Swimming with the Seals

I haven't been able to upload any pictures yet, as I forgot to pack my card reader, but we've been taking lots of fun pictures, so I'm sure tomorrow night I'll upload them all if I'm not passed out from our travels.
We had a quick moment today that was truely fascinating, I WISH I were fast enough to snap a photo, but I was more shocked by what happened. This evening, Mason, Gavin, Josh and I headed down to the beach for some fun for a bit before the sun went down. Mason was enjoying himself in the sand playing and eating it while I was busy snapping away pictures, Gavin and Josh were throwing around the frisbee. The water was COLD today. Gavin accidently threw the frisbee about 10 feet out into the water. So Josh & Gavin were debating who should go out and fetch it. Josh waded out into the water about 5 feet and was deciding if he should swim for it or not. I was watching the water by him and I said, "Josh, I think there's a big fish right there in front of you." Next thing you know, a seal pops his head up, looks at us and swims off! It was pretty neat to see and so close. We've been seeing quite a few seals out in the water, and I saw a few dolphins today from the patio balcony out in the bay by Balboa. When Mason hears the seals barking outside, he must think they're dogs, because he barks back at them. yet, again....they do bark! LOL its really neat to hear.

Today we met up with Cathy, Roman and the kiddos and we headed to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. What a great aquarium, it was really neat. Exciting day for me, I had some lorikeets land on me, and I couldn't get them off me (I'm not a huge bird fan, although they were really pretty...they're noisy buggers!) One pooped on my foot. I got soaked by a Bat Ray (in the sting ray family) during their lunch feeding (that was pretty cool) and Mason decided he was going to squirt water out of his mouth like the dolphin, but all on me. He found that rather amusing. Oh yes, and I sat on an orange. So you could say, I was a mess today! LOL But it was fun, we had a good time with Cathy & Roman. I always love spending time with them!

I'm not ready to come home yet, this trip has been TOO quick, but I am REALLY looking forward to coming out this summer a few times. There's so much more that I wanted to do on this trip, but we had a nice relaxing time and got to see some of our family and friends (which is always mantadory in my book!) I'm still hoping I can get in my frozen banana from Balboa tomorrow before we leave! (that's something you always have to eat while on the beach here- or at least I do (I grew up eating those everytime we made a trip to the beach) that would be like going to the State Fair of Texas and not having any fried food. (HAHAHA, oh the difference between California and Texas!) I do believe that in my midlife crisis (if i ever have one) i might move to the Coast- it must be my true Californian native in me that i LIVE for these sunny 70 degree weather days with the smell of Jasmine lingering and amazingly fresh fruit at my fingertips and sand between my toes!