Blobbin' Around...

Well, that is how Melissa feels lately, but before she officially cannot move at all we decided to take a trip up to Santa Maria and visit with Melissa's cousins, Heather and Phil. We had not seen their daughter since Christmas-time of 2008! Cozette is getting to be such a cute girl! We'll have to keep better contact with her in the future!

After a short drive from Phil and Heather's place we reached San Simeon where there are elephant seals to be found year round! January is kind of a low-key time for the monsterous animals. They were right in between the major birthing season, (though we did see a couple pups who were only an hour or less old), and the mating season, (though we did see some male face-offs and some females who definitely knew how to get rid of unwanted male attention!).
Seeing the mother seals with their pups made Melissa feel better, (especially in the blobby area). But really, you can draw some true parallels between human and elephant seal motherhood. For instance:
...even marine mothers just feel like screaming every once in awhile...
...pups can get unruly and need a little discipline......some mothers do not know when to say no to helping out their friends...
...and spit-up comes to babies of all species, (and yes, that is its mother's stomach the baby is spewing on)...
...but all in all there is a whole lot of love to go around!


On the other hand, maybe we should not even try to relate elephant seal males to human guys...
...not sure they would appreciate nose comparisons...
...or how they can't take a hint, even when the woman they are going after is biting and flipping sand in their face...
...or how often they are seen laying around, yawning, saying there is nothing to do...

...and pretty sure this is a position no football-watching guy wants someone to draw a parallel to.
Really though, visiting the elephant seals was cool. The noises they make, their antics, how they move across the sand, (when they actually care to move), was all very fascinating and we took way too many pictures!
Before we left, Heather and Melissa had to get a pregnancy shoot together. Now that's what you call a baby bump!
And which do you see - a vase, or two pregnant chicks?

4 comments: