After leaving the mega pod of dolphins, we drove back up the coast. We came to the navigational beacon warning of San Juan Rock. We found it covered in Sea Lions with four more floating in the water. The temperature at the surface of the water was 58.4 degrees F. The water was significantly colder. The sea lions were up on the beacon warming their blood for their night hunting.
The ones in the water were sticking their flippers out of the water to warm themselves. It was fun to watch them interacting in their natural habitat instead of the trained ones at Sea World.
It was also interesting to hear the captain talk about the differences between sea lions and seals. All the "seals" in the movies are probably actually sea lions. Seals don't actually bark, sea lions do, seals just grunt. Also, seals can't get around on land since they don't have hip joints. They are also solitary creatures. Sea lions, on the other hand, have hip joints and can get around quite well out of the water and in. The captain said a baby sea lion can even climb a chain link fence. Fascinating!
The sea lions waving goodbye
After watching the sea lions for a while, we cruised around for a while looking for the first gray whale of the season. We never found one, but we did see lots of sea lions out swimming and birds eating on the massive amounts of fin fish (sardines and anchovies) and small squids.
As we docked, we got a great view of an old pelican checking us out.
There was a boat lights parade being held that night, so the boats were all decorated. This fishing Santa was on the boat next to ours.
While we were driving back to the freeway, we drove through San Juan Capistrano. As we got on the freeway, this truck was in front of us. What creative marketing! I thought my brother-in-law Jason could use this if he ever started up his landscaping business again! (Yes, the truck was covered in artificial turf!)
This was such a fun trip, despite the wind, cold and fog. We definitely want to go back again, preferably in the summer when they are seeing blue whales every trip! Zane got mad at us when he saw the pictures that we went without him and Nate. Maybe we will take them out sometime.
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