Whale of a time

Had a cool experience today. A friend of Leslie's invited us to participate in a whale watching trip out of Oceanside this afternoon.

Forty five people went out, but not only was it a good time on the water but also a high energy music and meditation session.

I believe that the ringleader was a friend of Leslie's named Tania, who does periodic tibetan bowl grooves at the Hilltop Center.

Vern and Renée accompanied us.

Everybody there seemed very warm and conscious.

The music was powerful, the giant gongs and drums announcing our approach to the cetaceans and ocean dwellers like a cacophonous Roman Galleon.

The whale watching tour company was Oceanside Adventures. Very nice and professional crew.

We ran into a lot of dolphins but unfortunately no whales today. Didn't affect my happiness in the least.

A couple people who work on the dock said that military maneuvers were scaring the whales away.

It was pretty socked in and overcast. Nice to be out on the water but not ideal for photography.

I really didn't have it today and didn't care, frankly. Fumbling around and nothing really presented.

Brought the nikkor 70-200mm 2.8 vr with a teleconverter but it was either too close or too far and I never did dial it all in.

I feel bad that I don't use that lens enough. It was expensive and is great, particularly for portraits. But it is big and solid and metal and bulky and not really comfortable on your body the way the 24 -70mm is. Still, good to get it out once in a while.

Pissed that I missed the Luiseño Powwow this year. It was a perfect lens for that. Last week, never got the word.

Not having much luck with photography, I played a few tibetan and crystal bowls and had myself a good time. Might even get my old tibetan bowls out of the cupboard and play one of these days. Would like to go back out on the boat too. He said they had a special $29.00 sunset cruise sometime during the week. Like to rent the whole boat for my sixtieth birthday, with a bunch of pals. Grey whales might be happening in early November, who knows?

It seems very quintessentially California, a nice om session for the whales, humans and dolphins.

Told Vern I really couldn't see it happening back in Tuscaloosa or somewhere like that. You know, the people that think that we Californians are so weird.

The dorje bell and bowl group thing was just really nice. Drummer was amazing and powerful. The sound was clean and illuminating.

Someone had a dij. We did a lot of this sort of thing in the seventies and eighties. New thing for the boat company and I think that they liked it.

My idea would be to put a speaker underwater and see how the ocean animals dig the frequency we were producing.

I hope that Tania does this again. I will let you know. This one filled up fast.

I am a quite cynical man and I found it fun and refreshing.Very far out.

Afterwards we had a very nice meal at a new place for me, 608. I look forward to writing about it soon. Highly recommended.