Well a few months later, here is another blog.
So I went to N. Cali finally. I have been all over S. Cali but finally I made it to San Francisco. It was absolutely amazing!! I love it is one of my most favorite places I have ever visited. It’s perfect for me really. The city is great very diverse, lots of different things to see and do, great architecture. From the city it’s about a 10-15 minute drive into the mountains and about 10-15 minutes to the ocean, PERFECT!! There are salt marshs and all sorts of vast and diverse landscapes. The trees are amazing, redwoods, they just stretch into the sky for miles so it seems, they stand tall and in lines one after another. I also went to Monterey, Oakland, and other areas in N Cali, I loved it all.
The best day was Sunday; it was a practically interesting day for me… Once I got into Monterey I went to the Wharf at Monterey Bay, I herd an odd barking, a familiar sound but I just couldn’t believe what I thought I heard. It was the bark of a sea lion, once I got onto the pier there they were California sea lions just swimming in the bay. There were also a couple of otters. It was just something I didn’t expect. Its one thing to see animals on TV but to see them in the wild, in person, is just something different. I had come to the Wharf to catch a boat to go whale watching. But I didn’t come to Cali to go whale watching I went to handle business, I actually had an interview for a teaching job, and in fact it was on Sunday. I did go to my interview that morning, but when I was sitting there listening to what the people had to say I just kept thinking to myself I don’t want to be here, what am I doing here? Nothing about it felt right so I left, I got up and just left my interview. Got into my car and head to Monterey. The drive was absolutely amazing, I drove on winding roads of mountainous terrain, it was raining off and on. The weather was cool, and there is nothing better in the world than that fresh crisp cool mountain air, the smell of green, the smell of nature. Once you wind down the mountain you drive into valleys of farm land, all sorts of different types of different fruits and vegetables, artichokes, cherries, strawberries, oranges; little groups fruit stands clutter the 2 lane highway. Its just plains and plains of farmland with a mountainous terrain to your west and the ocean peeks in and out to the east of the massive sand dunes which are upwards of 25 ft.
So the 12:30 boat I was suppose to take was pushed back an hour but finally we made it out to sea, when we pull out of the marina/Wharf the jetty is covered in at least 1000 sea lions and elephant seals all basking in the sun. There are otters and seals everywhere in the water, swimming, jumping, and just floating around. We got maybe about 10-15 miles out of the bay and we come across a pod of over 200 dolphins feeding on bait fish. I have never seen anything like it in my life, it was like I was watching the discovery channel in real life, and words really can’t describe how it just was so amazing to witness. We stopped and watched them for a bit, and then when we left they swam along side the boat and played in the break. Then we came across 2 humpback whales, seriously it was just the most amazing moment of my life, to date, I think. The whale came right up to the boat and literally right in front of me. The marine biologist on the boat called them “friendly whales” and said that its not often whales come up to the boat like that. Literally it was at my feet this huge, huge, HUGE, massive animal. It’s just this crazy experience like nothing else. It was such an overwhelming and indescribable feeling… finally the whales swam away. As we headed back towards the bay and we saw another pod of dolphin, this time they were Pacific Right Whales, which are actually dolphin, but they don’t have dorsal fins (fins on their backs) these dolphin are only found off the coast of Cali, they are the most common dolphin but rarely seen, if that makes sense. They were amazing too. The marine biologist said that someone on this boat must be “special” because it’s uncommon that they see so many animals on one particular boat trip. As cliché as it sounds I couldn’t help but feel like it was me. All of it was for me. I skipped out on the reason for my trip and here I was on a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean having the greatest moments of my life. How could I not have been the “special” one? I didn’t believe the biologist and I thought that this happens every day, well I went out Monday before my flight and I could say no such luck at all! We did see whales, but they were not “friendly” and no dolphin, but it was still amazing.
Getting on my plane to leave California was definitely difficult.
When I was little I always wanted to be an ichthyologist a person who studies fish, my fish of choice, sharks. Somewhere in my life I lost the thrill I guess or maybe I just didn’t want to push myself and take chemistry or biology, I suck at math like no other! But I feel like I somehow missed my calling? I love being on boats, in the water, on the water, just near the water, fish, water mammals, sea creatures, diving and everything else in between. I don’t know. I just don’t know.
I will never understand my life so it seems… I’m not quit sure, but nothing ever seems to really work out for me the way I want it to or the way I think it should, that is really just what I don’t understand. But then I think that maybe I’m not suppose to do what I’m planning on doing… so what am I suppose to do with my life?
I always get these plans and I pursue them and then something happens and everything falls apart. Or I have other experiences which just makes me second guess everything, like my current situation... I feel like I work hard on things and then I just end up starting from scratch all over again.
So here I am ready set go… Im going to flirt with Marine Biology for a few months and see where it goes… Ill be working at the Florida Oceanographic Center for the summer mostly teaching summer camps but this involves me working with touch tanks, stingrays, a game fish lagoon and sharks. We will see if my flirting turns into a full blown affair…
That is all for now.
