Summer doesn’t get any better than this

I played hooky this afternoon and took my son and two of his friends to the beach.

The waves off Torrey Pines State Beach were pretty weak, so the boys abandoned their boogie boards for an old, flat football.

How long can two 13-year-olds and a 12-year-old entertain themselves playing monkey in the middle in luminous, light green water up to their thighs? Forever or at least until they get hungry.

One of the the boys is visiting from Virginia, where he and his family moved last summer. Noah and Thomas met in Mrs. Romero’s third grade class here in San Diego. Between their love for baseball, football, monkeys and math, they were destined to be buds.

They were math whizzes, so Mrs. Romero let them work together. Their fierce competitiveness kicked in as they attempted to be the first to master their multiplication tables. I volunteered every Friday to help test students on their math facts; as I recall, they completed their 12s on the same day.

Math was not on their minds today. Noah, Thomas and Connor were in full summer mode. As they were lost in their game, laughing and throwing each other down into the waves, I noticed some of the other moms on the crowded beach pointing at something farther out in the ocean.

When I heard the words “Is that a shark?” I tuned in big time. It was a trio of dolphins, gliding ever so gracefully on their way north.

Not wanting their kids to miss the playful mammals, some moms ran to their kids and others waved their arms to attract their kids’ attention and called out, “Look, look!”

I thought about pointing out the passing trio to the boys, but decided not to. My own trio was having way too much fun.