Sea Life and Comedy

The cold, ail-filled night disappeared into a cool, brisk, blue-sky morning on Sunday so we took advantage of this lull in the weather to stop by the Birch Aquarium of the Scripps Institute. (It didn't hurt, either, that we earned a 2-for-1 discount by checking in on foursquare.)

After walking by the towering sculpture of two whales jumping into the air, I was drawn out the back doors of the entrance hall. The magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean from atop the cliff was breathtaking. The beach and the clear blue waters stretched almost to forever no matter which direction I looked, and I almost regretted turning my back on that view to return to the aquarium. But what waited directly behind us were a series of unique man-made tidepools with water pumped up directly from the ocean. dozens of fish, starfish, shelled creatures, crabs, anemones and sea cucumbers rested quietly in the cold water, gently gliding with the flow of the tides. Caesar and I both brushed fingers along the slimy sea cucumbers, and I snapped a few pictures. The bloom of the sea anemone in the picture was quite a bit bigger than my open hand.

Once back inside the building, we turned left and followed a few families into the hall featuring the tanks. Jellyfish, moray eels, sea horses, sea dragons and myriad corals and anemones filled each of the tanks. One of the docents told us, as we stood before the reddish dark of the octopus display, that they were slowly changing the lighting in order to show off the octopus. Since they are more active during the night, the darkened tank brings them out in daylight hours so that guests would be able to see them eating, swimming around, interacting with other residents in the tank. We walked among the remaining tanks, stopping about halfway through the exhibit to watch a feeding show in a large, floor-to-ceiling tank representing the waters just off the coast of La Jolla. Like the tidepools out back, the water in the tank was pumped directly from the ocean, unfiltered so the fish and other sea life would be able to extract what they needed. The sharks and eels didn't bother the other fish, instead taking their turns eating what was offered by one of the divers.

We spent maybe an hour touring the rest of the exhibits before finally hitting the road back to Long Beach.

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Later Sunday evening, we headed down to Irvine to catch comedian Jo Koy at the Irvine Improv. (Plus, it gave me a chance to collect two more foursquare badges: the "Bravo Newbie" for checking into the Irvine Spectrum -- I guess one of the "Real Housewives" of OC left a tip on the Bravo page about it -- and the "Jobs" badge for checking into a third Apple Store.) Jo Koy had us in stitches, riffing off audience members and music and loosely sticking to his set.

I'm very glad we bought tickets a week ahead of time. The club was packed, without an empty seat in the place. In fact, they added a later show a few days before, and as we were exiting from his extended set, the line waiting to go outside stretched around the building and down toward the parking structure. Yes, his shows are that good. If he ever stops by a comedy club nearby, go see him!