Back in 2001 when I was between jobs, Stella and I made the most of it by frolicking on the beach at Crissy Field in San Francisco nearly every day after we took Jen to work. It was awesome and the best three months of unemployment ever. We lived in a beautiful city and I got to stroll with my dog along the beach, enjoying the sun, the waves, the ocean breeze, views of the Golden Gate Bridge, and even the occasional sea otter — once Stella tried to swim out to one, but quickly returned to shore when she realized she was a good swimmer, but still no match for a sea otter. She decided to stick to tennis balls propelled repeatedly down the beach by her Chuck-It.
Once we even saw a whale out by the Golden Gate. It was incredible and majestic. It was the first time I’d seen a whale in real life. It was an experience I’ll never forget.
And now, six years later, making national news is a pair of whales cruising around my hometown in Sacramento.
Humpback whales spend day in Sacramento River:
A pair of humpbacks – identified as a mother and a calf – spent Monday between Rio Vista and a stretch of Cache Slough in the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta.
Late Monday, a crew from Alaska Whale Foundation tracking the whales said the mother was entangled in some kind of rope or fishing gear.
“It’s some kind of wrap over her head. It looks like a crab pot line,” Kathi Koontz, a volunteer research associate, said by cell phone from the foundation’s boat Monday evening. “We’re trying to monitor her and see how much of the wrap is there and where it’s located.”
Whales are really amazing creatures.
