Star Trek at The Monterey Bay Aquarium

As I was schmoozing with a man who was tracking the otters on the Monterey Bay the other day, he told me about how the decks over looking the bay were used as a whale pool in the movie "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." As soon as he said Star Treck was here I wondered if my dad had seen the movie he was talking about. Today I was flipping through the channels on tv and the movie was playing! So here I am watching the movie and finding more information about the cast coming to the aquarium and filming.

  Here is are some pictures of the aquarium in the movie and how the aquarium really looks. They added water to reach the deck, in the background is a San Francisco skyline and the whales are not real. But it looks realistic.
  I found a clip (http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/video/video_popup_timeline_high_txt.asp?video=5_timeline) of the cast at the aquarium and Spock was walking around in his make up and ears admiring the exhibits. :) I wonder why I have never heard about the movie at the aquarium before. I think they should have a small exhibit with pictures of the actors here or even clips of them in the aquarium. Not only would you get sea life fans but you would get star trek fans! As I am watching the movie it is really cool to see how much they filmed in the aquarium and if anything has changed. Since I started about a quarter of the way through and it has commercials I think I should try to find it on netflix and watch the whole movie :)

Anne Hathaway in My Backyard

(photo from popsugar.com)

Anne has tied the knot, and the festivities were only 30 miles from house! Big Sur is where Anne had her wedding. I have never been to Big Sure but from what I have heard and read it is very lovely. There is camping from tent to luxury cabin, art galleries, gift shops and wedding locations.
 I was watching one of the popular celebrity news shows and I heard Anne got married this weekend. Then when I heard it was at Big Sur I knew that was near by. So I googled it. From my apartment to Big Sur it was 30 miles :) It feels really cool to know a movie star ( one I actually like) was 30 miles from me. California is becoming more and more eventful. I wonder what will happen next :)

Here is a link to an article on Hathaway and Shulman's wedding. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20633276,00.html

Does This Apartment Make Me Look Fat?

  Moving to Monterey has been wonderful! But when my jeans start to get to tight and shirts are showing pudge that I didn't used to have, it is past the time to start doing something about it.
  Here in Monterey I do not do nearly as much walking as I used to when I was in Albany and going to college. I would park my car further out so I would have to walk farther to get to class and about 9 hours a week I was running around with toddlers. I felt healthy and pretty good about my body.
  Now that I am in Monterey my house is very tiny so walking from the kitchen to the bathroom or living room feels like ten steps. I try to get out and walk 2 or 3 times a week but I hate the walk back up the hill so sometimes I talk myself out of going anywhere.
  Well all my laziness has ended up in a 15 pound weight gain. Ugh, and it is depressing. So I am more determined now than I have ever been to loose weight. I am heavier than I have ever been and that in not ok. The only time I want to gain weight again is if I am having a baby, which I am not.

  In goes the Insanity dvd each day from now on and we will see how much I loose :) It is hard to do the whole dvd but I just do what I can and I try keep moving by jogging in place if some of the exercises get crazy hard.
  So I shall keep you posted with the numbers and how I am doing at working out. :)

Kayaking on Monterey Bay

Todays adventure, kayaking! And oh my was it an adventure. :) Tyler was so wonderful to take me, I thought it would be easy and loads of fun. Well I was in for a surprise. First the kayak was much heavier that I thought it would be, they look so light (we had a double kayak). Second, trying to sync my paddling with Tyler was so hard. I was in the front because I am lighter so Tyler was supposed to follow my paddling, I was all over the place. :) Then you are supposed to go straight. Our kayake had a habit of going left. . . towards the beach. Oh well :) Once we got a mile out the waves weren't as strong, it was more swells than wave.
 So a mile out is really a mile down the shore line, we had a limit of where we could paddle and you can't go to far out in the sea but you can paddle about two miles down the shore line. Anyway, a mile down the shore is where the kelp forest starts. I have to confess it was creepy. Kelp growing up to the surface and you can't see all the way down because the water is not clear. It gave me the heebies geebies that something would pop out of no where and I would freak out and tip over! I just really do  not like deep water, even the deep end of a pool freaks me out thanks to my second grade teacher reading a story about a shark escaping an aquarium and coming in a pool from the vent in the deep end!

 Once we got to the Aquarium we saw so many otters. There are about 20 otters that live by the aquarium. Today they were not all together in a raft. A raft is a large amount of kelp on the surface that the otters float in :) Even thought they were not together we saw to mommy otters and their pups! Sooo adorable! At one point a mommy was eating something, probably a crab and she had her pup next to her in a raft of kelp so it wouldn't float away. She finished her grab and then dived down for another one, her pup was so cute just floating there waiting for it's mommy. Trivia about otter pups, they can not sink! Their fur is too fluffy for them to sink :) So they are completely safe being on the surface as the mom dives for food :)
 On our way back to the kayak rental, we saw seals! They were cute but kinda freaked me out. They are VERY curious and can get close to kayakers. One followed us for a little bit, I was not thrilled. I was worried it would scare me or bump our kayak! But we made it back with no problems :)
  All in all I did have a great time. It was hard to paddle against the current/waves but it was amazing to see the otters!

Our Street :)

           So this is the top of our hill :) We live two blocks down which is still a half mile from the water. The street would go much higher up but the Presidio of Monterey is funny shaped and cuts roads off. If you ever get on the Presidio (military escort needed) they have wonderful views of the bay. The football field is the best one I have seen so far.

And here is our corner. We live in the two story building in apartment 1 :) I have one window where I can see the bay. In that window I have my cute and tiny herb garden. So its fun to check out the weather on the bay and see my plants growing.

The Open Sea Exhibit, probably the most calming exhibit in the aquarium.

Here my shoes took me around the aquarium and we made a visit to the Open Sea Exhibit. In this exhibit there are hammer head sharks, GIANT tuna, sardines (hundreds), two massive sea turtles and a large ray (not sure what type). The exhibit has a 90 foot long window. Standing up close to the window and looking down in the tank you can see the sardines circling the bottom as the play a game of follow the leader and the hammer head shark slowly curves back and forth disturbing this game and causing the fish to scatter. When you stand close to the window you can't help but reach out and touch it, almost like you should be able to stick your hand through to the other side. I love how dark the room is so all you see is the tank which has a eerie but at the same time beautiful darkness, with a few light beams from above. I choose to sit above in the balcony. Here you can see the whole tank and watch all animal swimming. Also you can see the reactions of people when a shark swims by :)

Where My Shoes Take Me

So these are my new walking shoes! They are bright orange and I think they just might glow in the dark ;) Now that I live in Monterey I do more walking than driving. Tyler does all the driving for two reasons. 1.) I can not drive stick shift and 2.) This is California, a tourist town in California. So I do not drive :) I walk.

Cannery Row is a half mile from my house and the aquarium is a mile from my house. I walk down to Cannery Row a few times a week to sit at the beach and visit my sweet bat rays at the aquarium.  

Visiting the bat rays it the highlight of my walking adventures. The only down side is my back can get sore from leaning over the petting pool for 2, 3, 4 hours. So I stretch when I get home. Strange I know, but I love the rays and I could be there all day.