Here We Go Again

You never thought you’d see this day, did you?  Well, here I am again.  I WILL catch up this time. (Provided I can do so in the next five-ish months before Pumpkin arrives.  Ha!)

     
Fittingly, we mark the end of Jake’s deployment by backtracking to the un-official start of Jake’s absence from family life.  Sure he didn’t technically deploy until October, but starting in July he was gone more than he was home.  Hence, we have paper chain #1, created to mark his time in Bridgeport, CA.

Meanwhile, Jonathan (Yep, we’re still looking at his visit.  His FIRST visit.  He’s come and gone again since then.  Just in case you needed yet another reminder of how behind I am.) picked up some light reading.  He borrowed the rest of the series when he left and, at this point, still hasn’t finished them :)

Not that we left him a lot of time to sit and read.  There are places to explore!  I’d heard the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach was the best in the area, so of course we had to check it out.


Okay, so it’s still not our beloved Chura-umi with its massive wall of whale sharks, but it wasn’t bad ;)

                         
And they get bonus points for multiple friendly staff interactions.  Logan is trying out a streamlined sea turtle shell.

                
This was cool; they cut a window in the shark’s egg case so you can actually look inside and see the un-hatched baby.

          
Touch tanks!  There was a pool with small sharks and (pretty good-sized) rays.  The dark shadow under Naomi is a cooperative ray.  Later, there was a tank where you could touch jellyfish similar to the ones you in the second picture.  I was too busy petting the jellies myself to get a picture of that tank, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

         
More bonus points for their water mammal variety.

Obviously not a real blue whale, but it wouldn’t be long before we saw one of those too . . . !