Friday pick-me-up: Mouse vs. Cookie

I wonder if he’s going to want some milk to go with it. 🙂

I… might be turning into a cat person

Aaaaand, here’s the evidence:

Perhaps the most damning:

What the fox say

What the fox say is freaking awesome!

SF to Dallas road trip: Monterey Bay Aquarium

I flew up to San Jose Saturday to meet up with Puppy for a nine-day road trip back to Dallas. After he picked me up at the airport, the first stop was an hour and a half-hour drive to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. (I love marine life!)

I’m particularly fond of octopuses and jelly fish. This held true for the Monterey Bay Aquarium but I hated their octopus display; it had a psychedelic 70s theme with loud, cheesey music throughout. But, I did like that they pumped actual water from the bay for their Aquarium.

This summer, I’ve visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Dallas Aquarium, Aquarium of the Bay and the California Academy of Sciences; the Academy of Sciences was my favorite, the Dallas Aquarium was my least favorite. The Academy is just so awesome, with a variety of exhibits and an awesome tunnel to view the fish and sharks from underneath the aquarium! The one in Dallas is ok, just really cramped; the path width is so small the line gets backed up if just one kid wants to stop a bit longer at a particular exhibit.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the next excursion – Hearst Castle!

Therapy Cat

Pickles helps Aries through a recurring issue.

To Dallas, with love from San Francisco

Today’s my last day in California; Texas here I come!

I had two full, great days in San Francisco! The majority of day one I spent in Chinatown. It really has it’s own distinct vibe that’s different from the rest of the city. After spending hours walking around the neighborhood, I bought some cute bracelets and a kalimba, which I used to accompany the mood of day two with Puppy. (I did eat at the Hang Ah Tea Room like I’d planned, but don’t recommend it.) Then I visited Golden Gate Park and hit up City Lights bookstore before hoofing it to BART and eating dinner with Puppy at a barbecue place in downtown Livermore. It was pretty good, and I feel as though I have some authority on the subject as a native Texan.

Aquarium and Tea Garden pics (I look like a crazy person in the aquarium pics)

On day two, Puppy took me to the California Academy of Sciences, and got to experience full, unfettered Leners-excitedness about marine life in the Steinhart Aquarium and frogs in the Rainforest exhibit. I took soooo many photos of frogs, my favorite animal, and made him sit with me for a very long time in front of one of the tanks to take the above photo with the huge fish behind us. He was very accommodating, if a bit flabbergasted at my enthusiasm at times. Think a subdued Kristen Bell reaction to sloths. We then ate lunch there, visited the Japanese Tea Gardens and walked around Golden Gate Park before leaving to check into our hotel — where we ran into car trouble. We had a front oil leak that caused the oil to run dry, which is apparently a huge deal?

Now it’s day three, of which I spent the majority in the hotel room sleeping and slothing about because of the lack of transportation and limited time before I had to be at the airport. (The Livermore bus system rivals Dallas buses in inefficiency. It took me about three hours to get to San Francisco from Livermore.) I was a little disappointed that Puppy got so worked up and anxious about the car and remained so all evening; it took a lot of effort on my part to calm him down to try to enjoy the time we had left. Eventually he did calm down and we were able to walk about, snuggle and play the “How well do you know your groom” game Mama C gave me.

I’m going to miss the rainbow flags in downtown S.F., and snuggling… but Puppy’s flying in to Dallas next weekend for a wedding so we’ll be able to continue being snuggle bunnies then.

FROGS! Gotta love ’em.

New Kitty

Hiya, I’m at San Francisco Airport waiting for my flight — so meet Pous’ kitty, Daisy, who’s being a big chiflada with Junebug rubbing her tummy!

PCH elephant seals

There’s a stop just off PCH past Cambria where you can see elephant seals.

I’m glad I decided to pull off. They’re so beautiful. I loved it when they talked to one another, flipped dirt on themselves, sparred and, most of all, scratched their bellies with their flippers. Even these grand imposing animals can look silly when they do this. It makes me feel better about all the times I, as a small clumsy human, have looked silly – and believe me, there have been many times.

Right now it’s mostly teenage males and their mothers, who are molting – presumably for mating season; the males will here in a month or so to get it ON!

There’s a sign that says not to feed or disturb the animals, and they’re not kidding around. I found this camera pointed at the tourist area – beware, you’re being watched.

(P.S. yay for random wifi so I could upload this post I wrote a few hours ago!)

Cat + Dog photo!

 

Life’s been busy… so here’s an animal pic! Aren’t they cute when they’re napping? 🙂

Cat in a basket

I’m not really a cat person, but every once in a while Pickles’ cat does something really cute.