A Year in Northern Baja: Good Vibrations

Joy!

The joy of most mornings is the pod of dolphins that passes just off-shore. I love watching the pelicans fish, the sandpipers catch their prey along the beach, and the surfers hitting the waves – most of them amateurs, but it’s fun to watch them. Now and then, a fishing boat passes. In the winter, we hope to see migrating whales. Eight miles off-shore are Mexico’s Coronado Islands, which are mostly uninhabited. We see the lights go on along that coast every night.

The best experiences are often too brief to capture on film, but I have words, and I will use them! At the beginning of our third week here, we took a walk with Sofie. When I was ready to get into the water, Don took the leash and let me do my thing while he talked to surfers, several of whom he told to hurry because the surf was going to be turned off in a couple of hours. (They laughed, but the great waves did smooth out a couple of hours later!)

I love to go to the rocks with the tide pools and see what’s there. There are lots of sea anemone, mussels, etc. I was standing by the rocks, up to my waist in water, watching the waves break and crash against the other side. “What a great photo this would be!” I thought. The view from my spot was perfect: rocks, tide pools, waves crashing almost at eye level. Then I saw something swimming in the surf and thought at first it might be a dolphin so close to shore, but it popped up and looked right at me, not 20 feet away, and it was a seal! To channel Jim Croce, “If I could save time in a bottle,” I would hold that memory forever.