New blog! - Today, Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California

I used to have a livejournal.  At some point, I decided that I didn't want to post there anymore...  I'm not sure why not?  Any way, I miss writing and communicating to friends and family, and I would also like to share a photo a day; artsy, fun, sweet, or weird.

Nothing deep or too personal - just a little about my days and what's going on in them.

We're currently in Southern California for Tyme's work and a bit of vacation.  The girls and I have spent each weekday visiting zoos, parks, aquariums, and playgrounds.  They've done amazingly well, considering what havoc we've put their schedules through.  We've done pretty well, too.  ;)

Today, we drove from Irvine up to Long Beach to see the Aquarium of the Pacific.  Carmen is absolutely in love with sea life right now, and is all about petting anything that she can.  Thankfully, there were places here where she could touch rays, starfish, crabs, anemones, and sharks, and she ate it up.  She now has a stuffed sting ray she's named Kipper, who goes everywhere with her and gives people hugs.  It makes me so happy to see her so loving toward all animals, and so confident around them.  I saw a few kids who got a peek at the sharks or rays and literally screamed or cried until their parents moved them to another area.  Meanwhile, Carmen was about ready to jump in and swim with every living thing we met - no matter how big, ugly, or scary.  Do we have a future marine biologist?


After the aquarium, we drove back to Irvine and hit a Korean noodle place and then TJ Maxx for some grown-up luggage (time to retire the duffle bags) and more Carolyn clothes.  Carmen picked out the GREENEST piece of luggage I've ever seen - but she's got good taste, it's a Samsonite and in great condition.  Now we're "home" and settled in, and hoping that Carolyn decides it's a sleeping night.  She calls the shots around here on who sleeps when.  :)

Also, I've taken up knitting.  :)  This time, I'm going to learn how to do more than just make a never ending scarf.  I'm starting on some simple legwarmers for Carolyn, whose chubby, not-yet-8-month-old thighs barely fit into size 12 month pants.

Today, I took 892 photos.  I'll, um, have to pare that down a bit for flickr uploading. I'm hoping to get a lot of great aquarium shots so that I can stick them all into a folder and have them shuffle as a screen saver for our tv.  Much easier than trying to maintain a tropical aquarium!

We'll be out here until the 14th, and plan on visiting Sea World one more time, as well as hopefully meeting some local henna artists.  We briefly debated going to Hollywood today, since we've never done that before, but it really just doesn't appeal to us.  We would rather see nature stuff than really unnatural stuff, I guess.  :D

So, I think today will be a two-fer.  First photo is of Carmen showing Kipper to the sea lions at Aquarium of the Pacific -

And this is one with her petting one of the rays -

I think I'll post a "highlights" from the first week we were here in another post soon.  Enjoy!