Once I was taking my fishing dinghy on an early morning trip through the fog from Marina Del Ray up to Point Dume in Malibu. It was eerily delightful with barely-penetrating sunlight illuminating a small area around me, almost like in the old dream scenes in the movies. I could see maybe 20 yards in any direction. The ocean was as flat as a pancake, and in it I spied a floating object. I motored slowly up to it and discovered a very old highly-carved canoe paddle, complete with a laced rawhide handgrip. The blade of the paddle had a large carved beaver on one side, and on the other a complete scene of two canoeists running a rapids with the inscription "A man is the happiest whose pleasures are the cheapest." I thought it was a great find, and it's hanging on the wall in my cabin. I have no idea where it came from, but I estimate it had to have floated quite a ways down the coast because there are no scenes like those carved on the paddle anywhere around here. You often see floating objects out in the ocean miles from anywhere, but this was the coolest thing I've ever found.