Last night we stayed at the Dream Inn Santa Cruz, and from the balcony there was an amazing view of the wharf, boardwalk, and the bay… and all night we heard a mix of waves crashing, fog horn going, and what sounded like tons of sea lions barking… but we never saw them! When i asked about the upon check out ~ i didn’t believe the woman that they were all tucked away on the pylons beneath the wharf… so, first stop was the wharf! And she wasn’t kidding… you have to see it for yourself ~ they balance and nap beneath the wharf on the thin pylons. They even leap up on to them (sometimes after many tries and much splashing) ~ and you can get closer to all of them than at a zoo, etc. It’s fascinating. They are SO loud with the echo created under the wharf. You can peek at them at a few spots ~ under the wharf, on the floating barge near the boat launch, and through various areas in the center of the wharf near the far end… Endlessly amusing, and a gorgeously sunny day in Santa Cruz ~ take a peek at our post-car-weekend adventure on the next page…

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Tags: animals - california - ocean - travel

I’ve never had an ice bucket in my laptop bag traveling before… though after quite the hectic weekend running around Monterey/Pebble Beach/Carmel with all of the auto madness, it is pretty amazing to pop up to santa cruz, out to the patio, pop open the Veuve Clicquot Clicq’up, grab some ice, and pop open a bottle of Yellow Label on the balcony staring down at the beach and bay as you hear the waves crashing, seagulls squawking, and seals honking. I wrote about the Clicq’up Origami Ice Bucket by Mathias van de Walle earlier this year when it launched in Milan, here’s a peek at it in person ~ popped up on the balcony!

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Tags: beach - drinks - gifts - ocean - packaging - shopping - veuve clicquot

Amazing. Justine has has me laughing so hard with this latest London discovery of hers at Selfridges! Check out part one of her adventures below!

A WHALE RODEO! and a black light lit aquarium of confiscated coral! It’s hard not to love the new campaign, Project Ocean at Selfridges a huge collaboration between the renowned department store, the Zoological Society of London and more than 20 environmental and conservation groups “to celebrate the beauty of the ocean, highlight the issue of over-fishing, help us all understand the threats to the ocean and make positive choices about the right fish to buy and eat.” This is one of a series of posts on the exhibition, which runs from 11 May - 12 June 2011.

Both the Whale Rodeo and Ultralounge are located downstairs in the home section of the store. The Ultralounge houses a large quiet, cinema room with a large screen showing video footage of the ocean. It’s dark walls are filled with small aquaria containing beautiful corals on loan from the aquarium at ZSL and are specimens which have been confiscated from traffickers at Heathrow airport. So pretty! It is also home to a cute shop selling goods whose proceeds support ocean conservation.

The Whale Rodeo is located just opposite the Ultralounge and yes you can give it a ride. More pics and a video of its operators who very obliging demonstrated for you on the next page! Seriously, you have to see this robotic beast in action…

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Tags: art - ocean - Selfridges - shopping - technology - video

So you’ve seen how beautiful my dad’s window seat views flying in to Christmas Island were… well i just raided his SD card full of Christmas Island adventures, and there were so many inspiring nature pics, i had to share them with you! It’s amazing to see how crisp and clear the water is… Take a peek at everything from octopi and shrimp, to sharks and mantas, to frigates and puffers… and more on the next page!

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Tags: animals - birds - nature - ocean - octopus - travel

Beautifully sleek Silveira Customs Personal Watercrafts ~ are not the jetskis of the past… they are designed to “feel more like an extension of your body” and definitely lean more towards sport bike design streamlined for aquatic adventures. “The ergonomics evolved this way, based on simple physics involved. Physics dictated the advantages of reducing watercraft weight and positioning the handlebars as the center of gravity, so you can exert extreme body English. You can go from big high speed drifts , to cutting very tightly, all with just a small change in attitude of the craft, yet it’s all distinctive.” Take a peek at more pictures on the next page ~ i love that the Silveira site shows so much of the manufacturing process as well!

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Tags: gifts - ocean - shopping - sport - technology - watch

Just finished my last dive of the trip ~ and this whole trip has definitely reinvigorated my childhood love of nudibranchs and frogfish! Frogfish have the coolest elbows ~ and the way they walk… and eat (with their signature anglerfish family style lure!)… and the variations they come in! (So fascinating, saw about a half dozen color variations this week! And soooo many nudibranchs i haven’t seen before too. So in this last installment of fun creatures from the Lebeh Strait ~ check out frogfish, nudibranchs, and more (including a super tiny baby lion fish!) on the next page!

For the whole Kungkungan Bay Resort Lembeh Strait dive-cation series - [The dramatic moon] [First look at creatures!] [Wonderpus vs Mimic Octopus]

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Tags: animals - nature - ocean - photography - travel

On visual inspiration, there is something about the overwhelming sense of calm serenity with nothing but the sound of your own bubbles and the occasional boats overhead… as you just swim about watching the most incredible and mind blowing creatures going about their daily lives all around you… so, on “vacation pictures” ~ here are some of the many (there are hundreds of photos, here’s just a selection of fun ones!) creatures i’ve been encountering diving the Lembeh Strait of Indonesia this week (hiding out at Kungkungan Bay Resort)… and besides the diving creatures, you also get a peek at the large crab i ran into, and the impressive Tuna statue in the center of Bitung (tuna capital of indonesia?)… see it all on the next page!

p.s. and on design inspiration ~ it sounds silly, but i’ve totally been dreaming up redesigns, proposal ideas, and more while watching the creatures under the sea… also photo credits go to my dad who’s the photographer (i’ve been tasked more with helping find things in our team!)

For the whole Kungkungan Bay Resort Lembeh Strait dive-cation series - [The dramatic moon] [Wonderpus vs Mimic Octopus] [Frogfish, Nudibranchs, and more creatures!]

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Tags: animals - nature - ocean - travel

Remember those amazing photographs of nudibranchs David Doubilet shot for National Geographic where i couldn't stop gushing about how amazing they were on pure white, like a model or product? Well in our ever shrinking world, i get an email from my globetrotting explorer of a dad, who happened to be in Manado at the Lembeh Strait on North Sulawesi, Indonesia at the Kungkungan Bay Resort scuba diving ~ with pictures of him holding the mini underwater studio setups David Doubilet used for those shoots! He even said that the resort folks were encouraging him to use them, but he decided they were too much of a hassle, but thankfully he took some pics to indulge my curiosity about the set up.

On the next page you can see more pics of the mini studio, as well as some of his scuba diving discoveries i loved ~ i've picked out my favorites of my dad's nudibranchs and frog fish pics!

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Tags: ocean - photography - scuba diving - travel

Nudibranchs ~ i've been obsessed with these gorgeous creatures since my first dives as a kid in south east asia. David Doubilet ~ i grew up on his breath taking photography. Combine them ~ and video ~ and National Geographic... and i've been swooning over this Nudibranch feature on the National Geographic website for days now. So looking beyond the subject matter for a moment, from a photographic/design perspective... what really struck me about this series of photos, was the process! Seldom do you see these beautiful (tiny) little slug like creatures pop off so vibrantly on a perfectly white background... they look more like supermodels in a photo studio... so watching the video blew my mind to see that David Doubilet and his team actually went diving with a portable studio that they brought TO the nudibranches, shooting them where they found them, and only moving them when they weren't doing any complicated nudibranch activities (mating, feeding, etc). See the full gallery here, and see some of my favorites as well as the set up they used on the next page!

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Tags: animals - nature - ocean - photography - video

We can't go Whaleless! The Strychnin Gallery London will be opening the international group show, Whaleless, on July 11th! It contains a fun selection of pieces all reminding us how much we love whales, and that we need to help save them ~ a portion of the sales will be donated to Greenpeace. I've rounded up some of my favorites from the show on the next page for you to preview!

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Tags: animals - art - events - nature - ocean

Rumor has it i've been a bit of a workaholic the last few months, and lacking at indulging my inherent wanderlust... so today was supposed to be a quick drive up to SF from LA with dan, but one thing led to another and it became a spontaneous roadtrip/adventure - leading to everything from lunch in a danish town (solvang) - trying danish pancake balls (aebleskiver) - feeding ostriches and emus - a giant tree stump turned treehouse/pirateship on the side of the road in a tile/bricklaying yard - 1797 Mission San Miguel Arcangel - driving by Hearst Castle - seeing beaches filled with elephant seals - cruising up the coast through state parks on cliff hanging roads to big sur - stopping off to admire the view constantly - buying 99 cent chips for $1.79 (cliff view markup?) - seeing otters playing so far below they looked like tiny dots - sunset in Big Sur - martinis and dinner watching the sun fully disappear - and now i'm in Monterey Bay in a luscious king sized bed overlooking Cannery Row and the ocean as i try to get this post up as my photo excuse as to why the posting and editing was a bit quiet today.

Tomorrow ~ Monterey Bay Aquarium and then back to regularly scheduled working... but for now, catch up on the roadtrip in pics first (as well as a full map of where i've been and where i'm headed)?

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Tags: animals - california - nature - ocean - travel

Inspiration comes not only in all shapes and sizes, but from literally anywhere... and all of us at NOTCOT have a particular fascination with the inspiration from nature (ok some more than others, since Justine picks nature over design with her phd studies!)... So when we heard about the new deep sea species found in Antarctica, and then found these high res images and video of them, we swooned. And realized we HAD to post them. Here's what we found out from the Australian Antarctic Division: "The return of the last of three Antarctic marine science research vessels marks the culmination of one of Australia's most ambitious International Polar Year projects, a census of life in the icy Southern Ocean known as the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine Census (CEAMARC). Australia's Aurora Australis and collaborating vessels L'Astrolabe (France) and Umitaka Maru (Japan) have returned from the Southern Ocean, their decks overflowing with a vast array of ocean life including a number of previously unknown species collected from the cold waters near the East Antarctic land mass." Some of the shapes and curves of these are just incredible... don't those tunicates look like glassy hearts? Lots of imagery after the jump!

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Tags: animals - nature - ocean - photography