Last weekend, my mom and Steve were here -- it was great fun. They flew out on a Thursday and I was able to meet them Friday afternoon, show them the place, and then wander about the city with them. (I heartily invite any of you who can swing it to come out for a long weekend -- both Mom and Steve report that it was shockingly easy to manage. You just need to cough up the cash for the plane tickets, and otherwise you're welcome to stay with me.)

As is often the case, in showing them the city I learned a lot about it myself. For example, I took them to see the Sea Lions down at Pier 39. For those of you who have been here around 1989 or earlier, you honestly have no concept of how they've taken over one part of the bay. Apparently the earthquake of '89 changed something -- the theory is that it most likely changed the underwater lay of the land such that it changed the migratory paths of herring schools -- and brought a massive bloat* of Sea Lions to the pier. (*"Bloat" is the term for a group of hippos. I don't know the term for a group of Sea Lions, so bloat seemed fitting. ~_-) When I brought my mom and Steve to the pier, there happened to be a woman there who worked at the Sea Lion hospital in Sausalito and was here checking on the local population and answering questions. Thus I learned many things about Sea Lions -- for example, the herring/migratory/earthquake theory mentioned above. Nearly the entire population of s.l.s gathered at the Wharf was male, as well, since right now is birthing season and all birthing age females would be in warmer waters doing so. You can tell gender when a sea lion is lying on its back (which they do quite a lot -- coming back as an s.l. would be just as ideal as coming back as a cat -- lots of lolling, sunbathing, snuggling, and general loafing going on -- that is if you don't mind the sharks...) but you can also tell because males develop large sagittal crests (imagine an oversized lobe on their foreheads) after 4 or 5 years and grow larger in size. Females also tend to be slightly blonder in color, though when they're wet the colors are pretty indistinguishable. There were lots of BIG boys out there, but also a bunch of yearlings, who all look way too small to be weaned (but that's probably just by comparison to their 1,000 lb counterparts -- literally) and provide an added element of cute out there.

Anyway, at some point these sea lions discovered the bay, and as you may recall from news in years past, proved quite a menace to fishermen, but also to boat owners -- the flimsy docks they put up that mere humans can strut around on proved no match for whole bloats of one ton big daddies, and within no time the sudden confluence of sea lions literally sank the docks! There was a lot of debate over what to do with them -- to get rid of them or not and how -- but in the end a compromise was reached by creating huge sea-lion-sturdy floats towards the opening of the bay, which they took to immediately. Occasionally, an errant sea lion will still rest his girth on a boat dock (the woman told us that this is rare, sea lions are group-oriented, and only one that is very ill or has recently been in a doozy of a fight will stray off alone to recuperate) and the boaters are provided with large human shields which they literally hide behind to shuttle the sea lions off the dock. This is both to provide them protection from sharp canines and to keep the sea lions from getting acclimated to humans -- keeping a bit of fear and natural distrust there maintains an important boundary between shared space and unmanageable nuisance.

For the most part, the sea lions lie there and soak up the sun; they literally climb over each other like steam rollers searching for the right lions to squeeze between for a nap; despite the snooziness, a moment of silence is rare, especially when a boat wake comes through and rocks the docks, and also because the odd male will get territorial and chase interlopers off "his" dock, until the sun proves strong enough to lull him. When the sun is too strong, a sea lion will appear to be lazily waving at you, but really they are "thermo-regulating," that is, by sticking a flipper up they create more surface area for the wind to catch, and this cools them down.

If it sounds idyllic -- and it is -- in the bay sea lions have hardly any natural predators -- except for the horrific creature known as a cookie-cutter shark. These are so named because they swim up to prey, grab a piece of flesh and spin (!), leaving a perfect circle shaped scar.

Anyway, that's my report on Sea Lions -- I have more to tell you about my backyard garden, but I have things to do in the meantime. ~_-