my favorite morning

Since the girls discovered the 6 a.m. low-tide situation at our beach, it was urgent to set up an early morning swim event. I'm not a morning person, Holly is definitely not a morning person, and Armella? I'm not sure, but no one jumped on that request with joyous enthusiasm. However, I set my alarm for 6 a.m. and started waking the girls up one by one. Only 6 of the 9 who assured me they definitely wanted to get up, actually wanted to get up. We headed down to the water and had the entire beach to ourselves. There was not a soul as far as the eye could see in either direction. It was a bit foggy, surprisingly warm, and a whole lot of fun.
That misty, mystical, overcast, early morning light lasted for about an hour. It felt magical out there. The sand was softer and smoother than at the swimming beach. The waves were soft and perfect for the girls. The air temperature was divine.
Not everyone thought the water temperature was perfect though:The girls played out there for well over two hours. We saw some pelicans:
We saw dolphins and sea lions almost everyday. The dolphins are much quicker in and out of the water and harder to catch on camera The sea lions would swim quite close to the beach but not in groups, we'd just see a head pop up, then we'd see it pop up again about a hundred yards further down the beach. They'd swim one direction every morning, then we'd see them heading the other direction in the evenings. It's like they were going off to work each day. One in particular stayed in the area for about 5 minutes. I don't know who was more curious, the sea lion or the girls.Although they really were close to shore, these pictures are a bit deceptive and look even closer, because of the camera zoom, I suppose. The girls were one one side of the breaking waves, and the animals stayed safely on the other side of the waves. They were close enough to see, but far enough away for both groups to feel safely separated.
Later in the morning, the sun began to come out, and more girls finally began to get up and join us, but the tide was coming in by then and we were loosing our sandy beach. The early morning swim didn't end until they realized it was definitely time to get some breakfast in their tummies. It really was a fun magical morning.