Since the last few days have been a little…uh…busy, I didn’t get around to flipping to this month’s page in my Charley Harper calendar until this weekend. When I did, I just had to laugh. Mr. Harper must have known I’d have these particular critters on the brain this month. How apropos.

I had another bit of Harper synchronicity when I stumbled across this long-coveted book at the U-Dub Bookstore in Seattle on Saturday (and of course had to bring it home with me).

Since the weather was too lovely that day to pass up, I decided to take my patented, impossibly labyrinthine Back Way to get there. It adds an extra half hour onto the drive, but there’s no traffic, and the view is spectacular.

Case in point.

I stopped and got out at an overlook at Browns Point to snap this photo and grok the view—until a weird sound distracted me from the scenery. It sounded like something rusty and mechanical was working back and forth, like an old-fashioned water pump. Hoik! Hoik! Hoik!

It was hard to tell, what with the echoes ricocheting everywhere, but it sounded like it was coming from a scrap barge directly below. (If you’re wondering, those are hundreds and hundreds of crushed cars on that barge.) Hoik! (hoik) Hoik! (hoik) Hoik! (hoik)

And then I caught sight of them: sea lions. Barking their little heads off. Hoik! Hoik! Hoik! And it was loud! Even though I was 200 feet above them, the echoes amplified their voices into an impressive din.

I don’t know about you, but that made my day. Just thought I’d share.

If you don’t know what a bunch of jabbering sea lions sounds like, or you want the other members of your household to wonder what’s making that unholy racket come out of your computer, you can browse YouTube’s fine selection of videos. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.