WHALES.

Okay. This post has been LONG overdue. But so have many other posts that I have been meaning to write. September was a busy month, travel-wise. Work-wise, September brought the least amount of flight hours I have ever worked. Travel-wise, what I really yearn for, September was great. The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta was checked off my to-do list on my birthday (this is the World's Largest Aquarium for those who are curious) as a very fun day trip. And then a two day, semi-spontaneous (I am not spontaneous, I need to plan, so I planned for only one day prior to leaving) trip to San Francisco happened!

I debated between Seattle and San Francisco for quite some time. The whales in Washington are mainly on the San Juan Islands, which would take a bit longer for me to journey to then the easily accessible San Francisco and Fisherman's Wharf. With this being said, I absolutely LOVE public transportation. I look for cities that I can get from the airport to whatever attraction via public transportation. So convenient, so easy, and usually quite cheap. In this case, the BART system in San Francisco was phenomenal. For $16.50 round trip, I made it from the airport right down to the Ferry Building. And from there only $2.00 per cable car ride, or $8.00 per trolley ride. Or FREE if you walk. On a perfectly sunny day, I decided to do a majority of walking all over this town. #lovelovelove

With just my little backpack packed as an overnight bag, I set out to explore this city as much as possible. I have been to San Francisco just once before, back in 10th grade. My mom and I went with the Como Zoo-Hoppers, and explored San Francisco, Oakland, Wine Country, Muir Woods, and the surrounding cities for a week. This time, traveling by myself, my priorities were a bit different. Some of the scenery was the same, some of the scenery was different, and some I did not remember at all.

The highlight and my purpose (to continue my now extended birthday month!) was WHALE WATCHING. Let me preface this by saying, I cannot believe this worked out. I booked my ticket the day prior, and the five and a half hour tour was quite worth the price. Check out the tour group I went with if you ever decide to go, they are all marine biologists, adhere to all rules and regulations about sea life/wildlife, and are super nice, plus the boat is named Kitty Kat! Currently, it is Humpback Whale migration time out at the Farallon Islands, approximately 27 miles past the San Francisco Bay out on the ocean. Yes, 27 miles. Which, by boat, is approximately two hours there and two hours back. That is quite the ride! Thank goodness my current job has gotten me quite used to turbulence and motion, because we ran into some rough water with nothing but grey clouds keeping us quite chilled, and salt water drying to a crust all over my face from random mists and sprays the entire ride. But would I change a thing? Of course not.

The whole group met at 8am at Pier 39. We embarked on our voyage at about 8:30am. The sun attempted to shine through, giving us a tease of the warmth we all wish we had the whole day! And that big cruise ship in the back? That's the Disney Cruise Ship. That thing is massive.

Victoria was our guide for the day. She is a Marine Biologist originally from Australia. She was adorable, informative, massively enthusiastic, and all in all just great.

01 02 18

The World's LARGEST Aquarium!

Birthdays mean a lot to me. I have always had themed birthday parties growing up and love to celebrate and make the day seem special. Versus just another day, or the pessimistic 'another year older' attitude. This year, I decided to go on a day trip to Atlanta (why not, with this job!) to the World's Largest Aquarium! Ever since visiting Le 'Oceanografic in Valencia I have wanted to see the World's Largest Aquarium. As that one was the Second Largest Aquarium. With simply a day trip down to Atlanta and home that night, I did just that for my birthday! I saw the aquarium I never knew if I'd ever see. (And yes, this still means I love my job!)

GEORGIA AQUARIUM

The architecture to Aquariums, Museums, and Zoos, are all so intriguing to me. The appearance of this aquarium is massive as you walk across the park across the street from here. Very sleek, very shiny, and just the right amount of futuristic qualities. Opened in 2005, I love the new feeling everything has in this space. And how cool that the co-founder of The Home Depot, Bernie Marcus, donated $250 million for this aquarium. (I LOVE learning things like this!)

01 02 18

June Escape: San Antonio

Yet another adventure. I must say I'm enjoying life SO much these days. I have never been more relaxed, nor more healthy, and I am so thankful for all that I have going for me. (Side note: I was starting to be pessimistic about working ALL day on Father's Day, that's right 5:15am to 9:30pm after they extended my trip. But, I recovered quickly and told myself you know what be thankful you have a job, be happy you can do the job, and be glad I will be home with a roof over my head and a full fridge later tonight. And that I was able to see my papa on Father's day and give him his awesome cardinal feeder and seeds. And from then on, I've been more of a happy camper than ever.)

This brings me to my June Escape: San Antonio, specifically Sea World.

Now I hadn't even realized there was a Sea World in San Antonio until looking up the locations, and I do want to eventually explore the Orlando and San Diego locations, but for now, San Antonio was in the same time zone, relatively open flights, and just someplace different to go. Who says, "let's go to San Antonio!" I don't always want to go where everyone goes (and those flights tend to fill up anyway) so to go to Southern Texas the beginning of June might seem odd, but it was quite alright by me.

San Antonio



I have never rented a car before. After trying to figure out which company had the lowest young driver fee (25 is the lucky number for no fees - looking forward to that!), Advantage pulled through, only $15 added on! I was not even nervous to drive, maybe because we had this tiny little beast. A Nissan Versa, quite snazzy. And in powder blue, talk about class. The most anxiety I felt: booking this car and the hotel while waiting in the gate area on the plane after we got our seats.



This isn't the greatest picture, unfortunately my phone and nighttime don't get along. BUT the San Antonio River Walk is AH-MAZING. I felt as if it was a hidden place, because from the above streets on a Monday night there was no one around, abandoned buildings down the streets we walked, and relatively few people. Yet, walking down two sets of steps led to this secret, very thriving, full of life place. Next time (and there will be a next time) I plan on catching the boat tour that runs along this river and perusing the shops a bit more.

Our dinner spot! I wasn't that hungry but cheese dip and guacamole sounded yummy. This whopping portion was enough for way more than just me. Unfortunately, cheese dip didn't live up to Mariachi Loco's (I have high standards, peeps) BUT it was still yummy probably most credit given to the atmosphere. Next time, remind me to bring dresses, as the River Walk had a somewhat classy vibe and with 97 degree weather and humidity, jeans and a cardigan, so not coming with.

The Alamo! Sadly, neither me nor Jacqui (who I went with!) know anything about The Alamo. I would definitely want to take a tour of this next time. The only thing I can recall about The Alamo is from the Pee Wee Herman movie, that he thought his bicycle was in the basement of The Alamo. To which, I believe there isn't even a basement? Yep, no idea.

 Our San Antonio night life ended as we walked back to our Travel Lodge room. What appeared to look a lot nicer from the online pictures and not nasty motel-esque. Meh. Lesson learned. All we had to do was sleep there, and that's what we did. Sea World bright and early the next day, only about 15 minutes away!



Walking into Sea World feels much more like a theme park than my vision of a huge aquarium. Gone are most interactive tanks to view the giant mammals. Instead, the day was centered around the 'shows.' However, there are two stops to feed animals: the sea lions (or are they seals? shoot. can't recall) and the dolphins. I didn't feed these guys but this one was a BEAST. Clearly, he was eating all the fish people fed him. Just thinking about his massive size makes me laugh. Not as pretty scenic wise as say Seal Island at the Como Zoo (once again, I had very high expectations and standards for Sea World), but more interactive and memorable since you are able to feed them.



Show #1. What I thought was going to be a kiddie show, I was pleasantly surprised with the appeal to all ages and incorporation of seals, otters, and the walrus. According to the show, animals take around 3-5 years to train for this (if I remember correctly), but they did a darn good job. Despite sitting in the direct sun and sweating it out, the show was well worth it.  




Show #2: SHAMU. The greatest amount of anticipation for this show. Basically the crowds follow one another all day long, hopping from show to show, and it was somewhat of a rush to get over to this arena. The area is at least the size of Valley Fair if not double, a lot bigger than I ever though, complete with a man made lake in the center for their water ski shows. Back to Shamu - There are THREE of them. WHAT! I had NO idea there were three, I mean it makes sense, but in my mind I only thought there would be one getting all the attention. However, I would like to say Shamu was the largest one, as the other two were smaller, dorsal fins still strong and tall. I was very impressed with the orchestration of the show, music and lights, and the amount of time devoted to the orcas. Most shows I feel are dedicated to education rather than 'tricks' but the Shamu show was all about showing off the massive size of these whales. The trainers never got in the water with the whales, something maybe only reserved for the Orlando location, or perhaps not at all anymore after deadly encounters. But all in all, SO fun to watch. I had only wished I could have gotten closer. My biggest disappoint for the day was not being able to really SEE the animals besides in the show. They resorted back to their tanks behind the audience zones and we never saw them again. A huge difference from aquariums and the 'on display' factor versus entertainment perhaps. (Also, note the HUGE whale tale that is over the entrance to their tanks, gah, LOVE LOVE LOVE)

  

One of my favorite pictures from the entire day. The much anticipated picture that all try to capture. This is who I call Shamu. He's (or possibly she I really don't know) the largest of the three and the only one with his dorsal fin curved, which saddened my heart a bit to see, but there is no pain to my understanding to them, simply due to captivity. Orca whales are truly GIANTS. Now I would say gentle giants of the sea like all my other whale species, however, these guys are the killer whales, and eat much more than fish and krill, thus, although graceful, not exactly gentle in the oceans. What you don't see after this picture is how they slither back into the water, their entire body goes limp and at the moment they look like a huge amount of blubber slowly sinking into the water lifeless, not the prettiest image in  your mind, nor to see, but they've got to get back in the water somehow I guess. Nevertheless, the main attraction by far at Sea World and I was impressed. I do wish I could have gotten up to their tank and really take in their massive size and behaviors. But you are not able to get any closer than this, the image of Free Willy and the tapping of the glass, so not happening here.



Show #3. I love belugas. I could watch the behaviors of a swimming beluga literally all day if given the chance. However, this again is where Sea World differs from aquariums. This is as close as you get to the animals. Unless of course you may additional money for an 'encounter.' From what I could tell they only have the one beluga, which somewhat makes me sad, as these animals are always in pods in the wild, and although have human companions in captivity, at the end of the day, he is swimming by himself. Only making about three appearance throughout the entire show, this picture is where I truly got jealous. I would love to 'ride' these gentle giants. The trainer also got to 'ski' with the beluga by resting her foot on the beluga's melon (the alien looking head part). This show combined more synchronized swimming and acrobatics than the focus on the animals, but once again, entertainment factor and attention span seeking, meets the mark.

Dolphin encounter! This is the second animal you can feed: the bottlenose dolphins! You can buy fish and gently toss the fish into their mouths. Despite being above these creatures height wise, I was still a bit nervous as to how to interact with them, those teeth look intimidating. It was after my last fish that the helper said to us to touch the dolphin first on the nose then give it a fish as a reward. I didn't officially touch one but I did feed them. And with this being the closest you can come to any animal at Sea World, I may have enjoyed this exhibit and experience the most. The songs of the Beach Boys may have helped increase the atmosphere points as well.



At the entrance, yet the last picture of my trip! Since I haven't gone to a larger aquarium (my last one was Shedd back in December) or a theme park in a while, so this was great, despite my disappointments here and there. And do I dare say, I like some heat these days, however 97 degrees and humid may not be ideal. The change of pace for this trip, WAY worth it. Sea World San Diego and Orlando will be on my list.



01 02 18