Can She Also Attract Sea Lions?

We decided to take a hike today at the Tennessee Valley Beach.   Someone had told us about this walk, but we also found it in a cool little book we bought called "Hooked on Hiking in Northern California."  It has 50 hikes, each on a separate cardboard card, held together by a carabiner.   I mention this because it's such a good idea for a book to take along with you.
We got there, it is near Mill Valley on the way to Stinson Beach, but alas, we couldn't take Gus.   Since we had him with us, we decided to leave rather than leave him in the car.    So, we headed for another hike on Rodeo Beach in the Marin Headlands.

 

Pat is attempting to mimic the sounds of the Sea Lions. You may remember that last year she mastered the gobble of the turkeys. We do have some sound recorded of the Sea Lions, but I am having trouble transferring movies to the blog right now. Check out the slide show and you will see some videos of the Marine Mammal Rescue Center, that have sounds of the Sea Lions. Dan

 Before we found the beach, we looked for, and found, The Marine Mammal Rescue Center.
It was right near the beach, in a beautiful location.    This is a world known place where they rehabilitate and rescue marine mammals, mostly elephant seals and sea lions.  Very interesting.   We saw about 7 of them.  Several of the elephant seals were babies who had been abandoned by their mothers, were needing to be tube fed.   Eventually, they'd probably go to zoos because they were so acclimated to humans.   Another one had been shot in the face with a shotgun by a fisherman !!!  (the guy was arrested, but so far, has managed to avoid prosecution)   The Sea Lion will not be put back in the wild because he is blind in one eye. The man is awaiting trial in Sacramento, but is still out on the loose. He was upset because the Sea Lions were eating "his fish".

Most of the animals are released back in the wild, and their success rate is quite high.  By the way, these mammals are very noisy and were yakking away.
After our tour of the center, we walked on the beach.  Gus was very happy because there were many other dogs there, who ran over to say hi to the new guy!
This beach is magnificent, wild and majestic like most northern California beaches.   The tide was coming in, FAST, as we walked on it.    The sand is not white, it's dirty and grey and gritty, but the waves are huge.   We also have a video of the waves coming in, also on the slide show.
On the road out, we stopped to watch a Coyote hunting field mice. It was cool to watch him. He was not phased at all by our presence, in the van.