Today has been gorgeous in Del Mar. The surf produced small breakers made for boogie boarding. The ocean is crystal clear and calm, perfect for spotting baby leopard sharks darting in and out of the shallows. The warm waters of summer time are thought to improve the incubation of embryos and speed up gestation. Luckily these sharks are docile and dine on crabs and shrimp, not arms and legs!

The evenings have been cool and overcast. This will definitely be missed once we return to south Texas. 

By Kai:

The bike ride today was the best in a long time. We started the ride on Dust Devil Trail, rode down a long road through the weeds, and onto a long windy uphill road. At first it seemed like yet another painful ride in the sun. After we stopped at a circular median in an extremely nice neighborhood, my mood took a turn for the better.

Cruising down a windy downhill singletrack, it made me feel a lot better about my confidence levels. Dodging the cacti and dry weeds felt like a video game, particularly a mix of Quake and Need for Speed.

We rode, rode, and rode some more; although it was not painful, mostly uphill. We trudged through sand, gravel, and many more biotic and abiotic factors as we made our way upwards until we finally reached our rest spot.

We debated stopping or taking a quick loop. We decided on the latter.

The loop was 80% downhill, which was a relief. However on the way back it was mostly uphill. I trudged my way up a gravelly hillside, knowing that snacks were ahead.

We stopped for a much needed snack break and shared cookies, snap peas, C*ke, P*werade, water, and a Cl*f Bar.

The way back was a lot quicker than I thought it would be. When I saw the gigantic hill I realized I wasn’t out of the woods yet. A mix of Post Malone (musical artist) and sugar helped me through the climb.

At the top we stopped for a pic, then made our way back to the car.