Catalina

So, here are our pics from our Catalina dive trip. We were on a boat for 3 days with no kids. Awesome! Uncle Marty and his whole family were there and Aunt Doreen with Zach and our cousin Rusty B and then some other people I didn't really know. It was so fun and I highly recommend it. We have a TON of pictures and I've put a lot in this post - sorry if it's boring. It's Mitch's fault.

First, lets start with the kelp. Can be pretty but easy to get tangled up in. I didn't think I would like diving in it, but not bad when it wasn't too thick.





There were a ton of these bright orange fish and they would get really close.
Here is our ship (boat? what's the difference?) The Sand Dollar. Apparently an episode of that Tori Spelling reality show was filmed on it about a month ago. I don't watch that but Captain George was telling us about it. Anyway, the crew was awesome and the food was SO yummy! They fed us all the time.
Here is where we slept. 3 bunks high and each side.

The Galley. Rusty B filling out her log book.

Tippetts are weird. Mandy, Hunter and Aunt Teresa.

Mitch doing his Captain Morgan pose.

Our second day we went to this place with a ton of sea lions and swam with them. Here's the deal. They are crazy fast and agile in the water and really cool, but kinda scary. Not shy at all. They sometimes pull the mask or regulator off a person just to check it out. They come swimming right at you really fast, open their mouth and dodge at the last second. Crazy.

This picture doesn't do justice to how freaky it is with them coming at you!

When we were getting out, one decided to jump on the back of the boat and just chill for about 10 min.

On our last dive I saw a harbor seal a few times. TOTALLY different than the sea lions. This dude swam in a straight line and just glanced at me and was like, hey, and kept going. It's hard to see him in this picture, but I couldn't get a good shot because he surprised me.


Huge sunflower star fish.

Here is a star fish giving us the bird.

We saw a few of bat rays. So pretty when they are swimming.

Lotsa lobstas. mmmmmmm.

At this dive spot the ground was covered by these brittle stars. Really cool.

We found a couple of these little Horn Sharks and Mitch and Uncle Marty held them.

Rusty B! (you gotta say it like you mean it) She dove with us most of the time and was really cool.

Guitar fish.

Hello Mr. Morey Eel. (he likes it when you say Mr.)

We don't have any pictures of this but the second night there were a couple sea lions by our boat eating flying fish and it was crazy! The fish would fly over the water flapping their "wings" going so far but it was hilarious because they wouldn't see the boat and would run right in to it -thump! I've never seen anything like it - I wish we had video. Oh well.