Well, today is a rest day.  Likely the most restful day I’ll have this trip.  Got up around 8 AM. Read the paper (San Francisco Chronicle on my Kindle), showered, had breakfast and some coffee.  Listened to Jocelyn’s sermon from Yesterday at St. George’s.  It’s odd hearing the sermon at your church while you’re away.  Liked it (likely more than the one I heard).  She preached on Jesus calming the storm (using a story about taking some San Diego teens to help clean up after Katrina two years after the storm.  (If you want to hear it, her sermon of 7/21 is here.)

After that, we headed over to the Marine Mammal Stranding Ceter (where they help injured or sick seals, turtles, dolphin and whales that get stranded on land).  This is a non profit and volunteer operation on what seems to me to be a small scale.  They are always looking for donations.  They have an adopt a seal program.  And those animals too large for them to help, they can refer out to others.

Then we had lunch.

This afternoon we went to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge and drove their wildlife drive.  The mosquitoes were fierce.  But the birds were amazing.  I (a lapsed birder with my naked eyes from within the car – the mosquitos loved me when I got out) probably identified upwards of 20 species.  I saw egrets and herons and swans and geese and ducks and probably a rail.  I saw my first cardinal in church Sunday, and an eastern phoebe at the refuge office after the drive today.  The only thing remotely close in the Sacramento area (no ocean, but shorebirds and all) is the Yolo Bypass area.  Can you tell this was a real treat for me?

Then we came home and had icecream.  More than we planned.  Because it turns out the mini fridge in our room doesn’t have a freezer.  We still had to throw some down the sink.

Anyway, this was the rest day.  Tomorrow I uderstand we visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  The next day the collegium starts.  So it’s going to be busy from here on out.