My son was excited about the elephant seals too. He followed one as it wriggled up the beach, as I nervously reminded him not to get within 25 feet. The seal appeared to me to be about my son's age, an early adolescent. He squirmed his way along the sand towards a larger one sleeping in the corner of the beach. When he got about 15 feet away from the bigger one that one raised his head, turned, and gave a howl, clearly stating " no way are you encroaching on my territory". The little one retreated a bit, the big one gave another signal to back off. The little one headed into the waves as though it had just occurred to him that a swim might be nice. Jasper and I watched this drama together. In his brown hoodie, picked out for the first time for looks and not because of a sports team, he seemed at just the same stage as this young seal.
