Kayaking Monterey Bay with DaddyO and Alan
The best way to experience Monterey Bay is to grab a paddle and board a kayak. This place is amazing!!! Sea otters, seals, sea lions, pelicans, kelp, and divers are things you are guaranteed to see first hand.
Would you believe that some of the Monterey Bay locals actually don’t appreciate this at all? Many of them put these sea lions, that I find so exciting, right into the “nuisance” category!!
It surprised me too!! See, on the Eastern U.S. shore we have no such animals. We have manatees, dolphins, and gobs and gobs of sharks, but none of those sun on the rocks so that we can examine them up close.
California is an animal lover’s dream. This is so exciting!
Sea lions own the marina area. Seals can be found in other areas. They are very segregated, these animals.
I have yet to find a seal and a sea lion hanging out together. I have; however, come upon a sea otter sunning with seals, but I don’t have time to go digging for that photo just now.
DaddyO and I share a few common interests. One of these is nature photography. DaddyO regularly sells his pictures to publications. I need to learn how to do that!
On this particular day, Alan was the one taking the photos. They didn’t want the good cameras to get ruined in the kayak.
Alan said, “April, I’ll take your phone, so if it gets ruined, we’ll get you a new iphone.”
(Alan just got a new one, which he did not want to destroy.)
Guess what happened. He actually did get water in my phone. My phone was older than his, but I’m still not due for an upgrade.
I’m still holding out for that iphone. My water-logged phone, which will no longer go to the home screen or back, has now been replaced with Alan’s old Droid 4 from 2012.
It doesn’t work well either. What good is a phone that only calls people? 😉 haaaa
On the upside, my productivity should increase, as I now have no smart phone to read Facebook with. I miss you, dear Facebook friends! I will be back, to “like” all the pictures you can upload of your babies soon.
Sorry. Back to sea lions:
This sea lion is still super young and excited to check out some people. He may become more jaded as he gets older, gets jabbed by a few boats, or is just treated poorly.
One such sea lion, which was thankfully on the other side of a fence, actually spit at me today.
It was gross, and I saw food particles flying out. I was far enough away that I did not have any fish bits land on me. I haven’t fully recovered from my shock of feeling completely grossed out.
To be fair, I was staring at him while he was napping on the rocks. How rude of me! I don’t know what my problem is. I just think they are so fascinating! It is so terribly hard not to stare!
Kayaking in Monterey Bay never disappoints. This place is amazing, and I am just so thankful for the privilege of living so close to it!
Please keep Caleb in your prayers! His oral surgery is tomorrow. All of his teeth will be fixed at once, and then the children at church will not be able to call him “Broken Tooth” anymore. Yep. Childhood hasn’t changed all that much, has it?
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Oops, I mean the right flipper, of course.
Just saw your photo of the baby sea lion next to the kayak doing a Google search on sea lions. Cute bugger! If you look at it’s left front flipper you can see an orange tag attached. That means it had been rescued by one of the marine animal rescue facilities out there and nursed back to health and released…..
They have had a major crisis of starving sea lion pups out there for the last 3 or so years. The El Nino had disrupted the prey fish and the mother sea lions can’t generate enough milk to feed the pups or have to swim so far to new fishing grounds that they’re not making the round trips quick enough for the necessary schedule to feed the pups.
I didn’t realize they had so much trouble. There are such vast numbers of sea lions in that area that I mistakenly thought they were doing well. I can’t believe I never noticed that orange tag. You can see it in all of the photos. I enjoyed reading your comments. Thanks!
I just love your pictures!!
Thank you! Alan did a great job. I could look at these sea lions all day!
This is so neat! I got to see the sea lions in California years ago, but my kids never have. Tell Caleb that the kids used to call me “Wart Head.” Yes, I had a wart on my forehead that I had removed. It will make him a more compassionate person. Prayers for him!
Oh no! “Wart Head”! So sad! Caleb has definitely endured quite a few good character building experiences over the last few years. Glad you enjoyed the photos!
Wow. I think Alan should take up photography too. That’s a great picture of Daddy-O!!! They are all great…love the pier. I would ALSO be completely grossed out by sea lion spit. Ewwww! Praying for Caleb!
Yes, Alan is a great photographer. Oh, I was grossed out and also a little bit offended.. 🙂
I thoroughly enjoyed the kayak trip. It will be a wonderful memory to cherish. ~Daddy-O
So glad you enjoyed it!