On April first we headed out to Año Nuevo State Park to check out the elephant seals. This is not the time of year when you see the big males fighting for dominance, the scenes you see on the nature shows. this is long after that. The males are gone. Even the females are gone. The pups (or as they are called after their mother’s ditch them, “weeners”) are left on the beach to fight for survival on their own. As it turns out, fighting for survival in this case really means “lying on the beach and sleeping for a month or two”. This is what we got to see. We could tell that they weren’t dead because sometimes they blinked. But it’s always nice to get out to the ocean.
On the mile and a half hike from the visitor’s center to the beach, Natalie bombarded us with questions about the seals. We answered most questions with “Hmm, I’m not sure, but one of the docents at the beach should know”. When we finally got there.. “Natalie, there’s the docent, do you have any questions to ask him?” Natalie: “Um, no”. Typical. And then.. “Natalie, why don’t you ask him why the seals keep flinging sand on themselves?” Natalie: “Ok”…to the docent: “Excuse me, why do they fling sand on themselves”. Docent: “Well, that’s a good question. Nobody really knows”. So, that was really satisfying.
