They inhabit the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic including the Falklands where Yours Truly is carrying out an inspection parade on the far northwest beach of Carcass Island.
And in 2010, the new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport opened just north of the city, making the trip south even easier.
Meanwhile, forecasters are warning beachgoers in Los Angeles County of above-normal surf through Tuesday morning on west and northwest facing beaches mostly in the southern part of L.A. County.
Think of it as a Walrusgram written on the sand of a northwest Alaskan beach and sent to the planet.
But I was eager to explore the surrounding countryside, in particular the inland region to the northwest and the beaches and islands up the coast — areas, I had been told, whose futures were already being plotted by Chinese, Russian and Cambodian conglomerates eager to make their mark.
DETAILS Mission Beach, a popular oceanfront playground, is at the center of the Strand, a roughly two-mile-long beach northwest of downtown San Diego.
Nitpickers might argue that the prettiest shots in the spot (the hammock, for instance) are taken from the Moorings, a private luxury hotel in the Keys — nowhere near the 221 miles of beach in northwest Florida.
The northwest corner of the beach club's hacienda style building features a 12-seat bar strung with drying wild herbs that double as Biancaniello's mise en place.
Unlike most California beaches, Manchester faces northwest and gets pummelled by long, rolling breakers: the surf positively roars.
The island's northeast tip is taken over by the Lopar Peninsula, which offers sandy beaches, while the northwest peninsula, which emerges from Supetarska Draga, is fringed with coves and lagoons that continue on to the Kalifront cape and the Suha Punta resort.
I could hear waves grinding against the rock-strewn beach to the northwest.
