we spent about an hour yesterday staring at the sea lions on the wharf here in santa cruz. they're mostly males who come down to monterey bay national marine sanctuary following their breeding in southern california, migrating north to the sanctuary to rest. there were hundreds of sea lions laying on the wooden wharf supports, either sunbathing or resting. there was something so fascinating about spending time just watching them barking, moving around, looking at different things. several of them hadn't been around earlier that day when the tide had been high enough to make it onto the supports, so we watched a few desperately attempt to jump onto the supports, unsuccessfully.

i watched bufflehead ducks dive under the water looking for food; they would stay under for so long! we also watched a different male duck dive and bring up a fish. immediately the birds surrounding him (mainly seagulls) began lunging at his mouth, trying to take the fish. at first, the duck was winning, dodging the seagulls and managing to keep the fish in his mouth, but after a few dodges, two devil-eyed seagulls managed to grab the fish from him, tearing it in half and emptying fish blood into the water, giving half to each seagull.

we played pool in a bar for a while in louisville and again here