Kayaking with Dolphins

Went out early this morning on the Atlantic from Lewes, DE... kayaking out to where the dolphins feed in the morning. It was amazing. It was overcast so it was much cooler outside than the past few days. When we arrived at the point - there was a pod of dolphins swimming (maybe two). What was very special and not all that common is that they swam along with us as we paddled. Most of the time they were 10-15 yards away, several times they were 10 feet away. Once or twice I thought (although I'm not sure) that I heard them "talking." You could definitely hear them breathing from their air holes. One of them had a large chunk missing from its dorsal fin. We were out a little less than two hours and for the 2nd hour around 7-12 dolphins swam with us as we paddled south. At the end a big rain cloud came over and it poured - so we went in to the beach. Neat to use the waves surfing them onto the beach in Cape Henlopen State Park. All in all - a really fun morning. Not quite as good as scuba diving with dolphins (many years ago in Freeport, Bahamas) but wonderful exercise and great close up dolphin watching.

Eisenhower

I've almost finished yesterday and today (while on vacation) Eisenhower: Soldier & Statesman by Stephen Ambrose. I've always been fascinated by WWII, but always thought little of Ike. He was the President when I was born, but was never impressed with him as leader of the European campaign in the war or in what I had read of him as President. The book treated him positively but balanced. It pointed out his weaknesses and biases often based in his background.
But I was impressed with his warmth, his calm and his decisiveness in most crucial situations. His intelligence to analyze complex situations and see the essence of the issue - is a skill I wish I more often possessed. His ability to build teams, often of those who style and approach was very different from his, was a precious gift. In reading about his presidency I was most impressed with his constant striving to have a military that met our needs for self defense but not more. The ability to deter an enemy or strike an opponent does not require every piece of expensive military hardware. His immense prestige in leading the victory against Nazi Germany in the West enabled him to balance the demands with the needs and to save billions that helped the prosperity of the 50s and the relative peace of the latter part of that decade. Never having read about him before - an impressive legacy of military and political leadership.