Death of a Sealsman

This weekend a bunch of friends and I went to Ano Nuevo reserve to look at the elephant seal weaners. (When baby seals are born they are pups, then when mom cuts off their milk supply the pups are known as weaners. I suppose after they go out to sea for the first time they become young adults, but I'm just guessing about the last bit.) If you've ever been to Pier 39 to look at the harbor seals, then you've seen weaner sized elephant seals. I suppose if one is going to grow up to be between 3 and 5 tons, one doesn't want to start out too small.



During the walk we had to stay at least 25 feet from any given seal. This rule wasn't to save the seals from us, nor was it to protect us from attacking seals. Apparently, according to our initial park ranger, elephant seals can move surprisingly fast for about 15 feet. Nobody likes to be in the way of 3 tons of motivated animal. (According to our tour guide, elephant seals get squished by other elephant seals too. When we passed a particularly stinky ex-seal, we asked how it had died. Our guide said that she had probably been crushed during "some particularly enthusiastic mating.")




Because of the 25 foot rule, taking pictures of the seals would have been difficult without my realization that I can take pictures through my binoculars. It works surprisingly well, and I'm told that I should try to market the idea to Cannon or to binocular companies. I was continually impressed with the image quality, though i was awfully hard to zoom the camera, focus the binoculars, and press the shutter button with only two hands. The strain of concentration shows on my face.




Unfortunately the fact that I didn't wear any sunscreen also shows on my face. It was overcast and ever so slightly chilly all day. I guess the UV rays were going incognito. I have some rosacea on my cheeks, and I've been trying to put this cream on it to make it go away. The instructions say to put it on the affected areas, but at this point it's a little hard to tell where those areas are. It looks like someone has put a giant flashlight behind my head, or perhaps like I'm lit from the interior.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll peel. What better way to woo the ladies than by looking like a tomato who fell in a bowl of parmesan cheese.