Seal Rocks

   I have always loved the beach, especially when it is not hot or crowded. As an adult living in New York City, getting to the beach wasn't very easy, and so I rarely went. When I would go, it was generally with a group of people, and even if one of them had a car to take us there (instead of schlepping on the train), it was still a trek, and because this group would generally go doing 'beach season', the traffic was usually horrendous.

   Where I now live, I'm just a little more than two miles from the beach, yet I haven't been going there of late as much as I have in the past, yet when I am there I usually ask myself why that is so. The cool, sometimes cold air invigorates me, and the open expanse imparts to me a feeling of temporary freedom from the limits that I set on myself and the world I live in.

   In the picture below are a group of rock outcroppings called Seal Rocks, located at the western edge of Ocean Beach here in San Francisco. Although there are never any seals here that I'm aware of, I'm told that this used to be a favorite spot for Steller's Sea Lions and California Sea Lions. I now often see Cormorants here in large numbers, and this is also the place where I tossed my half of my father's ashes after he died (my sister is in possession of the other half of his body).

   In his will, my father asked to be placed by the sea after life, and I couldn't think of a better place to fulfill his wishes. I also can't imagine a more scenic grave site to visit.

Formerly for seals, now for my father