Elephant seals

We are having a terrific San Francisco visit with Jes and Deena. We did something this year that none of us had ever done before, which is to drive up to Point Reyes to see the elephant seals. It’s a two-hour drive, which we unfortunately made a lot longer by trying to go to Muir Woods on the way… there was literally no parking, and we had to just leave. I’m glad they’ll be starting a shuttle system in January.

Once we finally got there the elephant seals were pretty awesome. Here's a number of them on the beach.

There was a newborn pup, which appears in this picture as a dark blob down by its mother's tail. This baby was less than 24 hours old and was working very hard to nurse; its mother was making it inconvenient. I learned that baby elephant seals take months to learn to swim, so a sheltered beach is essential; if they are washed out with the tide, they drown. Oh no! They are also sometimes crushed by the big males, who pay no attention to them as they galumph around fighting with other males. More often, though, they just get kind of splooshed into the sand by all the blubber, and aren't harmed.

It was also a beautiful drive, with gorgeous views of the northern California coast. We must have seen a dozen eagles.

Here's what the eagles saw.

On the way back, we paused at a rocky viewpoint for some Last Jedi photography.