Looong relaxing week of vacation at the beach in Capitola

Brief highlights:
Working through the Highlights Top Secret Adventures with my daughter. They sort of remind of the impression I got of the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? series from the late 80s, lots of geography, ciphers, logic puzzles, mazes and the like.
Getting to name a rescued juvenile sea lion which my wife and I helped carry from the beach to the rescue workers truck. We ended up picking Thalia.
Seeing lots of Pelican's dive bombing.
Pier fishing.
Running on the beach, though I only did it one day. I did see a small pod of dolphins as they came up for air off the coast.
Renting a motor boat and cruising around the Monterey Bay. Granting it was only in a limited area (a 3 miles square) but we did see one dolphin several sea lions, many sea otters and a sea lion and a pelican going for the same food.

Books I read/finished:
Finally read the last Harry Potter book and liked how she ended the series. Don't like what she did to the Weasley twins though.
Brian Lumley's Necroscope. I had read this ages ago back in the early days right after my High School and I remembered liking it. I think I liked the concept more than the execution however, it needed more espionage in it's ESPionage. Still I plan on getting my hands on the next book Wampyri, maybe the espionage is there.
Also checked out Bian Lumley's Titus Crow which was fun. The first novella was written as a case file and the second as diary entries. For short stories I think these formats work but not for anything lengthy. Still Lumley has a good grasp of Lovecraftian horror and I plan on checking out further books.
The second book in the Scott Pilgrim series. I'm still on the fence about this. Scott as a character I don't think I like but the other characters are interesting. I'll likely read the whole series, I'm just not sure if I'll ever like the main character.
Michale Scotts' Necromancy, book four of the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel and WOW. How he keeps so many characters interesting at the same time I will never knows. Chapters were a little short but I think this was his trick as it made scene changes quick yet somehow not disjointed. Only problem I have is now I have to wait another year for the next book! Fun story, on the facebook fan page last year the question was posted "what immortal would you like to see?" I replied with Virgina Dare and Amelia Earhart and guess who's in the book? Virginia Dare! And she's awesome!
Anyway, also read A Gladiator Only Dies Once by Steven Saylor which is a collection of short story about his Gordianus the Finder. Mystery books set in ancient Rome with accurate and well researched portrayals of historical figures? Lots of fun. I'm likely to pick up this series once my reading stack gets smaller.
Lastly I've started a new series, The Children of the Lamp by P.B. Kerr. It's similar to Percy Jackson but instead of Gods as ancestors/parents, its Djinn. Really looking forward to delving into Arabic legends and myths this time.

I think I need a dolphin or sea lion icon now.