I got to experience one of the coolest things tonight. That is, surfing a red tide. As for the recidivism bit, I'll get to that in a moment... Doug and I went out late this afternoon and surfed until the sun went down. As it was getting darker and darker, I kept splashing the water in hopes of seeing some of the cool blue bioluminescence we checked out last night. I saw nothing. Then, while paddling back out after a wave, I noticed the water turning blue right around my hands as they broke the surface. "Whoa -- this is awesome," I yelled as I kicked my feet around in the water. It was that magic moment when it was dark enough for the dinoflagellates to start doing their thing. I was able to catch a nice wave and ride it in as the water lit up blue all around me. Spectacular.

This went on until we came to the realization that it was probably pretty late. It was, in fact, too late. We were walking back to our cars in the parking lot as the ranger was issuing tickets for the 5 or so cars parked there after "sunset." This is, of course, their new policy that went into effect at the beginning of this year. Our cars already had matching $89 tickets under the wipers. This is my second one in just a few months. Arggh. How annoying. Especially after I spent an unexpected $800 to replace the server that hosts this site. We spoke with the ranger, who was actually quite friendly, and he gave us some pointers on how to contest the tickets. He said he disagreed with the enforcement and the hefty fine attached to the citations. The reason given for doing so was to prevent vandalism. Hmm. Okay then. I guess I think they should be ticketing the vandals, not the potential victims. Maybe that would be too logical? Oh, well. Doug and I plan to heed his advice and we'll see how it goes.

After getting home, I found out that a 7.0 magnitude quake struck off the coast of Norcal while we were surfing (7:50pm). They even briefly issued a tsunami warning for our area. Boy, I'm glad they alerted us surfers out in the water.

Also, if you're looking for something to watch: Last Wednesday's Daily Show featured Colin Powell as a guest. Great interview.