Channel Islands - Anacapa

We went up to the Channel Islands off the coast of Ventura/Santa Barbara last weekend and visited and camped on Anacapa Island. I didn't even know these islands existed until Marie, my new French friend asked if I wanted to go. Funny how it takes someone from half a world away to make us realize what's in our own back yards. On the boat ride over, there were lots of dolphins jumping all around us and chasing our boat to be playful. We also had a sea gull following the boat, showing us a preview of things to come. Note - some of the best pictures I will show were taken by Marie, so I need to give her the credit (the sea gull is just one of them).










Once on the island, we immediately realized that we would be surrounded by sea gulls. There were hundreds of thousands of them all over the island with their cute young ones.









There were some really beautiful views all over the island as well.


















We camped for a night with only 2 other groups of people, but we were not lonely because of all the birds. They settled down at night, but woke up and started making plenty of noise at about 5AM. If you want to get an idea of the sounds, take a look at the video below.









We went snorkeling because we had heard that was supposed to be really good here. One thing it definitely was was cold! The water was probably close to 60 degrees - even very cold in a full wet suit. We did get to swim with tons of kelp forests and sea lions! The underwater pictures are not the best quality, but the one of the sea lion looking up at me is my favorite - so cute! Okay, the one of Marie is cute too (see Scott in the background completely freezing without a wet suit!) You can hear the sea lions in the background in the video and should be able to see them in one of the island shot pictures.








Birds and sea lions were not the only creatures on the island - I had to include my masterpiece picture of the ladybug with perfect colors - I'm not bragging or anything. ;-)









We were supposed to catch the 11:30AM boat back to the mainland, but there was a communication error and the boat left without us. We had to wait 4 hours for the next one, but no worries. We read, I snorkeled again and ... I took a little nap.








The company was so sorry about their mishap that they gave us a full refund of our whole trip! A very fun weekend and now I want to visit more of these islands.

My new, precious little friend

My friend, Jo just had the sweetest little girl, named Bailie. Shelly, Kevin and I went over to visit and decided she looks a lot like her dad, Steve (you can see them together here - so sweet!) Coda, the big brother is doing well and is enjoying watching over his now bigger family. Congrats, guys! Jo and Steve are already the best parents.

Oaks at the Alibi

Our friends' band "The Oaks" played at our favorite neighborhood bar, the Alibi. The best thing about watching a friend's band is that you can get front row seats!

Group at Work

This is my group from work with a little artistic geniousness added by one of my co-workers. :D

7-7-7 - Visit to the zoo and the park

Scott and I took advantage of the beautiful sunny day here in San Diego and went for a short walk to the world famous zoo right by our house. It's nice to live so close and have a season pass because we can enjoy just a few animals at a time instead of having to pack it all in in a single day. I prefer to watch them for a while and not just grab a quick snapshot and run to the next animal.


We started with a few birds - very cool birds I must mention. The peacock was not open, but walked right in front of us! This other very cute bird (I can't remember the name) let us get right up to him and he was so fluffy and cute. If I didn't think I might disturb him, I would have reached out to pet, but I thought I would try to be more considerate.

I don't remember having seen the sun bears when I've gone by the exhibit at the zoo previously, but the mom and baby came by today and were super cute. This is a picture when the baby took off and played for a while on his own. The mom was pacing in one corner, that I guessed was maybe the feeding area - perhaps she was waiting for food?



I've also never seen the lions out - they usually sleep over 20 hours a day so it's pretty rare to see them walking around. But this lioness walked right out in the sun and laid down - she was so beautiful!







The meercats are probably some of the cutest creatures at the zoo and I couldn't figure out which picture was cutest, so I had to put them all up. Scott and I watch an HD program that talked about meercats one day and we learned that there is always one that is on the lookout. That's how we (or Scott since he reminded me) knew what this one was doing as it perched high up on a rock and kept looking around and trying to figure out what all the sounds were. The others were lounging around laying all on top of one another. There was another lone one posing perfectly for a picture and staring at us zoo-goers.

The rhino was taking full advantage of the cool water since the heat from the sun was pretty intense. This is one of the few animals that I wouldn't want to snuggle up with. Even the big bears, though scary are very fluffy and still seem snuggly.















After the zoo, we walked into the beautiful Balboa park and enjoyed the sights and I had a yummy and very beautifully prepared sorbet desert at the Prado restaurant. On the way back home, I decided to cool down my feet with a little dip in the fountain. FUN!

4th of July

My 4th of July started out with a 10K race and was a nice way to begin the day. Since it was early, it wasn't too hot yet. I ran faster than usual, so it kept me pretty exhausted for the rest of the day, but it was fun, so that was worth it. I went out for a social event because Jimmy and Shelly were running too - they did awesome!








Scott showed up at the beach in OB early to catch a big spot for us and then I met up later in the afternoon. You wouldn't believe the number of people at the beach - it was crazy! We had some nice shade and good company, which made for a nice day. We had a grill too - BBQ AND the beach! :D We stayed through the fireworks, too. I absolutely love fireworks, but even I was a little disappointed because there was a low fog layer and a lot of smoke that prevented us from seeing the ones up high. The low ones were still great, though. Then, imagine that crowd of people all over the city and how hard it must be to get home. It took us an hour and a half to go what would normally take us 10 minutes - craziness! It's all worth it, though.

Is Global Warming Happening?

There is definitely a debate about whether global warming is occurring - Scott found this video that gives and interesting way to think about the situation and our actions. It's a little long, but if you have an extra 10 minutes one day, check it out.


Interesting Argument About Global Warming - Watch more free videos

Wedding

We spent the last few days hanging out in Victor, Idaho where the bride and groom live and where the wedding would be. We helped all we could the day before (you can see the guys were working hard in the garage).











We hung out with a bunch of Scott's old friends and made new friends. You can see Lisa and Rob here, who let us stay at their gorgeous house. I loved the fact that they brushed their teeth while watching the view on the porch. :D


























When the time for the wedding came, I was amazed at how beautiful everything turned out. You can see that Beck and Alyssa's place was the perfect one for a perfect wedding.

Last but not least, I have to include a video of some of the wedding to show you not only how beautiful the setting was but how beautiful the bride and groom were as well. Alyssa was the cutest thing throughout the wedding with her laughs and smiles. Thanks guys for letting us be a part of your big day!