New Friends, Both Human and Sea Lion

We've had lots of wildlife visitors to our campsites and tonight in San Diego, it is an egret, so white (especially as I shone the flashlight straight at it, poor thing.) We've been experiencing technical difficulties, with all of our electronic devices failing in various ways. Because Dan is magic, we have our laptop working again. Because the internet connection is not magic, I may or may not get this posted tonight. We've things to catch up on (an animal sanctuary! a canyon so wide! Joshua Trees!) but for now, I'll post about our first glimpse (at least for this trip) of the Pacific.

This afternoon, after Dan worked on said devices and the kids and I worked on laundry and trying not to buy too many books, we headed to La Jolla Cove in San Diego. Over the past weeks, we've traveled through spectacular and varied terrain, and I confess to being completely enamored by the heat of the desert and how beautiful and weird are the plants and animals there. But, being near the ocean feels most like home to me in every sense.


Though I've been very lucky to have visited many beaches, I've never been to one where nearly everyone (all shapes, colours, ages, sizes) was laughing out loud, gleeful. It's awfully hard to be serious when there are a dozen sea lions frolicking in the waves not more than a few feet away from you and when people who've daringly left their belongings along the far shore have to dash into the sea to retrieve them as an unexpectedly enormous wave crashes in. The kids were initially worried and very cautious. But after the first good soak, it was pure love. They made fast friends with a couple of other kids and together they got toppled over, either while sitting on the beach or standing on a slippery rock. Again and again.

It's not that I was particularly worried, but I must say that I'm so thrilled that the afternoon was so good. I feel more confident now that making friends will not be hard and that being near the ocean is the right place to be.

At dinner, (burritos again!) Sam declared that we could forget all other contenders; he's moving to San Diego. But then, he's been saying that about every place we've visited. How good is that? 

We’re heading to Scripps Institute of Oceanography tomorrow morning. There is an exhibit about sea horses and a Mexican marine photographer, and we’re also going to check out the sharks. We’ll also peruse the bookstore to see if there are any books or resources that might be helpful for our major study project this year – the ocean (and in particular sea turtles and tracking trash.)

Then, on to Mexico! Sure, Baja experienced a major hurricane and two earthquakes over the past few days. But, things have calmed now and  I figure if my sister can get married in a hurricane with grace and enormous fun, surely we can drive right around one with the same.