SoCal, Earthquakes, and Shamu

I haven't posted in awhile. We've had a series of out-of-town visitors so it's been keeping me busy. SK's sister was here for a week, hanging out around SF, vegging out and getting to know each other. It was nice to have company during the day, pick on SK together, and just veg out.

We even experienced my very first earthquake while she was visiting. It lasted all of 3 seconds and it felt like a large gust of wind was rattling our apartment building. My feet were propped up on our coffee table and I felt the whole table vibrate. Unfortunately, SK's sister missed the whole experience because she was lounging on the AeroBed and it must have absorbed the vibrations. I read in the paper the next day that the epicenter of the quake was in Sonoma County, more than an hour away, and measured a 4 on the Richter scale. No major damage, injuires or deaths. Whew.

We also took a weekend trip to SoCal (San Diego to be exact) to visit SK's grandmother. San Diego is a beautiful town with gorgeous weather. We wanted to take her out to do stuff around San Diego, so we went to SeaWorld. I really like SeaWorld, even though it's really sad to see those cute little dolphins, seals and majestic killer whales swimming around in their puddle-like tanks.

Before we left for San Diego, SK and I had been watching a BBC DVD series called Blue Planet about the vast underwater ecosystems. Yes, we are big nerds! But before you start pointing and laughing, you should try watching at least one of the discs (there are 4 discs in the series). It's amazing stuff.

For instance, the movie follows herds of killer whales as they hunt. I won't give away any details of the amazing footage the directors captured, but killer whales are cold and vicious hunters. There is a reason why they got their names! So, it seemed odd to us that the trainers at SeaWorld were depicting Shamu and fellow killer whales to be these cuddly, cute animals. I kept seeing the trainers diving into the tank with the whales and wondering when one of the animals would acquire a taste for wetsuit stuffed with Trainer Bob.

On the bright side, I really love dolphins. They are playful and SO smart. Blue Planet also captured some dolphin hunting techniques and they are just so clever! And they look like they're always having fun. If I were a deep sea animal, I would want to be a dolphin.