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…

TO PAGE 2 of "Santa Cruz Sea Lions"! ----->

Tags: animals - california - ocean - sea - travel

NOTCOT’s Favorite Places ~ here’s a new series of posts sharing some of my favorite places in (and around!) Los Angeles! This content series is brought to you by the All-New 2011 Kia Sportage. Welcome to the Next Level.

Have you heard? LA weather has been pretty heinous lately ~ gloomy grey raininess is upon us! So sad, since some of the favorite spots i wanted to show you are definitely more fun outside! So here’s one to mix it up a little ~ though an LA native, and having ended up back here ~ i spent quite a few years on and off living in San Diego! And being a mere 2 hours away, and loving a good drive to clear my head, one of my favorite things to do while in LA, is just pop down, sometimes for a few days, sometimes just for a day trip! And inevitably hit up a few nostalgic spots… this saturday, i popped down to get some much craved Carne Asada Fries (though apparently sometimes referred to as Mexican Poutine as i just found out ~ though they are far better!) from Cotixans… and checking out the harbor seals that haul out at Casa Beach in La Jolla. There is something so incredibly blissed out about the way the pups look when sleeping! So this favorites post is dedicated to some nostalgic comfort food and a dash of nature… it’s also just so calming to be on the edge of the sea as it crashes into the rocks and beach as tide comes in… See awesome pics of seals and fries that Tasteologie editor, Jackson, took on the next page!

TO PAGE 2 of "Favorite Places: Seals + Carne Asada Fries"! ----->

Tags: animals - Favorite Places w/ Kia - food - nature - roadtrip - san diego - sea - 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!

TO PAGE 2 of "Aurora Australis' New Species in Antarctica"! ----->

Tags: animals - antarctica - nature - ocean - photography - sea - underwater