diving for fun?!

at the beginning of february, our friend, and my former field assistant "the rock," wanted to know if we wanted to go diving...for fun. the last couple of years my diving has consisted primarily of diving in the strait of juan de fuca in washington for work, monitoring the effects of millions of tonnes of sediment on salty critters. as a result of that sediment, it is not the most interesting diving. i usually finish my algae transects in about three minutes and write a giant zero across the datasheet. sometimes i don't see anything at all because all the light has been absorbed by the incredibly turbid river plume. pete's diving has been more limited in recent years, so we jumped on the opportunity to get in the water in the lovely monterey bay. to be clear, we could go diving on our own any weekend, but sometimes you need a little push to get out the door.

we met kate and her mom at lover's point in monterey, a favorite dive site for algae lovers (me and kate). we only did one dive, but it was a long and lovely one. the highlights were baby seastars (good to see after the sea star wasting disease swept through the area) nudibranchs (including the hopkins rose, which is usually found much further south but warm water has brought them north), and my beloved giant kelp.

 abalone tucked in tight

 anemone

 a pretty little hopkins rose nudibranch

 a sea lemon nudibranch

and a healthy sea star 

january extremes

january found us moving from one extreme to another. we left sunny and 70 degree california early in the month to arrive in minnesota on the coldest day of the year (at that point; -30 degree F windchill). i spent very little time outside of my mom's house because i was curled up in a ball on the floor with a nasty, nasty cold-flu bug. miraculously no one else in the house caught whatever i had (perhaps thanks to the liter of hand sanitizer?). i was able to make it out of bed for "christmas" dinner and a bit of time with the family. 

only three tries this year to get everyone looking

and smiling (mostly) at the camera...

mischief x 4

from minnesota we flew to puerta vallarta, mexico, for another 100 degree temperature change. we met friends in sayulita, a little village about an hour north of pv. pete's counterpart at work turned 40 at the end of 2014 and wanted to celebrate in style. we rented a house near the beach, played in the ocean every day, and warmed up after MN. my aunt was in the same area for vacation, so we got to meet up, which was great. we love our family, but mexico is a way better place to hang out in january than minnesota!! 

 the beach at san francisco, mexico

 instant farmers market

sayulita town