The Sea Lion story

We were driving along the scenic Pacific Coastal Hwy when we decided to pull over and walk along the beach since I have never seen the Pacific coast. As soon as we pulled over I spotted a large creature in the water coming towards the shore. I started yelling uninteligable words like, "wallspike, sealorn, waterspanther" and flailing for the camera. I dove out of the car running at full speed down the rock wall and flinging shoes, adjusting the camera and yelling at Nate "hurry, you'll miss it, isn't this so exciting." This is what I first saw.


Then before I was even half way to the waters edge, I saw this.

And finally up close and personal, this is what I encountered.

He was so very dead, but I really didn't care, it was the second highlight of my trip. I even petted him while Nate told me not to. I hardly ever disobey my husband anymore, but he didn't really mean it, he was just repulsed at the idea that I wanted to touch it. Some other curious bystanders came along and were watching me take photos of it and touch it, but they were too scared to do it with us watching, so they waited until we moved down the beach and then I saw them touch it too. We don't know how he expired, because there were no visible wounds, but blood would come out of his nose after the waves rolled him a bit.