The Secret Life of Sea Horses

An un-finished version of this post has been sitting in one of my internet browser tabs for seven days... an entire week!!!! Sadly, this happens to me a lot. Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me?!? I just made myself a cup of coffee and I'm not getting up until this post is finished!

Anyway, here are the rest of the photos from our day trip to Monterey! Before I show off the seahorses, here are a few from the rest of the aquarium... Which is pretty amazing and the best part about it is that they have these huge larger then life tanks!!! (that's me pointing to an incoming visitor)

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Jellies, of course! No trip to any aquarium would be complete without the obligatory jelly photos.







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This was a cool circular room with a tank that went around the ceiling. There was a school of fish that just kept swimming around and around. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower!



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And just a few little snippets from some of my favorite colored tanks!







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And now we can get onto it. The Sea Horses!

This is me standing next to a giant plastic male seahorse statue giving birth to a little gilded baby sea horse (yea, seriously!) ... and I'd say its a pretty accurate representation of how stupidly excited about life I am to be at that exhibit!!!



I would seriously love to have that giant sea horse statue in my apartment, but maybe one that wasn't weirdly giving birth would be better?

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That's a zebra seahorse.... Which by default I'm particularly fond of, because well my last name starts with a Z and somehow I just associate zebras with that and also zebras are awesome!

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I don't remember this guy's particular species, but I'm really into the monochromatic thing going on here!



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This tank was my favorite - there were so many of them! Dancing around and changing colors!!! But it was also the most crowded tank and it started to stress me out too much. Too many people just trying to push their way in and I got to pushed out to the back... People get nutty at aquariums, it's crazy!







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A little bebe seahorse



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And this last photo is my favorite I think, a lovely bunch of miniature sea horses!!!



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If you plan on visiting I'd say definitely stay clear of school vacation weeks. And plan your trip around low tide so you can snoop around in some of the tide pools along the road! (Don't be tempted by the flat rate parking options, park ocean side and it's free and you can explore!!) The aquarium closes at 6 and seems to empty out significantly after 5, so it's nice to have some of the tanks all to yourself! Oh, and added bonus - there's a Pendleton outlet in town too!

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San Francisco's callin' us

I spent the past weekend in California, cold grey San Francisco to be precise. It was a nice weekend but it was too gosh darn cold for my liking. Like - I could have used my winter coat and been really content, that's how cold it was. I won't complain anymore because I did enough of that and my poor boyfriend is sick of hearing about my disinterest for San Francisco weather!!

But in between whining about chilly fingers and eating more in-n-out than one human being should possibly eat in a weekend I was able to see some lovely things! A vintage paper show that I could have spent at least 5 hours at and easily spent $500 - but we were good and didn't buy a thing! There was a beautiful pale pink and green chrysanthemum print that I almost bought but decided against and now I keep thinking about it... But, I'm sure I'll find something somewhere to fill the void!

We also did a little shopping on Haight Street, gosh - I've come to the conclusion that all the vintage shops in SF have silly price tags (too many pennies, wayy too many pennies folks!) but I did come home with a beautiful wool cloche from the 20's with tan top stitching and an olive green bow! And two perfect one piece bathing suits from the 50's that fit so well I'd be stupid to leave them behind. Detailed photos of those to come!!!

We did a good amount of wandering around Golden Gate Park. Please, don't get me wrong - I will always, always love Boston Garden, but Golden Gate Park is certainly something special! I mean - octopuses and white washed Victorian greenhouses? Yes, thank you!

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I think my favorite part of the entire trip was getting to see sea-horses in real life! I wandered around the Academy of Sciences or a long time hoping to find a little tank with them in it and I was about ready to go upstairs when I finally spotted them! There were three in the tank and they barely moved at all - much different then their portrayals in Jean Painlevé's films... but, everyone has their bad days I guess.. I think I stood by their tank for way too long and had too many funny interactions with strangers who wanted to pay the sea-horses a visit. Come to think of it, I spent a creepily long amount of time sitting by that tank! It was funny though, most of the people who stopped by made a remark about how 'cute' they are - I couldn't agree more!!

I also think that the Conservatory of Flowers is definitely my favorite place to be in all of California - the aquatic plant room was perfect - hot and humid!!! I think come fall I'm going to spend a lot of time there. It's a bit more affordable then visiting the sea-horses too.



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I spent my last day in California actually enjoying some real heat and sunshine (not just fake sauna style heat at the Conservatory) but we had to go about an hour and a half outside of the city to get it. ... The Russian River! We had ourselves a little picnic afternoon with some kind folks and tasty treats! I was especially excited to wear one of my new bathing suits and take my hat out for the day! I even got to bring along two of my rattier patchwork quilts! I've deemed them my official picnic adventure quilts and I can't wait to see where else they'll take me!

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Psst - There's a little sneak at one of my bathing suits - and a double sneak peak at my hat!!!

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New England Institutions

I have a 'to do list' for tonight which is about 7 items long ... so what am I doing right now? Distracting myself with every possible thing I can think of... I managed to find the time to take a little stroll down memory lane and look through my iphoto.

So - as I was flipping through my pictures I realized I had some photos of a magical little place that exists in my life and I've never shared them! Coney Island... No, no - not the Coney Island - but the one in good 'ol Worcester, Massachusetts! (I'm saying this with a big cheesy grin on my face - if you've ever been to Worcester you understand what I'm talking about!)



My dad loooves this place - and I can't blame him, it's got a charm you just don't find in places anymore! It was built in 1918 and I don't think anything has changed except for the cars outside and the internet juke box. They're famous for their hot dogs, but I prefer a grilled cheese with a side of boxed chocolate milk - just like I had in grade school.





There's so much swoon worthy art deco detail in the architecture and the booths are covered in the carved out initials of old loves and forgotten flings. There's something so comforting about flopping your cafeteria tray onto one of those red chrome tables - perfectly worn in all the right places- to wait for that song you requested on the juke box. (my favorite is there is a mountain by Donovan)



It seems as though all my photos of the outside in daylight are gone-zo - but here's an old wardrobe remix photo from last winter.... I'm so sad that I cant find any of those photos right now because the outside color choices are just top notch! I'll have to get myself over there some warm sunny afternoon for my grilled cheese fix and a photo update!

** update! I was able to stop by on Easter Sunday and snap a couple pictures - unfortunately I only had my phone and it was closed - but at least I didn't feel like a crazed tourist standing in the middle of the road taking pictures!!!

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The Long Crouch Woods

I had heard tales of abandoned bear cages somewhere inside of Franklin Park, but it was always one of those 'to do' things that gets pushed back and pushed back. Well, on Monday we finally found them!!

Apparently the cages were built in 1912 and then abandoned in the 50's. The dens were too too expensive for the city to keep up, and it turned into an illegal dumping ground. Over the years there have been grants to clean the place up and I'd say it looked like it was in pretty good shape!

Except for these guys, but I think the animals are actually my favorite thing about the dens!




There are no clear cut directions on how to get here, and it took the iphone, lots of driving around, and my internal navigation senses to find the place! (thank you dad for passing your keene sense of direction down to me!) The only advice I can offer is that they run parallel to Seaver Street, and there's a parking lot with tennis and basketball courts and a big white stadium near by. Walk away from the the parking lot and towards the stadium the first wide dirt path you see on the right goes into the woods and you'll find it along there. (I think it's the first path, then again - I found it on a pure hunch) It's only a 5 minute walk from the parking lot. I recommend going in the early morning hours or in the late afternoon, that funny orange glow makes the concrete a little more inviting!!













(Or should they now be called the raccoon dens?? harhar. There were three or four of them in there actin' all cute and stuff!)

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Harvard University's Museum of Natural History

Harvard University's Museum of Natural History is one of the very best places to visit in Boston, and I think it's one of the most underrated too. I suppose that's probably for the best though, because it's not very much fun to look at funny 'ol dead things with a crowd around you! If you live in Massachusetts, the museum is free on Sunday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. I always find a new favorite animal when I visit, and of course I have my old flames I'm sure to linger around a bit longer (the coelacanth is one of them!)

Someday I'm going to spend a few afternoons and photograph everything in there, but for now- here are a few of my favorite photos!! (there are a bunch, so click Read More to view!)

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