I need a tropical vacation!

We're taking Aiden to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific today. He loves to stare at the fish, the seals, the turtles, the "SHARK!", etc. I enjoy myself too--I have always loved aquariums; especially the shark exhibits. We travelled to Monterrey Bay when Aiden was about 5 or 6 months old because they had managed to keep a Great White in their tank for about a year (its gone now). It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen--that shark is literally built for killing. There were other sharks in the tank, lemon sharks, hammerheads, etc., but the White was unlike an of the others. Where they were formed with graceful curves and delicate arcs, the White was sturdy and streamlined; like a stealth bomber in the water, designed for one thing: speedy killing. It was amazing. But I digress...

We're taking Aiden to the aquarium. And apart from the pleasure of seeing the wonders of the ocean in safety and convenience, there is one other sensation I always have when we visit the aquarium; namely, a certain amount of discontent and a longing to travel.

You see, every year about this time, the fact that I have lived nearly half my life in the tropics flares up with the regularity of a California wildfire. And I miss the tropics; I miss the rain, the smell of the earth, the warm oceans...I miss a lot of things. And when we visit the aquarium in Long Beach, oddly I get transferred out of the industrial city, back to a tower on a building that overlooked a lake named Calirya. From the tower, uncreatively referred to as the Crow's Nest, you could see all the outlining valleys, the enormous green hill behind the building, where caribou (Philippine oxen) would be grazing.

Sunsets from the Crow's Nest were pretty much the best in the world.

I miss the tropics...I'm glad we're going to the aquarium today.