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.

Cozumel, Mexico

The last port on our recent Caribbean cruise was in Cozumel, Mexico.  My first view when I looked out at the port was a beautiful one.

We got off the ship to head for our excursion. It was strange, though. Because it seemed super dark outside. Then I realized, it was because of the massive ships parked next to each other. We were walking down a massive hallway where the sun had no chance to peek in.

I call it cruise ship corridor.  Look at that cute girl I was with.

Our excursion was with a company called Fury.  They have catamarans that ferry people around.  The catamaran itself is pretty fun.  They play music, they serve drinks (It was an open bar, people were doing their best to consume as much free alcohol as possible.  I even got in on the craziness, by drinking like 3 glasses of 7-up.  I still drank more water than soda, obviously.  Let's not get too crazy.) and you can look out at the beautiful ocean as you glide across it.

The first place the catamaran took us was to a reef area that was probably 20-30 feet deep.  Naturally, I was the first person off the boat.  While everyone else was trying to figure out how to put their fins on and then walk down the stairs into the water, I just jumped off the side of the boat and put the fins on while floating.  It's way easier that way.  Plus, I didn't have to stand in a line filled with awkward people trying to walk in fins.

I make snorkeling look good.

It was an amazing snorkeling destination.  I was surprised by how much awesome wildlife I saw.

We saw a ray.

We saw fish.

We saw lots of fish.

There was even a Robyn floating in the water.

I thought I saw a sea snake.  I did some research when I got home, and found it this is a sharptail eel.

If I had one complaint about the excursion it would be this:  there was a lifeguard type individual who was attached to a buoy.  The whole time he sat there yelling, "stay close to the buoy."  They never gave us any guidance about what that meant, but most people tried to stay within ten or fifteen feet of the buoy.   That meant there were loads of people stacked on top of each other.  So, it kind of made the overall experience not as good.  Despite that, I loved it, because it was an amazing location.

You can see how surrounded by people I was.  But I was also surrounded by fish.

Lots and lots of fish

After the snorkeling, there was a second part to the excursion.  We got back on the catamaran for about 40 minutes to ride to a private beach owned by the Fury catamaran company.

Chillin' on the catamaran

The sail, and all the people.

When we got there, it was a really nice beach with lots of toys available to play with.

The beach with all of the various toys.

A few different catamarans parked while their occupants played in the water.

I had to climb this mightly slide. (and slide down the other side)

.

Robyn did her mermaid float.  It's a little infuriating how easily she floats, when I just sink.

John and Carol were precious.

Our preciousness with the catamaran in the background.

We relaxed, we played in the water, we hunted seashells.  We had a great time.  Then it was time to head back.  We boarded the catamaran again, it took us for another 30-40 minute ride back to the dock where our ship was waiting.

On this part of the trip, there was a special little treat.  We were sitting on the front of the boat, and we started noticing flying fish that would periodically jump up and fly 30 or 40 feet.  It was soooo cool to watch.

The moral of the story (every story has a moral) is that Cozumel is awesome.  You should totally go there.

The Brocation

My BFF Jared W happens to have access to a house at Bear Lake, owned by his parents.  We've been trying to do a trip up there with some friends for a while.  He arranged to do it this past weekend.  He wanted to get started Thursday night, but Robyn had to do back to school night with her second grade class.

So Jared and I decided to head up there on Thursday night, just the two of us.  Sometimes the guys just need to hang out.  Sometimes we think we're clever when we call it a brocation.  (I would have also accepted mancation, guycation, or vacation that males go on together.)

It was very therapeutic.  We drove up Thursday night and had all day Friday to just hang out.  Here are some of the important highlights.

First and foremost, we did a lot of chilling on tubes in the middle of the lake.  This is very important.  It's like normal hanging out, only instead of sitting on a couch, you're sitting on a tube.  And instead of the couch being in a house, the tube is in a lake.

After we hung out for a while we decided that the only thing cooler than hanging out in the middle of a lake was reading in the middle of a lake. (Naturally)  Of course we had brought our books out with us for just such an occasion.

Of course, the whole thing was made possible by our good friend, the buoy.  The wind kept trying to take us back to shore so we tied our tubes to the buoy.  That allowed us to relax far from land for as long as we wanted.  Naturally, it was important to show the buoy how much we appreciated it.

I know it looks like I have a weird eye patch, but it's just some water on the camera lense.

Later, we were closer to the shore and found a really strange fish that seemed to be going in circles as it tried to feed off the lake bottom.  I wondered if it was dumb enough to be caught with bare hands.

This is how I fish

It totally was dumb enough!  Here is some video with my new fish friend.

The brocation was amazing.  But a vacation wouldn't be complete without the womenfolk.  Friday night we were joined by our significant others.  (And a few other friends as well)

Reunited and it feels so good.

Jared and Audrey are precious even when they look like disembodied heads.

Of course we didn't have any boats or anything, but I still took my wife tubing, as seen below in this video.  I would have gone faster but we were in a no wake zone.

 

All in all, it was a fabulous little trip.  I think the brocation might just have to become an annual tradition.