My parents and I usually go grey whale watching off San Diego harbor on New Year's Day, but this year my dad offered something even better: a day-long trip to the Coronado Islands, organized by the San Diego Natural History Museum. (Since the trip was today, it also freed up New Year's Day for the Del Mar
Penguin Plunge, where I joined a couple hundred other people in running in and quickly back out of the Pacific to usher in the new year.) The Coronado Islands are visible off San Diego but are in fact in Mexico. Two of the three main migration routes of the grey whales converge there, and there were so many whales we nearly stopped reacting. The first "there she blows" of our naturalist Margie was followed by "and there's another - three! four! five! six!" And on it went. One soon stopped counting, and marveled at the thought that
there was a pod of perhaps thirty greys (Margie's estimate) migrating on all sides around us. On a usual whale watching trip you thrill to see two or three whales (and of course never get any pictures of anything)... Wow. And then, as headed out beyond North Coronado Island, we were suddenly surrounded by a megapod of dolphins - scores of them, racing by in small packs in all directions at tremendous speed (faster than camera could catch). Exhilarating! The islands themselves are home to sea lions, elephant and harbor seals, and colonies of terns, cormorants and pelicans. And did I mention it was clear and calm - a mild Santa Ana? And to top it off, as we headed back to San Diego, a big pale purple moon rose from the east just as the sun set in the west. Dreamy.
It is interesting to consider that so many of our fellow animals migrate (if you haven't seen "
Le peuple migrateur" - flatfootedly translated as "Winged migration" - do!), as of course did most of our ancestors. Maybe questions like "what am I here for?" should take us not in thought to other worlds but in body to other parts of this one. Perhaps the metaphysical questions arise when we become stationary and the world comes to seem a spectacle we passively watch unfold before us, wondering how we fit back into it - if at all. Wow:
Watsuji dynamized...
My parents and I usually go grey whale watching off San Diego harbor on New Year's Day, but this year my dad offered something even better: a day-long trip to the Coronado Islands, organized by the San Diego Natural History Museum. (Since the trip was today, it also freed up New Year's Day for the Del Mar Penguin Plunge, where I joined a couple hundred other people in running in and quickly back out of the Pacific to usher in the new year.) The Coronado Islands are visible off San Diego but are in fact in Mexico. Two of the three main migration routes of the grey whales converge there, and there were so many whales we nearly stopped reacting. The first "there she blows" of our naturalist Margie was followed by "and there's another - three! four! five! six!" And on it went. One soon stopped counting, and marveled at the thought that 
there was a pod of perhaps thirty greys (Margie's estimate) migrating on all sides around us. On a usual whale watching trip you thrill to see two or three whales (and of course never get any pictures of anything)... Wow. And then, as headed out beyond North Coronado Island, we were suddenly surrounded by a megapod of dolphins - scores of them, racing by in small packs in all directions at tremendous speed (faster than camera could catch). Exhilarating! The islands themselves are home to sea lions, elephant and harbor seals, and colonies of terns, cormorants and pelicans. And did I mention it was clear and calm - a mild Santa Ana? And to top it off, as we headed back to San Diego, a big pale purple moon rose from the east just as the sun set in the west. Dreamy.
It is interesting to consider that so many of our fellow animals migrate (if you haven't seen "Le peuple migrateur" - flatfootedly translated as "Winged migration" - do!), as of course did most of our ancestors. Maybe questions like "what am I here for?" should take us not in thought to other worlds but in body to other parts of this one. Perhaps the metaphysical questions arise when we become stationary and the world comes to seem a spectacle we passively watch unfold before us, wondering how we fit back into it - if at all. Wow: Watsuji dynamized...