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Well, I have lost the count of the number of offers I received yesterday but they continued to arrive. Proof, once again, that all I have to do is go out of town. I have learned one thing from this experience. When we go to Yellowstone National Park, I will hire another agent to answer the phone, process paperwork and handle negotiations for me because yesterday was a bit overwhelming.

As I stood in the center of the Seattle Aquarium, trying to maneuever into a quiet spot to talk with a lender, some kid ran into me, shrieking about the octopus feeding. I shot a photo of the octopus, but I emailed the wrong photo to myself, so this picture of the puffer fish will need to suffice:

I shot that photo with my BlackBerry camera. If I had brought my Nikon, it would have better photo quality. The Seattle Aquarium is amazing. While it's mostly geared toward kids, it was still a lot of fun. There are several tidepool exhibits where they encourage you to actually touch the stuff in it. With one finger and very gently. I had no idea that uni spines were so hard. You could probably break your foot, not just pierce it, if you stepped on one in the ocean.

Below is another picture:

This is a moon jelly fish. I think it's pooping. These were floating in a gigantic glass arbor over my head and passing by a couple of light sources in the glass structure on either side so you could see them better illuminated. They don't have those long dangly things but instead shoot out hundreds of fine fiber hairs about two- to three-inches long. One of the kids standing by me said he would like to have this exhibit installed over his bed. I could imagine myself counting jelly fish instead of sheep.

I also found myself totally charmed by the sea otters. They live such a life of leisure, twirling about in the water without a care in the world. One of them found a piece of a shellfish and was swimming around on his back, resting the shell bits on its stomach while feeding his face with both hands. Paws? Fins? Then he wiped his face with a quick swipe.

It was sort of chilly in Seattle yesterday. That's why Starbucks was started, I suppose. People need a hot beverage to warm them up. The sun came out about 4:00, and it was actually pretty nice, warm enough to go outside without a sweater.

We stopped at a sausage place to get a sampling of meat products. Some famous place my husband found, Salumi. They make all kinds of salami and a couple of really spicy ones. While we waited in line, I spoke with a woman behind me. She said over the past 12 months, it had rained in Seattle more than 340 days. But my husband said the wettest place in North America is probably somewhere in Alaska which gets 300 days of rain, so that can't be true.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

This is a view from the seacliff at Pescadero Beach. We tried to get into the parking lot at San Gregorio Beach, but it was full. I guess that's how the state regulates how many people can go to the beach. If you can't get into the parking lot and you can't park on the highway, you can't go to the beach. This area is covered in wildflowers and iceplant. I almost stepped on a lizard and screamed my fool head off.

I believe these are California sea lions. It's easy to mix up seals and sea lions, but I'm thinking seals have fur and these do not, so these must be sea lions. I used a 500 zoom lens to capture these lazy critters.

Here I am in front of the Montara Lighthouse.

This is now a youth hostel, however, it is not inexpensive to stay in a room with a bunch of other drunken college kids. This entire area seems to be very expensive. It cost about four figures for a 2-night stay in our hotel, which didn't even have an in-room bar nor did room service deliver a newspaper to our door.

This is a woman getting married to two teenagers at the same time. Or maybe it's the one on her right, hard to tell. After we snapped photos of them, they turned around and took photos of us. Pillar Point Harbor is a wedding destination.

I shot this from the car as we drove past Crystal Springs Reservoir. I tried to shoot the San Mateo Bridge but it was simply too overcast and foggy to get a good photo.

You know you're coming back into the Central Valley of California when everything is brown. My sister from Minnesota asked me, "Don't they water?" I guess she thinks that California should water its entire countryside.

It's great to be back in Sacramento. I missed the warmth. It's really cold in Half Moon Bay this time of year. I had to buy a fleece pullover. They say that their summer is really September / October. It would be worth coming back for the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

Montara Lighthouse: Adam Weintraub