Encinitas - Meditation Gardens

We were standing in line in Peet’s Coffee shop yesterday when a lady asked if we were from “Merry Old”. (England) and so started another conversation with a local about why we were here. She mentioned a couple of places worth visiting - both of which we’d never heard of.

So today we set off to visit the Self Realisation Fellowship and Meditation Gardens http://www.yogananda-srf.org/Default.aspx?langtype=1033 on the blufftops overlooking the mighty Pacific at the town of Encinitas, just to the south of Carlsbad.

Today’s blip is of the Gardens and the view of the Pacific. There were indeed, plenty of people enjoying the peace and the magnificence of the location. It is a very special place and made for a very enjoyable visit. The one message I took away from the visit is to look for fulfillment not from external sources but from within. A powerful message indeed.

Walking along the Pacific shore is never easy around here, all the best locations have been bagged by houses on top of the steep cliffs, making a coastal path impossible to create. Bear in mind too, that these cliffs are being actively eroded. All the clif edge homes are too close to the edge for comfort, with many having to spend $1000s to protect their property.

However, Encinitas have managed to allow access to view all along the roads that run parallel to the clifftops by creating many little viewpoint parks at the end of the perpendicular roads allowing you to admire the handsome (if somewhat precarious) properties and then view the beach and the ocean from a park. Eventually you come down to a small bay giving access to the sand allowing you to walk along the beach as far as you want (tide permitting) in both directions alongside the ocean.

Having walked along the clifftops we returned to the car via the broad sandy beach, with views extending for miles in each direction. We saw some interesting rock pools and an egret of some sort as well as plenty of Californian Gulls.

All too soon it was time to return to Carlsbad, picking up a bit of shopping on the way ready to prepare a meal for Chris and De’Shaun who came over with Landon for the early evening. So a good day ended well too.