Flipper

I went to the beach yesterday with Mr. Michael Van Vliet and a few of the members from the USC Ward - The Johnsons, Danforths, Andrew Whitesides, and a couple others. Whitesides brought a skim board he bought for his birthday, so we spent some time trying to figure out how to drop and jump and slide into the waves, but we were largely unsuccessful. Van Vliet was pretty good, having spent time on the beaches in Connecticut skim boarding. It's a little different in SoCal though, because there's a very small window of time for the drop, and it was especially difficult in Santa Monica, because the beach was pretty slanted. Anyway, after a few semi-successful attempts at the skim board, I decided to go out with Kyle and Evan to boogie board. The water was like ice, but the waves were decent, so I was happy to stay out there for a good half hour. Despite catching a few good and big ones, the highlight of the day was the school of dolphins that swam about 10 feet from us - back and forth. They seemed to be enjoying the sun and ocean as much as we were. It was pretty amazing to see them so close (and a little frightening as well), jumping out of the water, diving into the waves, bobbing and weaving like Chris Paul on the hardwood...

It was quite the sight! The beach, the ocean, the sun, waves, the dolphins...

For the beauty of the Earth!