My own beat now

Soooo we had arrived in Barstowe. The hotel was puh-retty cool. We had gotten an upgrade because my father had signed up for some thing (no idea what for, I don’t think it had any use at all) so we had a really nice hotel room. Two rooms, two tellies, a desk, and the bathroom was immense as well. It was really big, and on the left was a bath/shower combination, and there was also a jacuzzi. The bathroom also had a window you could open, probably so you could watch tv from the jacuzzi (!). In all, really damn luxury. Dinner there, though, was not. I wasn’t hungry so I opted to skip dinner, but the rest of the family did want food. At 9:30pm, EVERYTHING was closed, except for one tiny snackbar thingy where you could choose from like, four things. Poor family.
Next day, we got up, had a niiice breakfast, waited in the lobby for a little. The lobby had two computers with internet (and HUGE monitors) you could use for free, ‘t was nice. After that, we left and drove to our final destination of the journey, San Diego. I can’t remember a thing from the drive, so either nothing special happened, or my memory is shit. Probably the latter. Anyway, we drove to San Diego. We arrived in San Diego as well (oooooooooooooooooooh!). The hotel/motel was … nice? I’m overusing that word. It had a seperate bedroom, that was yay. Later that afternoon/evening, we went to visit Old Town, a park thingy in San Diego that has been kept like it was in the late 1800s or something. Of course it’s been renovated, but it still looks the same. We had dinner in some Mexican restaurant, came to the conclusion next time we’re just ordering drinks (free refills) and eating the free tortilla chips on the table (free refills on that as well) xD (We didn’t actually do that, haha). We walked around for a bit, it was pretty cool. There was a museum thingy on the post things (sorry… my English vocabulary is real bad today), an awesome candy shop with billions of kinds of candy. They had these really cool big jelly beans that looked just like stones, I’ll post a picture of them later. They also made their own candy, with one of those stretch things… it was great. There was a candle/soap shop where you could make your own hand in wax and colour it, and they had so. much. different kinds of soap and candles, and a bunch things you could hang on the wall with funny things on them (and they were actually funny as well, instead of the forced thing that you often see). There was an old school, with also a list on things you get punished for. Harassing a girl, 10 lashes, having long nails, 1 lash, etc. Kind of funny since the girls were protected in every way possible, or something.  I also bought a shirt there, I <3 SD. SD obviously standing for San Diego, but SD are also my initials so yeah… woohoo. 

The next day, we went to Sea World. Aaawesome. Firstly, the shows. The first show we saw, was the killer whale show. The star whale or something was called Shamu (I’ve seen and heard that name at least a thousand times that day. *sigh*). The show was really impressing. It’s such a magnificent, beautiful animal. I’d never seen one in real life before, either. It was also really cool how they like, swum around the corner, did their trick and swum back. Impressing how they trained them. However, as much as I loved it, I did felt somewhat like, well, yeah. It’s completely against nature to train and basically exploit animals like this…they had three whales, and while they probably take very good care of them, I can’t imagine they live in a pool even close to the spaciousness they’d  have had if they lived in the ocean. Anyway. We also went to a show of which I’ve lost the name, but it was cool. It was kind of circus-esque, with acts. Nothing with animals, it was just people doing stuff. It was cool. I don’t know how to describe it xD The third show we watched, was the dolphin show. It was pretty cool. They had a new set, apparently, and it definitely looked good. The show was a story about some girl, but the story was lame, it’s not really worth mentioning. The show also included a couple of kinds of birds, that was a nice addition. The dolphins were really cool (I’m completely back set on my future career being a dolphin trainer xD), they’re just such beautiful creatures. The acrobats did cool stuff, although their suits were a bit … weird. There were a bunch of guys supposed to be birds, but their suits looked like they were wearing a bikini and a skirt. BUT, the show was still pretty awesome. Although we did had to wait a lot in advance, because the show filled up really quickly, so you had to get there like at least 40 minutes before the thing actually started.  
The last show we watched, was the Rocking with Shamu show or something like that. It was supposed to be a killer whale show to ‘all kinds of rock’n’roll tunes’. The show itself was pretty cool, also with lights (since it was dark outside), but it wasn’t very rock’n’roll, it was more a weird mix of pop and a tiny bit of rock and other music sorts… it definitely wasn’t rock’n’roll, that’s for sure. It was still a nice show, though. Um… I don’t really have much to say about it, haha.
Apart from the shows, we’ve also been to a couple of rides. One we’ve only been once in but was definitely cool, was something of which I’ve forgotten the name, but it was sort of like rafting. You’d sit in a circular boat, for nine persons, I think, and it was this wild water ride. You got very wet in it, haha, but that wasn’t that bad because it was fairly warm. Although at the end of the day it was kinda cold, since some parts of my clothes just refused to dry. An other ride we’ve been in was an Antarctica experience. You did a ‘helicopter ride’, in one of those rooms that move and you look at a screen. No idea how to describe that or what it’s called, but it was cool. After that, there were a couple of animals. Ice bears (who were hiding, you could only see one. He was sitting in a corner, squished against the window, that was cool to see, but there were really a lot of people, so I just peered between people and thought enough of it. There also were walruses. Holy jeez, those creatures are huge. Killer whales for example are also very big, they’re even bigger, but you can’t really see it when you look at the animal without a reference next to it, but the walruses, you could just see they were huge. Especially the male was just one huge blob of fat. Walruses are cool. 
The last animal there were beluga whales. Oh, I loved those. They’re pretty small whales, I suck at estimating but I think something like 3-4m long, and they’re completely white. They’re beautiful. I’ve been standing there for the longest time, unable to walk away. <3 Love. 
In the end of the Arctic thingy, there was a real ice wall. I don’t know what the exact purpose of it was, but it was cool.
The last ride we’ve been on (and we’ve been on that a lot of times, haha), was the Journey to Atlantis. There wasn’t much journey or Atlantis about it, but it was nice. The only Atlantis thing was that at first you heard “the destiny of Atlantis is in your hands, if you don’t save Atlantis it will disappear forever”, and a minute later when the ride was finished and all you did was sit the woman’s voice from the speakers said “Well done! You’ve saved Atlantis” and some more blabbering like that. It was a very nice ride, though. It was a water splash thingy, like, you sit in one of the carts, and it goes up, and down a splash  track thing. Then you go up again, there’s a small part of rollercoaster, another splash, and it’s done. It was nice though. At the end of the day, at like 9pm or something, we’ve been on that like five times in a row. Before the vacation we had bought rain ponchos, like those plastic things you use and throw away afterwards. However, we hadn’t used those yet. Because it was kind of cold, we went in the Journey to Atlantis, but in those ponchos! Definitely a good idea, I wouldn’t have wanted to walk around completely soaked at 9pm with a temperature below 20*C
An other thing we’ve seen/done there, was a pool thingy with rays in there, which you could also stroke. Also one other kind of fish or shark or something. Rays feel reaaally weird. I’ve touched them before, but that was when I was like 8 or 9, and I was kind of scared. It feels really weird. Really soft and squishy. You could also feed them, but I didn’t do that. Both because it cost a lot of money and because I was a little scared. They don’t even have teeth, but still. 
A good closer of the evening was the fireworks they set off. They were really spectacular. I missed half of it because I was in the Journey of Atlantis again, but it was really cool. 

Our last full day in San Diego. We first went to do some more shopping because we hadn’t quite bought everything we wanted yet (especially me… I wanted to massively shop on chucks, because they’re so cheap in the US and so expensive here, and I hadn’t bought a single pair yet). We went to this place called Fashion Valley (lol), which was a big site of all kinds of warehouses and shops. In all, I bought one pair of chucks (:’(), a Green Day shirt for 11 bucks, and a couple non interesting things. I also saw Mike’s shoes and other MacBeth shoes in one shop, but Mike’s shoes weren’t the kind I wanted (although they were on sale for a ridiculously cheap $20), and the shoes I did want weren’t on sale, but they didn’t feel good either. So I’ve come to the conclusion the Journey’s hates me, because this is the third time this happens in a Journey’s shop.  We had lunch, and then we went to La Jolla (lovely pronounced phonetically “la yolla” by my mom :P).
It was beautiful there. The waves were high and really spectacular, I’ve made a bunch of pictures of that. There was this beach that had sealions on it, which you could publicly access as well. That was pretty cool. You couldn’t go near them, though. Fortunately, otherwise they’d be gone. Um… that’s really all I can think of what to say, it’s just something you gotta see. While walking back to the car, there was this dad with his kids (I suppose) plus a bunch of other kids who had THE best toy ever. A bunch of guys walking by called it “that silver rocket nuke thing is the coolest thing ever!”, and that’s really what describes it best. It was this giant, silver balloon that looked like a nuke or a rocket, and you’d throw/push it in the air in a certain way, and it’d float back to the ground, but really cool. I want to have that thing. 
We drove to a place to eat, our final dinner in the United States (sniff). We ate in this cute restaurant/cafe/bar, nothing really special about it. The food was nice, although huge (like everywhere. The portions are just big everywhere. Not as gigantic like us was told before, but still, big). We also had a really nice view on the fireworks from Sea World from our table, that was nice. 

The next morning, our last hours in the US :( We had to get up somewhat early in order to be on time at the airport. We got up, had our last breakfast, and drove to LA. We dropped off the rental car, went to the airport by shuttlebus, and had to wait at the airport. We had to take our shoes off at the customs services thingy. I know that’s standard in US airports, but it was still kind of funny. We had lunch at the airport, the food was ridiculously expensive. I had hoped there was a CD shop at the airport, because I want a copy of Dookie without the Ernie on the back (and all vacation we haven’t been in a single record store. Well, we’ve been in one, but that one didn’t have it), so I was kind of bummed about that, but it’s not a disaster. Some more waiting, and then, the flight. To our surprise, we did have the tv thingies in the seats. That was really nice. I feel as if I’ve told this before, but I’m too lazy to check what I’ve already written about the flight xD The flight was mainly, long. Dinner was really not nice at all and I was still hungry after it. They also brought us ice cream again, like, during the 7th hour of the flight or something like that. I entertained myself with a movie I really liked, I think it was called The Blind Side. I watched another movie called Planet 51. It’s one of those computer animated movies, but it was nice so whatever xD Also watched a Simpsons episode and I dunno what else I did during the flight… I sort of wanted to sleep, but I just wasn’t tired, so that didn’t happen.
After the landing, there should have been a taxi for us, but it was really late, so we had to wait at Schiphol airport for at least an hour and a half till we finally got go to leave. We arrived home and I crashed down on the couch almost immediately, because I was tired. Shouldn’t have done that, because of that I couldn’t sleep at night and I’ve been lying awake till 5am every night since. 

So. That was our trip to the US. It has been great, the greatest vacation ever for sure. I also really didn’t want to leave. Usually nearing the end of a vacation, I sort of want to go home, but I just really didn’t in this case. I guess that’s a sign that I really enjoyed it. The sights have been beautiful, the cities were great… I loved it all. Some of the breakfast foods were a little bit eh, haha, but it was great. I’m not good at ending things and this is really finalizing so it’s even more terrible than normal to end it. I guess I just hope that whoever read it, wasn’t too confused. I’m going to post some more photos, and I guess that’s it. I might post some random thoughts on the vacation whenever I think of it, or just random thoughts at all. Use this the way tumblr is supposed to be used, you know. Sooo yeah. Bye!

A place where I didn’t write my stories, like I had said. Unlike we were informed, we did have the cool tv thingies in the seats, so I didn’t have 10 hours to waste away without anything but what you bring yourself and which doesn’t run out of battery. So instead of reading books and writing stories like originally planned, I watched movies and played games. Real good improvement there, eh?

So anyway, I’ll probably write up my stories tomorrow or something. And now I should go to bed because I’m jetlagged and I got up almost 30 hours ago and have only had a couple of very much disturbed and unpeaceful hours of sleep on the couch. 

Soooooo… we’re leaving today. :( Our plane leaves at 4:30-ish, so now we’re packing. I’m going to write my stories for the days I’ve missed in the plane and post them up asap as I get home. So yeah. Bye US and A, I’ll miss you!

Well, the Grand Canyon. The drive to it wasn’t that exciting I think, seeing as I can’t remember a single thing from it. We didn’t drive straight to the hotel, but we did a couple of viewpoints first. This canyon is indeed pretty huge, like its name suggests. The light wasn’t very good, it was cloudy and the view wasn’t very clear. It was still impressive, but not like I had expected. That was also because there’s nothing to compare it with there. It’s just rocks and bushes, you cannot estimate how big is it because there isn’t anything of which you know the size. Kind of weird. It was impressing nonetheless. After a couple of viewpoints, we went on to the hotel. Watched tv for a bit while my parents dropped cold out on the bed, I got myself a necktrauma because I had to sit on a shitty wooden chair (it really was a shitty chair, I’m not being picky or snobby or anything), and we had dinner. We went home, and then my dad, my youngest sister and I went back to some random viewpoint to watch the sky. It was SO. BEAUTIFUL. I haven’t ever seen a sky like that. The Milky Way was so incredibly clear, and you could see a lot of stars. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, and the moon was below the horizon, so there really wasn’t anything but dark and the light from the stars. The only other light there was, was one small light on the other side of the canyon (and some small lights in the car, sometimes). It was great. I saw a couple of shooting stars too. And very far in the distance there was lightning, but you couldn’t hear it (and it was completely quiet there, minus the occasional bird or cricket) and neither could you see any clouds, but you could see a flash every once in a while. Night skies are beautiful already, and this was the best I’ve ever see, it was almost magical. Then we went home and went to sleep. 

Wait, I do remember something from the ride to the Grand Canyon. Green Day was on the radio twice, Basket Case and Good Riddance. And right when I was thinking about that, Good Riddance was on the radio again! And I had just skipped that song on my iPod too (for a good reason!). Like… Think about Green Day on the radio yesterday – 10 seconds pass – Good Riddance is on iPod, I skip it – 10 seconds pass – Good Riddance is on the radio. Coinky-dinky.

Next day (=today, or if I can’t post this today,=yesterday) we got up fairly early because we had to catch a bus to go to one more viewpoint, the one where my dad asked my mom to marry her 18 (?) years ago. Took some pictures, then we had to walk back a little bit to catch a bus back. Today, the views were a lot better. The air was clearer and it was sunny, all of a sudden it looked so much more impressing and great and all. I didn’t want to leave, like with most things. It was hard to take pictures though. It’s all so big, it’s impossible to catch it all on a simple digital camera. Plus because of the distance and the air still not being too clear, it is hard anyway to take good pictures. Sometimes memories are better than picture, though. While walking I got a condescending remark about me wearing flipflops from a Belgian family that walked past and didn’t know I could understand them. On the one side haha you fail, on the other side buhhh shut up. We went back by bus, and then had a big drive ahead, a drive in which I’m writing this. We’re really close to the hotel, so I gotta stop writing. I really hope there’s internet, I keep being unable to go on because others want to do stuff (often stuff that doesn’t even require internet #.#), so yeah. This stop, Barstowe, will just be a stop along the way to San Diego, we aren’t going to do anything. So wooooo bye, and enjoy (or not) the overdose of photos and two stories in a row, again. 

I’m going to continue where I left off in my last post, leaving for Monument Valley. We crossed the Utah – Arizona border on the way to Monument Valley. Which doesn’t add a whole lot to my story, but it was just a little detail. The way to Monument Valley was fairly good. The roads inside the park definitely were not. I’ve heard that the indians there (it’s a park owned by the Navajos… or the Navajo tribe. I have no idea how to say this) keep it in awful condition on purpose: so that the tourists will be scared off and take one of the (expensive!) tours the indians do, in jeeps or vehicles like that. The road was even bumpier than it looked. It was without a doubt the worst road I’ve ever been on. Very bumpy in general, with sometimes huge holes in the roads. The park however, was beautiful. It was a fairly flat landscape, with these huge rocks sticking out of the grounds suddenly. And it weren’t like, huge formations of rocks or anything, it were just single and sometimes double huge blocks of rock. Really weird to see sometimes.
We drove around for a bit in the park, watched the rocks in beautiful lighting (it was later at the day, so the sun was fairly low already), and were completely shaken around because of the road. We had dinner in a/the only restaurant in a park. The restaurant had these huge windows that looked over on the valley, it was a really nice place to have dinner with great views. The food was good also. We went home, and went to sleep.

Oh no, wait, I only wish it was that good. We went home, and the beds me and my sister slept in (a bunk bed, with two bunks…or whatever it’s called) were the most terrible beds I’ve ever seen. They were just about as hard as my bed in Moab (which was pretty damn hard and awful already), but what made things worse is that they matched the rest of the house. They were tiny. I couldn’t lay straight, I had to prop my feet all up or else my head would be against the bedpost. They were also very small, as in, not very wide. I couldn’t read a book with my arms somewhat wide or I’d hit my elbows against the side. The bedlamp was also really smartly placed. They made the bed with the pillow side not on the side of the lamp. First I thought that was stupid, no wait, I still think that was stupid, but they had a reason for it. The bedlamp was so low, I’d hit my head as soon as I lifted it a little.

The temperature in the house was awful as well. When the airco was on, it’d be real cold in no time, but as soon as you put it out it would also be really hot really soon, so basically it was never a nice temperature. Also, the airco was placed that way that if we put it on, it would be really close to my other sister’s head and would almost blow her sheets away, so we couldn’t have it on in the night. I also don’t know what was on with that damned cabin, but during the night the temperature would shift from unbearably hot (well, not unbearable, but enough to prevent anyone from sleeping) to fairly cold.
For all those reasons, I lay awake till past 4 AM, with that also greatly annoying my parents. I can’t say they didn’t have right to be annoyed….but seriously, it’s not like I’m lying awake on a wooden plank with a pathetic excuse for a matress on it for fun.

Anyway…. so that wasn’t exactly the greatest of nights. After a poor amount of sleep, we took off to Page, Arizona. State change, and time zone change! We arrived there far too early, at 12:30 PM, while we could only go in our room at 3 PM. So we had lunch (and problems with finding a place to have lunch), and went to Lake Powell. We swum a little bit, the water was wonderfully warm (and the sand foot-burning hot), and went back to the hotel. We hung around in the hotel for a bit, I watched the Greatest ‘90’s Hits or something like that, which was nice (Green Day was in there too once, or at least, they were there once in the part I watched, which was from around #80-something till #29 or something), then we had dinner and went to sleep, thank God in a proper bed.

The next day, we had to get up somewhat early, and at 10 we left the hotel, on to a tour of Antelope Canyon ‘by Chief Tsosie’. I personally haven’t seen said Chief, but apparently he was there for a short time, at the hoop dance. When we arrived at the place we had to go to, we had to wait for a little, and there was a hoop dance show thingy. The dance was kind of … weird. On the one side, it was pretty cool, but on the other side it just looked a bit weird. That probably also had to do with the place it was in. A gas station, where a lot of jeeps and such were parked. Anyway, after the show we were called and got into this tour car thingy, kind of a small truck front with a thing behind it where the tourists would sit in. We drove to the canyon, and the drive itself was almost a ride of itself. The thing behind the car was completely open, so at I don’t know what speed, probably 80 km/h outside of the village, we got all the winds in our faces. Cue hair be one big knot. We drove through a dry river base for a bit too, and arrived at the canyon. From the outside it didn’t look that impressive, but when we went inside, that’s when the magic started. I’d already seen a couple of pictures from the inside, but you just don’t know what you see when you get in. It’s unlike any cave or canyon I’ve ever seen. Everything’s all smooth and with lines, and just … well, I can’t describe it, I’ll let the pictures tell it. It was psychedelic at points… the shapes of the stones, the carvings/trenches ?? in there, and what the light does with it. The colours of the stone in the different lights. It was very narrow, the narrowest point was less than a metre wide, I’d say not more than 70 or 80 cm. The sand in there comes from above, so the level really fluctuates, an example was a hole in the rock that was now around hip height, and last week it was above people’s heads. The guide was a nice guy, talked a little soft, but it was okay. He took a couple pictures for some people (mainly for me and two French girls of around my age xD) because he knows all the good picture spots and all. It was really beautiful and despite it not being big, magnificent. It was definitely worth the getting up early. After a windy drive back, we had an ice cream and took off to the Grand Canyon. 

Catchy title, innit? 

On day three (or four…. the day before we left, anyhow), we went rafting. Sounds sort of badass, wasn’t the case. We had to get up at an ungodly hour, especially for a vacation, since we had to be at the ‘headquarters’ at 8:15, AM. I’ll skip the half dead morning rituals that morning, and will immediately move on to arriving at said headquarters. We arrived, had to put on lifejackets, and after a little of waiting and putting on a bunch of sunscreen, we took a bus, and old school bus actually, to the point where we’d be taking off. We made a quick stop at a hotel along the way to pick up a couple of people, and we arrived at the endpoint. We had to wait for a while, both for the restrooms and for the boats to get ready, and we took off. We were in a boat with four other people, they were friends, and the leader person, a woman called Heather (or in my dad’s words). The rafting was on the Colorado river, which is pretty low in this time of the year. The time of the year also showed in the sense that the water was really calm, with a couple of rapids along the way, but nothing heavy at all. You’d get splashed wet and the boat would be a bit wobbly, but that’s really it. It was really fun, though. Heather was pretty entertaining, an endless source of stories (Bon Jovi wanting to record a music videos in the area and being caught upon on by a big thunder storm and not being able to get away, a plague of trees along the entire Colorado river which simply cannot be stopped, Marlboro commercials being recorded in Utah, something with a problem with uranium garbage that had to be cleaned up, how the Mormons gave villages all around Utah biblical names, Moab also being one of those biblical names, stories about EPIC river things, etc etc etc) and generally just funny. We were also allowed to swim, which I did twice. The water was very nice, really warm for such a big river. Those four other people in the boat were also nice people, they met on a boat in the Nile years ago, they had a couple travel stories too (including rafting on the Zambezi with heavy rapids and crocodiles). It was a fun morning/early afternoon. When we got home, though, everyone was tired and I was frozen, so we kind of just chilled on the couch or wherever for a couple of hours.

Later in the afternoon, we left to see a little bit more of the Arches park. We saw a couple of arches and did a trail to Landscape arch, probably the biggest arch in the world, or at least a very big one. On the way home, there was a pretty bad thunderstorm going on in the distance, which we could see, so we stopped for a bit to watch it. Lots of lighting bolts, it was nice. We got home after a fairly long ride, had dinner past 9pm again, hung out for a little bit more and went to sleep.

This morning we woke up pretty early again, packed our stuff and drove to the next destination, Monument Valley. Before we really left, we went to this shop to get a couple of movies (our car has a dvd player….. rental cars ftw!). We arrived 10, 15 minutes ago, and I haven´t seen the cabin from the inside yet, but I was told it is tiny and it looks indeed tiny. Kind of like a cardboard box. I think it´s like 2 and a half metres wide and maybe 6 long, one storey. I dread going inside, although we´re only sleeping there for one night. We also can´t bring our bags inside, so we just have to get the stuff we need out and bring that inside. Something that´s not tiny, unfortunately, are the ants. I just had one on my foot and it´s big. I´m not afraid of ants, but I don´t like having almost one cm long ants on my foot. One centimetre doesn´t sound long, but when it´s walking on your foot it definitely is big.

(an hour later)

From the inside it’s tiny as well. This isn’t one of those houses that look tiny and are actually fairly big from the inside. On the bright side of things, I do have sort of my own bed. It’s really small and really uncomfortable and impossible to get into (it’s the upper bunk. No, I did not choose for that myself), but I don’t have to share a bed with one of my sisters (who both are major bed hoggers and both need to cut their toenails. I’m not so much of a bed hogger, but without noticing I hog all the blankets. This is not a good combiantion). So I’m happy I can sleep alone.

Also, I had to eat lunch, but I didn’t feel like eating at all and now I’m somewhat sick because I ate anyway, and I still have a half apple to go. In a couple of minutes or so, we’re going to do something in the park….I have no idea what, but apparently we don’t have to walk. Flip flops it is.

This vacation is going so fast…it’s like, we only have a little over a week left. D: But it’s all been great so far. Nothing was disappointing. The social side of it could have been a little better (and that’s an understatement), but for the rest it’s been great. And I’m getting Carpal Tunnel in my shoulder because this keyboard is so fucking tiny.

On that mostly positive note I’m going to end these posts (I wrote the aquarium and Moab as if it was onee) and wish anyone who’s reading a lovely Summer.

AN: I just came back from the ‘going to do something in the park’

I’m going to start off with something from a while ago which I had forgotten to write something about, somehow, I think. The Monterey Bay Aquarium. We went there on the day after we left San Francisco, I think, some time early at least. It was a pretty great aquarium. We started out at the jellies or jellyfish. When you walked to that section, the first thing you saw was actually a big round aquarium, like, all around you, starting a little above your head, with sardines or something like that in it, small silver fish. It was pretty cool, almost psychedelic (sp?), to be all surrounded by silver things who were continuously swimming around and above your head, at not too bad of a speed. Then the jellyfish themselves. The aquarium had set up the jellyfish section pretty cool, with a deep blue (not dark, just deep) in the background. The first jellyfish were ‘normal’ jellyfish, the kind that’s white and the kind that’s usually stranded on beaches, or here at least. Then came small, very vivid orange jellyfish. I was already fixated with those because they were so cool, such a vivid colour and their tentacles (?) were pretty cool looking too. Next thing were those same jellyfish, but then full size. Their bodies were like 10-15cm wide, and their tentacles were sometimes a metre long, and everything was still bright orange. The background also made it look more beautiful, because it created a big contrast between the background and the jellies. There were a whole bunch of other sorts of jellies, all of which were cool too. Jellyfish are interesting creatures. There were these jellies that were I think pretty rare by now because of global warming and them needing a certain water temperature and all, and they were this creamy white yellow-ish colour. They reminded me of curtains. Another kind of jellie, were tiny little jellies, that had a light on them, and you could push a button so the light would go out, and then they were almost invisible, they were pretty much transparant.

After the jellies, I can’t remember the exact order in which we did thing. We watched a bit of the feeding of the penguins, but that was a bit weird since it was mostly a lesson about the penguins, and the actual feeding kind of just happened in the background. There were one or two BIG aquaria with all kinds of fish in them, including sharks and stingrays (if that’s not what they’re called, blame my dad.). Those were pretty impressing. One was over two stories high. It’s impossible to get bored with those. They also had some pretty weird or huge fish. Also, tunas are weird fish. They’re huge! I knew they get pretty big, but it’s still weird to see a fish that big. Sharks are also big, but they’re a different kind of big. They’re not all fat and round, and it doesn’t seem as if they can’t swim properly anymore because they’re overweight (which is what tunas do look like). We also saw a whole bunch of shellfish and the like. There was this aquarium thingy where you could stroke sea stars and I think a crab too, but I’m not sure. We saw flamingos and a couple more birds (ibises and those birds of which I don’t know what they’re called in English, but I think it’s something with ‘spoon’). We also saw sea devils I think they’re called. Those animals are pretty awesome. They really look like dragons, but than small. Come to think of it, I think they might’ve been called sea dragons, not sea devils….. The last thing I remember we saw, were sea otters. Later that day, not in the aquarium anymore, we also saw wild sea lions, they were just hanging out on a couple of rocks in some bay.

So that was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Sorry if I had already written about it, but I can’t recall that, and I can’t find it either. And sorry for the lack of paragraphs. I was torn between tiny paragraphs or none at all, both options are bad. Yay :) Now on to something recent.