Started the morning with a 6 mile run to Lantern Bay park. Skies were fully overcast. One thing I see on a fairly frequent basis running through the long parking lot of the Southern portion of Doheny State Beach are stacks of rocks. These are often quite impressive given the asymmetrical nature of the rocks and the height and number of stacks. Today I see a large grouping of stacks and someone had gotten pretty creative and added in some bridges giving it a sort of Middle Earth vibe.

I got to the Beach parking lot at about 10. Skies were still fully overcast and it honestly did not look like it would burn off any time soon - certainly not by the time I finish my swim.

The air was warm and the ocean surface had a bit of bump to it. Not as rough as yesterday but not as smooth as Thursday. It is Saturday by the way.

I get in the water and it feels just a touch warmer today. Every day this week since I started on Thursday it has gotten just a bit warmer.

I head South and I am struggling to find my breath among the fever dream like cascade of thoughts rushing through my mind. Just as I am thinking about the “fever dream” nature of my mind I run into this ocean foam saturated part of water that has a bunch of bits of seaweed floating at the top. I am tangled in this grass like debris. The water feels even warmer in this spot and it sort of heightens the intensity of the fever like disposition of the water. If you were to look at the ocean from the top of the bluff, you would see an outcropping of rocks to the Southern most end a couple hundred feet out. The foam from the water that breaks on these rocks forms a trail that meanders NorthEast and I am now at the opposite tip of this foam.

I soon skirt past all of this and I reach the Southernmost end of the swim and turn around to head North. On the way back up I swim East of this foam and so I miss it coming back.

Half way back up I spot a mass of kelp floating on the water and decide to swim out to it. It is a huge stalk of kelp and it looks as though it is dancing with every pulse of ocean current. Every second or so it retracts in one direction and then suddenly extends in the opposite. Looking down I can see several fish swimming around it.

I continue my way North and finally I know I am close to the Green Monster buoy. On choppy days like today it can be very difficult to spot this buoy especially because unlike the others which are orange, the Green Monster is…well…green…or almost blue and is nearly camouflaged by the color of the water. I keep swimming out to where I think it might be and suddenly I see it. I have actually swam well past it and need to back track toward shore to swim around it.

I can see large patches of blue sky now. Well…well…well…it looks like things actually are gonna burn off after all. Nice!

I finish the swim and need to contend with the rocks that remain in the 10 - 20 feet close to shore where the sand was washed away from the large surf earlier this week. I meet my Dad and his friend Denny and we walk to the Salt Creek lifeguard tower. There is a dead Sea Lion lying on the beach.

All in all a nice swim and a beautiful morning here at the Strand.