Longest day ever

I'm usually just saying that, but I cannot remember a day when I had as much driving and work to do as I did today. It started at 8 a.m., when Dori and I left for the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles. Keep in mind I have never driven to downtown Los Angeles. But we found the consulate, picked up my visa for this summer's two-week trip to China, and made it back to Carlsbad by 12:15 p.m. I was proud of that, but whether it implies something about my driving I will let you decide.

Once we had In-N-Out burgers and fries in us, we were ready for round two, which was the drive down to La Jolla for my newspaper assignment at Seal Beach. That is the informal name for a small cove that used to be a children's beach but has been taken over by seals. If you live around here and haven't seen it, well, whether you should make the trip or not depends on how much you like barking marine mammals (read: water dogs).

It turns out the sand was too hot for the seals (read: sissy water dogs), so there were none on the beach, but I still took plenty of pictures.

Someone else was taking a photo of this seagull, so I felt I should, too. Maybe there's something special about it. Maybe I'm just susceptible to even the mild peer pressure of a weekend warrior with a disposable camera bothering the wildlife.

The sea wall at Seal Beach is neat, and the view of La Jolla Coves makes one feel he is somewhere exotic. Today the sky was spotless and the weather was just right, cool and breezy.

At one point, I lost track of Dori. Then I turned around, and there she was, just standing and looking wistful. Or maybe she was waiting for me. Oops.

If you require evidence of our wide-ranging adventures today, I will show you my sunburned arm. It is proof of the three hundred miles I drove with my left elbow poked out the window. Toward the end of the day, Dori mused, "You know, all the time we've spent in the car today is only a third as long as our flight to China will be." Now that's something to look forward to.