Better than television

This past Sunday was somewhat unseasonably warm here in the city. By noon the fog had burned off, so the midday heat was accompanied by a bright, blue sky. The hubs and I grabbed some gear & went to the beach. In anticipation of the warm temps extending out to the ocean, I wore a bathing suit under my clothes. I don't think I have worn a suit to our local beaches since the early 1980s. And, in my memory, those childhood trips to the coast were always beset with strong winds and chilly temperatures. Yesterday, however, the hair-whipping winds & cold didn't make an appearance.

Arms out for balance.

Cautious of the midday rays, I slathered myself in sun cream, or so I thought, before making my way to the water. I had totally forgotten to get my feet, so I've a nasty burn across the top of them. Oopsie! Burn aside, I had a delightful day at the ocean. I spent a majority of my time wading, letting the wee two foot waves repeatedly knock into my legs. A three-footer with some gusto eventually knocked me on my backside. Falling backward, I somehow managed to twist around, land on my hands & 'eat' a bit of salt water in the process. The sand at this particular beach is fairly coarse, so it almost felt as if I had landed on sandpaper. All I could do was get back on my feet, wipe the beach bits from my palms & laugh my sand-covered kiester off. In the above shot, you may or may not be able to see that I kept at it even after the spill. The sand seemed to have stuck to me like glue!

The below shot shows a speck of seal just out from shore. He eventually came in to play in the surf a bit, but kept mostly out of sight. 

The tiny black bit in the water is our seal friend.

Our seal pal wasn't out there in the Pacific by his lonesome. I think there must have been a massive fish run happening as there were scores of Pelicans, Cormorants, Terns and Gulls congregating in a large group out on the water. We witnessed multiple Pelican dives. There were bands of Terns tagging along behind the great birds in anticipation of dropped fish. Beyond the scrum were a few dolphins swimming in various directions. I witnessed a dolphin 'tail move' that I would guess were meant to corral the fish into swimming in a certain direction. At one point in the afternoon, the birds, a few dolphins and a few seals were all visibly doing their thing out in the ocean together. It was a bounty of marine activity and it was a delight.