Bonnie Raitt and Graveyard Jazz now--no camera this afternoon, serious running day. We even wore our genuine running watches. We don't have any GPS thingies, but it's easy to tell when we are about to leave the island. That was when things went bad. We were on the bluff trail in dense fog. The "chuffing" started.

---insert weird noise---
Did you hear that?
You mean that "chuffing" sound.
Yes. What was it?
I do not know.
...chufff...... chhufffff...
There it is again.
What is that?
I still don't know.
---insert a few minutes of running---

The trail drops down below the fog, almost level with the strait and...

"Wow! Great big swimmy things that go 'chuff' when they exhale after being down for a while."

The more practical explanation:

Stellar sea lions--about a dozen of them, diving, swimming, rolling around in the water, pretending to be scary things with dorsal fins by swimming on their sides. Stellar sea lions can be 12 feet (4 meters) long, beautiful light brown colors; wet coats glinting in the afternoon sun.

And the run went to heck. We sat down on the edge of the trail and watched these graceful sea creatures. Being human we counted them. Being animals they would not hold still so we could be sure if there were 12, 13, or 14 or maybe only 9 of them.

We sat still so they could count us. We sat there for quite a while until we were sure they had counted us. We wondered how they knew we did not have a camera.

You paint a good picture, John. I loved seeing seals, sea lions and especially dolphins

when I was in the Coast Guard. They always seemed like they were just enjoying

themselves, such playful creatures. I could swear I've seen them smiling back at us.

We sat still so they could count us. We sat there for quite a while until we were sure they had counted us.

I love that, John.  Thanks for posting this.