Thar she blows!

I had a somewhat more pleasant marine encounter this weekend. I went back to Malibu for a "swim clinic" Sunday and while we were pretty far out we saw a fin. Somebody vocalized what we were all thinking: "That's a dolphin, right? It was. Then we saw another. And another. And another. And they were close. I'm guessing 30 feet, but they probably came even closer than that; the swim instructor said she could see them underwater with her goggles, and you know how murky the ocean is.

The best word I can use to describe them is... Big. We've all seen dolphins being tortured for our amusement in theme parks, but there is always some sort of barrier. It might be something physical like a railing or sheet of plexiglass, or intellectual like the knowledge that these are trained animals in a controlled (i.e. safe) environment. And I think we mentally shrink them down a bit. But seeing them up close, in the wild, they looked absolutely enormous.

They were in no hurry to get by us, they just leisurely strolled on by. Amazing.