Dolphins!

Hello Internet! I’m not really back, I just have some pics to share and this is the easiest place to do it.

So yesterday the kids and I were on a boat. I got violently seasick and spent a good part of the day hanging over the rail making contributions to the local ecosystem, if you know what I mean. BUT! I also got to see literally thousands of frolicking dolphins! They were everywhere, the ocean was alive with them as far as the eye could see.

Luke and Elizabeth loved the rolling of the boat and didn’t get sick at all (oh to be young again and have a cast iron constitution), and generally had a great time, albeit for different reasons. Elizabeth enjoyed seeing dolphins and sea lions and pelicans and such in their natural environment, while Gadget Boy couldn’t get enough of all the nautical paraphernalia. Example: our boat passed near this adorable sight:

Everyone gathered near the rail to see the sea lions, and Luke said in hushed tones of intense excitement, “Wow, a real live buoy! I’ve never seen a buoy in real life before!” I’m not sure he even noticed the wildlife, but there were plenty of maritime gizmos everywhere to thrill his little cogs-and-gears heart, so he had a fun day too.

I was feeling hollow and wobbly by the time I got home, but I slept like the zebra* last night and woke up feeling really great this morning. Seasickness aside, I think all that salty ocean air must have been good for my lungs, they feel clearer than they have in weeks.

Not that I’m ready to go jump on another boat anytime soon. Blerg.

*Have I ever explained the zebra thing here? It’s a reference to the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland. One time we had a cruise pilot that had a whole running stream of jokes about that scene where the lion family is nomming on the dead zebra. “Oh, look at all those lions protecting that sleeping zebra!” “We’ll just continue on and let him rest…in peace.” Like that. Somehow it worked its way into our conversational repertoire, so if one of us says, “Wow, I’m exhausted; I’m gonna sleep like the zebra tonight,” it sounds perfectly normal. To us. I fear that eventually as our conversational shorthand evolves we’ll become completely incomprehensible to random strangers, kind of like the Tamarians from Star Trek. “Shaka, when the walls fell.” “Darmok, on the ocean.” “The zebra, ‘asleep.'”