Monterey Bay Aquarium

In my continuing write up of our trip to California in December, here is what I wrote about the day we drove to the coast and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The day we went to the aquarium, I wasn't feeling super great, so I didn't sleep very much the night before.  I think I got about 2 or 3 hours of sleep since we had to wake up early to head out.  Part of me didn't want to go, but I'm glad we went even though it wasn't as enjoyable as it would have been at optimal health.  It's about a 3 hour drive, and we got on the road about 7 AM which put us at the aquarium at about 10.  I'm glad we left early, because there were only 2 or 3 parking spots left and we nabbed one of them.

The aquarium was super cool.  I think my favorite was probably the octopus.  Usually, octopus just seemed to sit there huddled up in a ball.  This one was moving around.  The coolest part was that the octopus was orange and then it went and sat on a rock and turned grey.  Sooo cool!

Here are some of our pictures from the day.

I had to get some shots in front of the ocean.

There was a section about tentacles.  They even had a copy of Call of Cthulhu on display.  I thought this picture was funny.

This is the octopus that changed to grey.  I didn't get a picture of that, though.

Robyn taking a selfie underneath the tide pool.

I took a picture of Robyn taking a selfie underneath the tide pool.  That's how we roll.

 We ate lunch at the aquarium.  I had a delicious clam chowder in a bread bowl.  After we were done, we went walking around downtown Monterrey.  I saw this pirate, and needed a picture with it.  Robyn was super embarrassed to be taking my picture.

 We didn't spend a ton of time in the downtown area.  We quickly decided it was time to drive home.  But I wanted to dip my feet in the ocean, so I made Robyn stop at the first beach that was on the way.

I thought it was cool to see all these birds at the beach.  That was unusual for me.  Apparently it's not abnormal in the norther part of California.

I had to dip my feet in the water, even though it was 45 degrees.

Looking out at the ocean.  (Not really, I think I was taking pictures of my feet.)

Standing in front of the ocean.

Selfies are essential.

I had to take a selfie to send to Mellen to let her know I made it to the beach.

She sent me one back.  So it was like we were at the beach together even though we were several hundred miles apart.

We only spent maybe 10 minutes at the beach.  We got back in the car and headed home.  I was so tired that I just went to sleep in the passenger seat.  I told Robyn I might need a milk shake before we get home.  In my head, I was thinking that Los Banos would be a good place to stop since it's about half way.

I went to sleep and woke up in Los Banos.  I asked Robyn where we were and when she said Los Banos I yelled, "That's where we're supposed to get a milk shake!".  I hadn't told her that was my plan, so apparently I sounded a little crazy waking up and yelling about milk shakes.  But she loves me, so she bought me a milk shake despite my craziness.

We made it home just in time for dinner.  (They had ordered pizza.)  It was a good end to a good day.

Birthday Festivities 2015

My birthday was last week.  I turned old.  That's a lie.  I was already old.  I turned 34 which is definitely a new level of old.  It's over 3% older than 33, so that number right there tells you I'm pretty old.

We didn't do a lot of celebrating on the actual day of my birthday.  (Robyn did take me out to dinner that night, though.)  Much like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, I celebrate my birthday the Monday before the actual day.  Most people call this day Memorial Day.  I call it, "My birthday observed."

On My birthday observed, Robyn told me to wake her up 30 minutes before I want to eat breakfast.  I actually thought that meant that it would take her 30 minutes to do her hair and other such womanly activities.  What it actually meant was that it took 30 minutes to drive there.  She took me to The Original Pancake House in Draper.  I the most delicious breakfast burrito known to man, as well as some fantastic pancakes.

Before I tell you the next activity Robyn had planned for me, I should tell you that Robyn takes her students on all sorts of field trips, and I always tell her that I'm jealous and I want to go on a field trip.

So she took me on a field trip to the Living Planet Aquarium.

Field trips are so great!

We took selfies with sharks

I got to touch a ray.  (I've done it before, but it's super cool so clearly I did it again.)

I took a selfie with the arapaima.  (If you don't know what an arapaima is, you need to watch River Monsters.  It's the only fish that really scares Jeremy Wade.)

We had selfies with penguins.

I even got to pose with the napping otters.  (Incidentally, a little kid 3 or 4 years old was put in this same spot by his dad.  When he saw the otters, a look of pure terror came over his face.  It was precious.)

There were also important things that happened that weren't captured in selfies.  (I know.  You wish there were more selfies in this post.)  The first is that when I saw the octopus, I got up really close to his little tank and whispered, "Cthulhu fhtagn".  Doesn't that just seem like something an octopus would want to hear?

The second was when we watched the guy swimming into a giant tank filled with sharks and rays.  He had food with him to feed the rays.  The rays would come up and eat out of his hand.  The sharks knew he had food so they kept swimming up and trying to get it from him.  He would just grab them and push them away.  I kept thinking, "That guy is totally fighting off hungry sharks.  Best job ever!"

I hear you have to have a degree in marine biology to be the guy that fights off sharks.  I guess I'll just have to stick with my computer programming job.

Seattle, Washington

When our Alaska Cruise was complete, we returned to our origin, which was Seattle, Washington.

We had one last breakfast on the ship, and then made our way to land.  I left Robyn with the luggage and took a shuttle to where the car was parked.  We figured it would be easier for me to drive to her, so that we wouldn't have to load all of the luggage onto the shuttle.  That would probably have been true if I had any idea where I was going.

I pulled out of the parking lot and found myself on a one way street.  The one way street had signs saying that I was getting on some highway.  I didn't want to be on a highway, I wanted to drive back to the boat dock where my wife was located.  I was looking for a place where I could do a U-turn.  No such place existed, but as I was searching I wasn't exactly driving fast.  The guy behind me didn't appreciate my slow speed, he made some gestures that weren't exactly friendly.

I eventually got turned around and made my way back.  I was able to pick up my wife.  I didn't have to return to Utah in shame after losing her.

Once we got all the luggage loaded up, we drove to our hotel and just parked the car there.  We got an expensive hotel that was centrally located for everything we wanted to do.  Then we took on downtown Seattle on foot.

Our first adventure was at the Seattle Aquarium.  I took millions of pictures of various sea creatures but I'll just share a few.

They had different lights shining on the jelly fish so they changed colors.

I really liked this picture Robyn got of the Octopus.

I want to be Cthulhu when I grow up, but I'll settle for an Octopus.

They had an exhibit of Pacific fish.  It made me really happy to see all the fish I saw snorkeling in Hawaii.

I got to touch an anemone!  It was so cool, the tentacles were grabbing me and trying to eat me.

The next place we wanted to hit was the EMP museum.  It was about 1.5 miles from the Aquarium.  Our walk took us right through the Pike Place Market.  My original plan was to eat lunch somewhere inside, but when we saw the billions of people inside we decided we wanted something simpler.  We stopped at a Subway that we happened to pass near the museum.  That was sufficiently delicious (plus we had a fancy dinner planned for that night, but more on that later.)

The EMP museum was super fun.  We didn't spend tons of time with the music exhibits.  We were there for the geek stuff, (the science fiction and fantasy exhibits.)

I got to sit upon the iron throne.

Robyn had trouble with tribbles

The Dalek tried to exterminate me.

Sometimes I go at warp speed.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Seattle Center.  We saw a laser show that was attuned to the Beatles.  It was pretty awesome.

Finally, it was dinner time.  That's where our fancy dinner came in.  To see where we were eating dinner we just had to look up.

We totally ate dinner at the top of the Space Needle.

Robyn is cute in space.

The view was fantastic.

The restaurant slowly rotates as you eat dinner, so throughout your time there you get the city view, the lake view and then the view of the sound.  The food was absolutely amazing as well.

Finally, after a day full of adventure we returned to our hotel room for a relaxing evening.

We stayed there for the location, but the view was pretty fantastic as well.

The next morning, we wanted to visit Robyn's grandfather in Bremerton.  We wanted to take the ferry, but we had quite an adventure getting to the ferry terminal.  Our GPS got us lost a few times, but we made it alive.  I've never driven my car onto a boat before.

Onboard the ferry, they let you get out of the car and walk around.  The ferry was an adventure in itself.

Robyn was super cute with the skyline in the background.

I had to use the bathroom, but when I walked in I was super confused because there were no urinals, but there was a giant sink.  I really wanted a picture of it, so I waited awkwardly until everyone left.

The sea gulls were flying the same speed as the ferry so it was like they were hovering.  People were throwing food in the air and they would have dog fights to see who could catch the food mid air.  It was pretty awesome.

 After I finished watching the sea gulls I noticed the jelly fish.  I was just looking over the edge when I saw a whole school of them.  They were pretty amazing.  I wanted a picture, but by the time I pulled out my phone they were gone.

Finally, we landed in Bremerton.  I didn't realize that other members of Robyn's family would be visiting her grandfather that day.  So, it was a special treat to get to spend time with lots of family.  Some of them I had met before, most of them this was my first time.  But all of them were super kind and super fun.

This isn't everyone that was there.  Some of them had already left when we thought to get a picture.

We spent the night at grandpa's house..  It was definitely special to spend time with so much family.  Grandpa even provided bacon for breakfast.  That is love.

Unfortunately, after breakfast we had to make the long drive home.

We got home about 1 in the morning.  I was so tired I wanted to cry, but I got to sleep in my own bed.   It's the best bed on the planet.