Today was a great adventure! Shortly after waking up we all piled into our van and set out punishing the pavement amidst a heavy rainfall. About 5 minutes after starting out we were sitting at a stop light when suddenly the whole top of a tree fell of the back of a car in front of us! The rear window of the Cadillac (SUCH a shame it was an expensive Cadillac owner that had to go through all of this) was smashed in. Thankfully, everyone was perfectly fine after the incident. However, I couldn't help feeling that this occurrence was a bad omen, luckily it wasn't.
We continued driving to a redwood state park, a destination that our professor had decided to through into the trip last night. The scenery gradually got prettier and prettier as we drove further from our hotel. Soon we were slowly trundling through a massive forest full of towering trees. This park turned out to holding some of the tallest redwood tree in the world! I have never felt so small, young, naive and insignificant in my life. We walked up to the initial fork in the park path to see a section of a fallen tree that was time lined by its tree rings. This particular tree was as old at the birth of Christ - unbelievable!!!! We spent about 45 minutes milling around the gigantic trees admiring their size and the surrounding forest, banana slugs and all. It is easy to see how people in California are so passionate our these ancient nature works of art.
After getting our fix of fresh air, we piled into the van again and pushed on to the Monte Ray Bay Aquarium. Upon arrival, we grabbed a bit to eat at a Thai restaurant went on exploring the underwater world. We saw various exhibits from penguins and sea otters to sharks and sea horses being amazed all the while. It was so cool to see the different types of underwater life as my only exposure to such things over the past five years has been Pixar's Finding Nemo. Speaking of Finding Nemo I was able to snap a couple of characters in their nature habitat. It was easy to see how the volunteers at the aquarium loved their jobs of feeding the unique animals and interacting with curious visitors.
I would very much enjoy doing something similar later in life when I have more time. We closed down the Aquarium at 5pm along with all of it's employees.
2 hours and a nap later we were rolling into the parking lot of the Menlo Park Inn. Throughoutly exhausted but still hungry, the group grabbed a bite to eat just down the road at a delicious pizza piece called Applewood Pizza. Fully satisfied with food in our stomachs and the visions of the day's adventure, we all turned in.
Talk to you tomorrow!
Adam
No comments:
Post a Comment