SAIL BY THE WIND

For a moment, sanity abandoned my sister and she decided to spend her precious spring break in Berkeley, with me. I, of course, was delighted to have her, but warned her about the relative depravity of my current lifestyle, removing mushrooms from shower stalls and mopping up after my peeing fridge, et cetera. Despite a few setbacks involving a Wednesday museum closure, Bay Area parking, and the apparent fondness for the state of Ohio expressed by Ak’s luggage, things went rather well. We ate deep-dish pizza and crepes, brunched with Buddhists, and saw a mother gray whale escort her frolicking calf up the shore of Point Reyes. She even made it back home without dying. Victory!

The beach at Point Reyes was scattered with little creatures like the one above, which is a by-the-wind sailor, a sail jelly, or Valella valella, as it suits you. Each “individual” is actually a colony of little jellies, a colony that floats and has a sail to propel itself across the surface of the ocean. Sometimes they wash up on the beach in large numbers. I’d read about them, but this was my first sighting. That intense blue is not an exaggeration, and I’ve read that the rings are actually annual growth rings. Try this site for some better pics and links with more info.