Jon's Travels: Back in Business and Marina Take 2

I recently made it up to Seattle, where my friends Max and Cait were kind enough to hold a computer for me while I made my way up there. So, I am back in business!

A lot has happened between my last post and now. I will try and release them slowly so you don't get buried in stories. Some future highlights: my car was broken into, my hiking backpack broke, I went spelunking, I climbed some mountains, and the government shut down.

This post will concentrate on what I did in Marina after driving up California 1.

The first day back we didn't accomplish much. I needed to catch up on some blog stuff and Quinn needed to finish up a project she was working on. So we sat around, typing and working, most of the day. We did get out to see "World's End" that night. I loved it because it was in the same spirit as "Hot Fuzz" and "Shawn of the Dead". Very good fun.

The second day back we were a bit more active. We went to downtown Monterey Bay to see the aquarium. Now, having just seen the aquarium in Long Beach, it gave me a unique opportunity to compare the two. Monteray Bay had the coolest Jelly exhibit I have seen. Long Beach looked like it had more sponsors, so it was a little bit bigger, with more varied exhibits. Both were pretty cool, but I think I am done with aquariums for the time being.

We walked around downtown for a little be after the aquarium. There was a classic car show going on downtown, and it was packed. There were people giving out food samples on the street (really tasty clam chowder!) and LOTS of families out. It wasn't really our thing, so we went back home to continue doing some work.

The third day we went to Point Lobos State Reserve. We got to walk around on the cliffs and through some old growth forests. There was also a section you could walk out onto the rocks and check out the tide pools. There were some sea anemones that would grab your finger and try to digest it, very slowly. Quinn called them sea anemone kisses.