I know I’m repetitive when I talk about how much I love the ocean, but I really do.  I’ve always been drawn to water.  When I was younger, I loved swimming and playing in the lake by our house.  As I grew, my relationship with water grew too.  I started to realize the power that water has in nature and what a force it is.  Later, I learned just how fascinating it truly is and how amazing the entire underwater world is.

I’ve kept several aquariums over the years which have only furthered my obsession with water and the creatures that inhabit different watery worlds.  Below are my fish Oscarmus and Ripper.

I even extended my interest to turtles.  Meet Smiles (or Smiley), he was my African Sideneck Turtle.

Fish have always scared me a little, mainly because I was convinced I was going to get eaten by one.  To this day, I still make someone else jump into the lake before I will, just to scare them all away.  I remember swimming with goggles up at a cabin we were renting, looking over and seeing a largemouth bass swimming near me.  I remember being a little nervous and very excited.  My favorite activity is snorkeling, hands down.  That beats out reading, which most believe is my real favorite (they might be tied).  Snorkeling became my passion after we first went in Belize during college and it was solidified as my favorite after our trip to Hawaii.

Before I found the ocean, we used to take yearly trips up to Lake Superior and this is where my love and awe of water first flourished.  I found out just how peaceful it was to sit on the shore and watch the waves.

After my first visit to the ocean, I knew I had to live near it.  I’ve been incredibly lucky to have that dream come true, even if it’s temporary—though I don’t think I can ever move from this coast again!  On the last day of my mom and sister’s visit to Cali, we went on a three hour boat ride looking for whales off the San Diego coast.

We didn’t see any whales, but we did see dolphins, sea lions, and a lot of neat birds.  Below are some pictures from that trip.

Maybe I’ll live on a boat next…