another one bites the dust

San Francisco - CHECK
San Jose Sharks game - CHECK
Santa Cruz Wharf, fair and clam chowder cook off - CHECK CHECK CHECK
Big Basin Road through crazy forest - CHECK
Last but not least, Monteray Aquarium - CHECK

I have gotten to check a few things off the list of things to do down here. It's getting closer to mountain biking season. Once this rain stops and the trails are less slimy I'll be ready to go. If you search google for california mountain biking trails, you'll receive a handful of websites with an incredible amount of trails ranging from fire service roads to quick downhill fun to multi-day excursions. Aaah yes, the beauty of the internet and many people knowing how to use it. Good thing some people have nothing better to do than type out directions, give reviews, hints, tips, pictures and videos on every subject in the world. They can all do that while I write about absolutely nothing...sounds like a plan!

Last weekend I went to the clam chowder cook off in Santa Cruz. Note to self: go earlier in order to avoid the million other people going there. For a drive that should have taken only 40 minutes for tasty clam chowder goodness ended up being 1.5 hours plus some. The amount of traffic clustered in such a small city needed 12 lane highways and 50 story parkades. Luckily the parking gods were with us. The chowder was good though, it was nice to get out and meet some people. The whole event was pretty fun. All of the booths were set up along the boardwalk. The different entries had costumes, some had songs, some had bells. Basically they used any technique to try and win the tasters vote for "best clam chowder." My vote was based on, I came here and used my last ticket so here you go.

Yesterday Andrew, Angela and I went for a drive down to Monteray to check it out. Monteray is a bit south of Santa Cruz and is supposed to have great surfing. Since none of us know how to surf we decided to stick with walking Cannery Row, eating and wondering through the aquarium. The most impressive parts were the seal sanctuary, the jelly fish, and the MASSIVE predator tank. I'm not sure if was actually called the predator tank, but it housed sharks, tunas, barracudas, sun fish and predator food(sardines). The whole setup reminded me of that McDonalds commercial where the dude directs the fish with his fries.
There was a balcony with benches to sit there and watch the whole thing or you could go below and get right up to the window. It was good fun watching the barracuda's try to hunt the sardines. The whole swarm of fish would split apart then rejoin. Good old natural selection at it's finest.