In the morning we found our way down a narrow dirt road to the beach below our apartment. It's the main beach we have are able to see from our balcony. In fact, in the second picture you can see our building perched high on the hill. When we got down to this beach we were greeted by a couple dozen brown pelicans that were having breakfast. Not living near the ocean much I have never been able to watch pelicans hunt for fish. Each bird would fly around or hover in the wind 10, 20, or 30 feet above the surface. When they saw a fish, they would tuck their wings against their body and dive bomb the water head first, creating a large splash on impact. Over and over again I watched different birds dive bomb, splash down, swallow a fish, and then fly off and do it again.
In the afternoon I rented a wave runner for 30 minutes the first time in my life. I wasn't too worried about learning on my own. At the beginning I took the kids with me; Jonathan sitting on the front and Julia sitting behind me. Jonathan had to hold onto the handlebars, which made him want to steer. Between that and the awkward weight distribution, the kids only lasted a few minutes. Even with life jackets they were a little afraid of the water since we live in the middle of the country. Only towards the end of the trip did they get more comfortable being in the ocean. It was just as well that I had to take them back to shore. After dropping them off I buzzed around the bay for 30 minutes on my own. The fun ended when I ran out of gas. The rental guy basically kept telling me to ignore the warning lights and noises and "run 'er dry".
