aquaman, hitting me in the face with the buoy. I was panicking, and what better way to calm me down then almost knocking me unconscious. Seriously! He swooped my limp noodled body up and swimming both of us in. He body surfed the waves, me in tote, like 11 time World Surfing Champion, Kelly Slater. As I laid exhausted from trying to stay afloat. The Lifeguard looks down at me. His sky blue eyes, and golden hair dripping and blowing in the wind. He sits me up and says; "Dude! You shouldn't swim in rip currents bro. It's totally dangerous." Thank you to that Golden haired savor. Even though you made me question my...

While I suppose at some point this beach in La Jolla was known as a "pool" (created by a breakwater) for "children" -- the primary attraction since the mid-1990s has been the ever-growing colony of harbor seals who decided to take over. After all, no child wants to swim amongst "continuously high fecal coliform counts" (seal poop). Plus seals are bigger than children so they automatically win.

After a lot of back-and-forth about whether it'd be best to encourage the seals to move on and restore swimming or to give up and reclassify the beach as a wildlife preserve, the city settled on a kind of truce. Nobody swims and the seals are roped off to give them a bit of room to rest and birth pups on the beach, but the children (and us older children!) do get to stand ridiculously close and gawk away.

It's a magnificent place with lots of room (street parking only, but there's plenty within walking distance). There's all kinds of wildlife and gorgeous greenery to go with those seals. For a movie guy like me, there's also a really neat connection to the 1977 Peter O'Toole movie The Stunt Man. While it's very obvious that tons of that film are shot at the Hotel del Coronado (very recognizable from Some Like It Hot as well), the long WW I battle scene that O'Toole's character is directing is filmed on the Children's Pool beach! That's very cool. Not sure that can ever happen again. Unless your movie also needs a bunch of...

Great place to show off San Diego's wetter residents. When I was a teenager the beach and breakwater were still open. I'm glad the beach is closed to allow the seals a little privacy. It would be nice to see the breakwater refreshed so people could walk out and get sprayed by the waves. If you dont know already, the Children's Pool La Jolla is not a pool for kids. It was originally a beach for kids to play, away from big waves. Since this beach sits at the beginning of a HUGE ocean trench, momma seals ended up taking over the kids beach as a safe place to raise their pups. Cold water is great for seals but it is also great for big sharks who like to eat seals. Momma seals use the mile deep trench to sneak into this beach and avoid hungry sharks. Great place to bring the kiddos and tourists alike. Be aware though, nature can be cruel. A recently deceased seal pup was in plain view...