adventure is out there

More photos from my California trip, this time of Traci and Scott's house and the Monterey Bay Aquarium!

• Little finches in their homemade cage at Traci and Scott's house
  
  
• Their little chirrups woke me up in the morning as the sun rose and their red heat lamp lit my room at night. It was cozy
  
  
• Willie, their orange tabby, is constantly asking to go outside if he's inside, and inside if he's outside
  
  
• He wants outside
  
  
• Color in winter
  
  
• Rabbits in the garden
  
  
• Monterey Bay Aquarium!
  
  

• Baby Bat Ray that I freaked out over
  
  
• Art made out of plastic; a representation of plastic pollution in our oceans
  
  
• An albatross made from plastic; 97.5% of Laysan Albatross chicks have stomachs full of plastic because that's what their parents can find to feed them
  
  
• Sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and accidentally eat them, causing them to die. This exhibit was incredibly important and had great information, but displayed it in such a way to not "frighten people off"; they combined art and words of warning to send a message and I loved it
  
  
• I know her!!! My aunt posing next to one of her photos taken for this exhibit because of her lovely, expressive face
  
  
• Portable moon jellies
  
  
• This picture reminds me of a pin-up. Apparently, she got drunk before taking the shot because she was so nervous about it
  
  

• A diving auklet
  
  
• A common murre shakin' it out
  
  
• I love catching photos of animals with their mouths open
  
  
• What do you see down there?
  
  
• Pretty auklet
  
  
• Just keep swimming
  
  

• One of the Einstein sisters in the Outer Bay tank
  
  
• Turtle silhouette
  
  
• A mola, or sunfish. Giant, weird half-fish with amazing expressions and brains the size of a lima bean, I love them
  
  
• Sardines
  
  
• Mahi Mahi, or dolphinfish
  
  
• My favorite picture from the entire weekend
  
  
• Fascinated
  
  

• "Swim away!"
  
  
• Hammerhead shark
  
  
• Fish have the best little faces
  
  
• A pod of air dolphins
  
  
• Jellies
  
  
• Tidepools
  
  
• Cormorant Rock
  
  

• Angry fish
  
  
• Humpback replica
  
  
• This color is fantastic, I took this picture specifically for Megan
  
  
• The Kelp Forest
  
  
• More fish (it was an aquarium, after all)
  
  
• Alien fish
  
  
• A teeny fish who wanted to say hello
  
  

• Red on blue
  
  
• Watching Scott feed the sunfish; they're trained to target these floating balls that they think provide them magically with food. Squid is then dropped into their waiting mouths
  
  
• Harbor Seal Beach
  
  
• A bird on a rock
  
  
• Filtered light
  
  
• Kelp Forest tank
  
  
• If that isn't a stoked sunfish, I don't know what is
  
  

• Common Antlantic Octopus
  
  
• Scott taught us about jellyfish
  
  
• Stop! Hammertime!
  
  
• A beautiful case of pink-eye
  
  
• Feeding/enrichment time for Gidget and Pup 69
  
  
• My favorite, most beautiful seabird of all time, Makana
  
  
• She was so demure and flirted with us the entire time, sky-mooing and whistling
  
  

• Jellyfish are amazing
  
  
• So beautiful
  
  
• Hi, cutie ♥
  
  
• So adorable
  
  
• Upside-down jellyfish
  
  
• Contrast
  
  
• I literally could not find my way out of this room
  
  

• Touch pool
  
  
• Close encounters
  
  
• Pink
  
  
• A field of sea nettles
  
  
• Listening to their words
  
  
• Pacific Octopus suckers
  
  
• Underwater truffula trees
  
  

I still have pictures of birds and seals (two of my favorite groups of animals), but I figure this is a pretty picture-laden post already.

Tonight I went with my mom and aunt to an event called Paint Nite where an artist taught us how to paint an owl at a local bar called Zest. I ordered way too many lavender lemonade martinis (omg so good) and got real drunk while painting a multi-colored owl. It was AMAZING.