Best of 2003: Best Free Animal Show

Harbor Seals
The Children's Pool, La Jolla
www.lajollaseals.org

They don't balance balls on their noses. They never stand up on their flippers and wave their tails at the crowd. What they do is wriggle their corpulent bodies up onto the sand, where they sprawl and scratch and nap and sometimes nip at their neighbors. They're never, ever supposed to get petted by humans. For one thing, the seals bite, and for another, federal law protects them from molestation. (Violators can be fined up to $10,000.)