Southern California

April 2 - 6, 2008: As soon as I received my invitation to speak at the Marine Aquarium Expo in Orange County, I quickly decided to arrive a few days early to check out what SoCal had to offer. Even with my camera breaking by the end of Day Two, I still found a way to enjoy my trip immensely. Brandishing a borrowed Sony camera for the rest of my trip, I ended up coming home with over 800 images total. Below are links to the various places I visited during my stay, and I hope you will not only enjoy the summation but feel the motivation to make the trip yourself one day.

Wednesday, April 2

Arrival at John Wayne Airport, vist Jeff's Exotic Fish, OC Tropical Fish

I'm posting the images in order of where I went during my visit. Thank you in advance for the beautiful weather and to those that were hospitable to me over those five days.

The first thing I saw when I walked out of the terminal. Yep, I'm definitely in Southern California.

The more I looked, the more palm trees I found.

Looking back at the glass wall of Terminal A.

This diligent police officer was zipping around on the Segway, even ticketing a guy that completely ignored the signage. That gizmo moves really quick, and quietly at that. Now I want one.

Soon we were on the freeway. Traffic? Nope.

Our first stop was Jeff's Exotic Fish, the first e-tailer I ever purchased from, before I discovered Reef Central, before I learned about many other online stores. I even remember my first purchase a RIO 2500 and 8' of 1" tubing for water changes so I'd never have to lift up a 5g bucket full of saltwater up to my 29g's upper rim ever again.

The store has tiny tanks or cubby holes for small livestock. This is unusual to see this in Texas.

Pom Pom crabs, ready to grab.

Snails just arrived, as did a ton of hermits.

Acans!

Elegance

Softies

Jeff wasn't there that day, but I did see him Saturday at MAX.

The next store we visited was OC Tropical Fish.

Their display tank was nice, viewable from both sides.

This sign seemed SO appropriate. HAH!

Prices seemed reasonable to me.

This is looking down one of the two aisles of the store. Once I saw the other side full of goodies, I never took the other picture.

The corals were great, but that urchin's color was sa-weet.

I loved this Pico for some reason.

Look at this microscopic sailfin tang. Compare it to the button polyps to its left. So adorable!

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