I haven't written in a while so I thought I'd do a quick re-cap of the last couple weeks. After getting home from my insane vacation I had one of my best weekends here in Monterey. On the Wednesday after I got back I went to see E.T. in the outdoor theater in Carmel! E.T. was supposedly the first movie I ever saw in the theater and has been a life-long theme of mine in my family growing up. It is still a movie I love dearly and what a great way to finally see it in a theater. I brought my Reese's Pieces for everyone to enjoy and despite it being Spielberg's re-do of the movie with a bunch of new scenes, a CGI E.T. and no guns it was still a great night.
That Friday night I finally got brave enough to go ocean swimming! There is a group in town called the Kelp Krawlers that go swimming a few times each week. On Fridays they meet at Lover's Point in Pacific Grove (only 10 mins from my place) and swim about 1/2 mile or so through the kelp. It was quite an experience swimming through kelp and wasn't easy. The water wasn't as cold as I thought I'd be and my brand new wetsuit kept me very warm and buoyant. It was a good first swim and now I've been a few other times since. I swam 1 1/4 miles on the Tuesday night swim following this Friday one, the furthest I'd ever swam. The Tuesday night swims are at a different spot, sans kelp so it's much easier to just relax and go at your own pace.
Saturday morning started with my very first bootcamp. I have that Tough Mudder in a month and needed to start doing something a bit tougher than just running. It was only an hour class but it was a serious reality check! It was a great workout and I was sore as heck the next day. That afternoon I finally went SCUBA diving in a recreational setting. A friend of Megan's is certified so we decided to go down to San Carlos beach which is only 3/4 mile from my place. Our first dive was on the breakwater which is basically a jetty that shoots out passed the USCG station and is home to numerous sea lions (most of the time.) We saw some amazing animals, no mammals, but a great number of sea stars, jellyfish, sea cucumbers, nudibranchs, crabs, and rockfish all living in and amongst the kelp beds and rock walls.
After warming up we went out on a second dive on the other end of the beach where there was supposedly a large pipe and a field of metridium (http://www.scubamonterey.com/infometridiumfield.html). We found the pipe immediately and followed it to its end and then headed almost due north towards where the metridium were supposed to be. Thankfully we found them and they were incredibly impressive. What was most impressive though were the swarms of Pacific sea nettles that were swimming all around us. It was almost a bit unnerving at first but such a magnificent sight, especially for a jelly enthusiast!
Since then it's just been a little running and I started on the track again, beach bonfires, work, swimming, catching up with old friends and even got a Giants game in last week! One specific thing I did want to elaborate on was the Make-A-Wish Foundation's request for my coworker Alicia and me to show an 8-year old girl around the jellies area on her 8th birthday on August 8th...triple golden bday! It was a very moving experience for everyone and Bella loved what we showed her and her family. We even got to bring her down to the seahorses because Bella mentioned that they were some of her favorite animals. Everyone was extremely pleased with the experience and it is a day I'll never forget!
Life is good...and it keeps getting better.
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