The best way to experience Monterey Bay is to grab a paddle and board a kayak. This place is amazing!!! Sea otters, seals, sea lions, pelicans, kelp, and divers are things you are guaranteed to see first hand.

Would you believe that some of the Monterey Bay locals actually don’t appreciate this at all? Many of them put these sea lions, that I find so exciting, right into the “nuisance” category!!

It surprised me too!! See, on the Eastern U.S. shore we have no such animals. We have manatees, dolphins, and gobs and gobs of sharks, but none of those sun on the rocks so that we can examine them up close.

California is an animal lover’s dream. This is so exciting!

Sea lions own the marina area. Seals can be found in other areas. They are very segregated, these animals.

I have yet to find a seal and a sea lion hanging out together. I have; however, come upon a sea otter sunning with seals, but I don’t have time to go digging for that photo just now.

DaddyO and I share a few common interests. One of these is nature photography. DaddyO regularly sells his pictures to publications. I need to learn how to do that!

On this particular day, Alan was the one taking the photos. They didn’t want the good cameras to get ruined in the kayak.

Alan said, “April, I’ll take your phone, so if it gets ruined, we’ll get you a new iphone.”

(Alan just got a new one, which he did not want to destroy.)

Guess what happened. He actually did get water in my phone. My phone was older than his, but I’m still not due for an upgrade.

I’m still holding out for that iphone. My water-logged phone, which will no longer go to the home screen or back, has now been replaced with Alan’s old Droid 4 from 2012.

It doesn’t work well either. What good is a phone that only calls people?  😉 haaaa

On the upside, my productivity should increase, as I now have no smart phone to read Facebook with. I miss you, dear Facebook friends! I will be back, to “like” all the pictures you can upload of your babies soon.

Sorry. Back to sea lions:

This sea lion is still super young and excited to check out some people. He may become more jaded as he gets older, gets jabbed by a few boats, or is just treated poorly.

One such sea lion, which was thankfully on the other side of a fence, actually spit at me today.

It was gross, and I saw food particles flying out. I was far enough away that I did not have any fish bits land on me. I haven’t fully recovered from my shock of feeling completely grossed out.

To be fair, I was staring at him while he was napping on the rocks. How rude of me! I don’t know what my problem is. I just think they are so fascinating! It is so terribly hard not to stare!

Kayaking in Monterey Bay never disappoints. This place is amazing, and I am just so thankful for the privilege of living so close to it!

Please keep Caleb in your prayers! His oral surgery is tomorrow. All of his teeth will be fixed at once, and then the children at church will not be able to call him “Broken Tooth” anymore. Yep. Childhood hasn’t changed all that much, has it?

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