The other day Baby Bug and I went to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific with Whoorl and her family. We drove separately and then got lost and only really hung out with Whoorl for an hour or so but it was really really fun. I love going places, just Baby Bug and me. I feel like we are a team. We do everything together.

It was kind of funny because I royally got us lost in downtown Long Beach. (Is this a theme with me lately?) Not in Snoop Dog’s ‘hood but in the general Grand Prix race area. I followed the Aquarium directions carefully but they didn’t take into account the restructuring of the whole map due to the big race that is coming up. The directions were useless. Signs for the aquarium itself and parking for the aquarium led me straight into a cement wall. They’ve blocked off the track for the race already and everything is screwy.

I finally parked in some high-rise parking structure with no idea where I was. I headed off towards the building with whales on it, thinking that was an obvious place for an aquarium to be, and ended up in a ghost town of closed businesses and loft style apartments. Everywhere I looked everything was under construction. Roads were blocked off with chain-link fences, cranes were lifting up huge heavy sections of cement. Oddly, with all this construction activity, there wasn’t a soul around to ask directions.

I finally flagged down a guy on a bike and asked him how to get to the aquarium. I think he looked at me hoofing it across multiple lanes of traffic with a squirming toddler in my arms and decided to give me the easy version. He told me to catch a free shuttle and wait for the appropriate stop.

So I did. That was kind of fun for Baby Bug and me. We’ve never ridden a bus together before. Baby Bug thought it was more fun that Disneyland. A ride with no seat belts! Wheeeee!

We rode around on the free shuttle for about twenty minutes and finally ended up at a building that did not have whales on the side of it and that was our stop. Who knew! It also seemed suspiciously close to the parking structure. Like we had ridden around in a circle, stopping every five minutes to pick up new passengers and here we were. Perhaps I could have just walked two blocks and saved myself ten minutes? But who knows. I’m not a local here. Maybe there was a freeway between the aquarium and the parking structure that you cannot cross by foot.

Anyway, the bus ride was fun and free so I didn’t think about it too much. But when we were done with the aquarium, I went outside and sure enough I could see that same parking structure building again just a couple of blocks away. It was very very strange. Was it a twin building of ours? Should I just walk that way and see?

It was too confusing. There were chain-link fences everywhere and I couldn’t tell if I could get through or not. I didn’t want to walk all that way (they were long blocks) and find out I couldn’t get through, so we caught the bus and rode the circle again backwards.

I have a feeling that we rode the bus to a further spot and then walked backwards to our car but I really don’t know. My brain is so addled with worrying about sippy cups and keeping track of eight different pacifiers that I don’t think it has much room in it for branching out and walking the streets of downtown Long Beach in search of a shorter route. Retracing my steps seemed like the best idea at the time, even if I did end up with a backache and a toddler asleep on my shoulder by the time I got to my car.

In spite of all that, I really did have a great time at the aquarium. I would recommend it for kids of all ages. A lot of it was over Baby Bug’s head but it was safe enough and small enough that I could let her run free and explore things on her own terms. Which if you know Baby Bug, you know that is the best way to do things. She hates being confined to the stroller these days. She just wants to be free like a bee.

She loved climbing all over everything. I think she enjoyed the bars and steps more than the exhibits themselves. Though we did have a lot of fun looking for Nemo, whom we never did find.

My favorite parts were by far the jellyfish and the manta rays. I could sit and watch the jellyfish for hours. They are so peaceful and beautiful the way they float around with their long strands of hair-like tentacles. They move so slowly you almost feel hypnotized by them. I daydreamed about having a big jellyfish-filled aquarium at the foot of my bed and falling asleep to their soft movements. Who needs a lava lamp? Jellyfish are so much better!

I know this photo doesn’t look like much but this is my best capture of my most favorite part of the aquarium. These are brown manta rays (bat rays) who swim around in an outdoor pond area that you can put your hand in to pet them. They actually come up to the side and want to be petted. Or at least that’s what the aquarium employee outside with the microphone said.

Toby had to go and ruin that memory for me by telling me that the manta rays were not being friendly but were actually just hungry. Hmph. They seemed really friendly. It was neat to touch them. Their skin is rubbery and slippery. I really liked them. The whole experience made me want to go to the gift shop and buy a stuffed manta ray so I could cuddle up with it. Maybe they starve the poor manta rays just so you will feel like that and spend money. I do not know.

I guess it doesn’t matter since we came home with a blowfish family instead.

It’s not Easter and this is not an Easter post. I’m just sticking a photo of Baby Bug’s green peeps up there because I desperately want to put something new up and I’m not terribly inspired by my photos tonight.

However, I do have a new banner. Yay for fresh new banners! That’s pretty much all I accomplished today.

In other news, Toby is leaving for Argentina tomorrow to go on a hunting trip with his Dad and his brother. It should be pretty fun for him but of course he is a nervous wreck because he hates flying and he hates traveling and he’s been traveling for the last two months. Also, his work has been stressful lately. But what else is new, right?

Anyway, that means ten more days of batchin’ it* for Baby Bug and I. I wonder what kind of trouble we’ll get into this time. I’m thinking of re-covering the couch. That should be exciting.

* should I spell it “bachin’ it” short for bacheloring it? Whatever, you know what I mean.

Hawaii doesn’t usually look like this. It usually looks like this. See the difference? Maybe check out the whole gallery. Sure, a lot of it is Toby’s mad photography skills but also there is one key difference: in my photos it’s overcast!

Kona is beautiful either way but what’s funny about taking pictures of a tropical island when it is overcast is that the color doesn’t really convey the warmth and how exotic everything really is. If it weren’t for the bendy palm trees and outlines of lush leaves everywhere this photo could be taken in Long Beach. Hawaii is all about color so where is the color?

It was over here on the rainy side of the island! The side of the island that is usually overcast and rainy and gray. How funny and strange, no? Why, you ask? Because of this:

This is steam from hot lava hitting the ocean. It was pretty cool. We wanted to get closer to see the actual molten lava dripping in big fiery globs into the sea but the Feds taped us off because they were worried that the whole “shelf” of lava would break off and we’d all go crashing into the ocean.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The reason I’m showing you that photo is because something something something (that I will link and document properly when Toby the Volcano Expert wakes up) is happening with the volcano that hasn’t happened since 1924!!! And because the something something something is happening, the gas and fumes from the volcano are swirling around the island and hovering like smog over Kona! Right where we were staying!

I didn’t know any different but it really drove Toby nuts. He was there to shoot a luxury home and as you know luxury homes are all about the view. He couldn’t shoot the view because there was no view! Day after day he went to the job site and scouted around for the perfect shot and day after day he came back dejected that the blasted “vog” had beat him again.

On the very last day Toby decided to take one day off work and take us to the other side of the island where the weather was GREAT!!!! Who knew? Usually the rainy side of the island is rainy!

Everywhere we looked the sky was blue and the ocean was so turquoise it almost hurt your eyes. I don’t think my photos do the views justice really. Miles and miles and miles of fresh, fresh air to breath. They say that the freshest air on earth is on this side of the island because it blows in from the ocean from miles and miles away with no land and pollution in sight. We actually know of someone who intends to move to Hilo just because he wants to breath clean air and live forever.

He shouldn’t have any trouble finding a place to live since everything is for sale on Hawaii. I’m sure it’s just a sign of the times and they are experiencing the same recession/depression we are here in California but everywhere we looked we saw for sale signs. It was almost creepy like everyone is trying to get off the island at once or something.

When we stopped for a pizza lunch before we headed to the Akaka waterfall we stood around and day-dreamed about buying this pad and building a bed and breakfast on it. Can you imagine the stories I could blog about from there?

I can see why so many mainlanders come over to visit and end up staying. It really is intoxicating. Life is slower. Springtime is year-round. Everything is beautiful. You feel like you are in another country, far far away from the hustle and bustle of home yet you are still in the United States and protected by its laws.

Then we thought about the school systems and how Baby Bug would probably get picked on and the fact that if you need decent medical treatment, you have to get on a plane and fly to another island… and that sort of dashed that daydream. It was fun while it lasted though!

We did get rained on after all. While hiking to see Akaka Falls, it rained big huge drops of warm water all over us. It was great. Baby Bug was having the time of her life running around and investigating puddles and leaves and bugs. Everything was green so she was in heaven. I think she could have stayed there forever.

But like Toby said, she was way more interested in the railing and the little puddles on the sidewalk than she was in the hundreds of feet of water crashing over the side of a steep cliff and pounding away on the rocks below. It was a little like our trip to the San Diego Zoo. Railings are sooo interesting when you are a toddler.

Then we dried off and warmed up with a coconut mocha from Starbucks! Ha ha! Who am I kidding? We didn’t need warming up, the rain was warm! It was actually freezing cold IN Starbucks and I needed the mocha to keep from shivering in their air conditioning.

I don’t usually order anything besides a grande latte when I’m at Starbucks but I decided to try the coconut mocha because you can only get it in Hawaii. How bad would I feel if I got home and found out that I’d never ever get the chance again?!!!

I wonder if that line of thinking would work for sampling everything in their pastry display? Probably not. But it was pretty yummy. A little too sweet but I can handle a little too much sugar when I’m on vacation.

You’d think we’d call it a day after all that but we didn’t. Not when Toby is in charge. He will run Baby Bug and I into the ground, fitting every single adventure in that he can. I was quite mad at him that he forced us to go visit the volcano and didn’t tell me about the required footwear rule. Everywhere we looked there were signs saying to bring water and wear long pants and proper footwear. Flip flops and a skirt aren’t exactly recommended.

I was actually quite scared that we were going to be hiking over knee high shards of razor-sharp lava the way the signs read. Poor Toby, I gave him quite the guilt trip. I had closed-toe shoes and long pants for both Bug and I back at the hotel but we were hours and hours away from there. There was no going back at this point.

Of course it was no big deal at all. The ground was rough but quite even and I skipped over the wrinkles of tar-colored elephant-skin-like lava like a nimble mountain goat in ballet slippers. Well, maybe not quite that gracefully but I didn’t trip or fall once. It was totally fun. I’d go again and wear heels even.

It was a little bit of work to carry Baby Bug the mile or so from the parking area to the actual site where the lava hit the ocean but it was totally worth it. I love adventure. I guess that’s why I’m still married.

And that concludes my vacation blogging!