beach

Big kids.



Bigger kid.



Mother and son.


Beach treasure.


Views.


Low tide.




Dinner!

(No, not really.)

together again

beautiful

We spent most of Monday traveling, but we woke up to this payoff.

certifiable

Certified, actually. Certified for open water diving.

Two classroom and pool sessions on Monday and Wednesday night at Anderson's Swim and Scuba in Pacifica.


And two days of diving in Monterey.


(That's my dive buddy, Arthur.)

Monterey was beautiful, though it felt a bit odd when I was driving out of San Francisco on Friday night, hours after the momentous decision by the Supreme Court in the gay marriage cases.

weaving

Fort!

headstand

Success! (He's been working on this for some time.)

Father's Day

Soren gave me this adorable present for Father's Day.


Anders, who never thinks small, created this beautiful book for me, including drawings he solicited from Sigrid and Soren. Here's the cover.


The dedication is on the inside-front cover.


And then two pages each for pictures of and from Anders, Sigrid and Soren, respectively.







Closing with a family portrait.


And here's the back cover.

Farallons

Sigrid and I went on whale-watching tour with Mark and Cecily to the Farallons and beyond with the Oceanic Society. It was a foggy morning when we arrived at 7:30 am.


The boat was about half full, which meant we weren't all that crowded.






As we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge, the fog was holding steady.


We stopped near Point Diablo to check out the sunning harbor seals.


Here's the lighthouse at Point Diablo.


Shortly after that, we passed Point Bonita, and headed into the open ocean.




The water was choppy.


Twenty-seven miles later, we reached the Southeast Farallon Island.



Here's a Stellar sea lion - notable for its bear-like face and large flippers.


These photos don't really do justice to the Farallons, but it's the best I have.


After some time at the island, we headed further west, to the continental shelf, where the depth plunges from 300 ft to 3000 ft. This underwater cliff creates an upswelling of nutrient-rich water, leading to an explosion in the krill population, and thus attracting whales. But before we saw any whales, we saw something smaller:


That's a mola mola (sunfish), the largest bony fish in the ocean.


It was slurping up velella velella that were floating on the surface.




We also saw some tufted puffins and black-footed albatrosses. But none of the expected humpback whales.

Finally, we saw some spouts. Were those our humpback whales? No, they were blue whales!





We actually saw quite a few blue whales. Which made us happy.



Eventually, it was time to head back, and so we hightailed it to San Francisco.


As we approached the bridge, we saw some humpback whales, feeding on bait fish.






Here's another:




We also got a view of the city that you don't ordinarily get.


One last humpback appeared on the other side of the boat, creating an opportunity for a bridge-plus-whale-tail photo, but I missed it.