the past few days

I worked over the weekend and picked up and extra shift on Tuesday- so we have not done too much. On Monday, i went to an outlet mall and went shopping for a little while. It was fun, but the outlet mall was nothing like Michigan City.. which I figured it would be- I mean I expected more from CA versus IN!!! Oh well, I got some cute stuff. Then Tuesday morning, I volunteered again at the Marine Mammal Care Center. It was my third time. I go for about 4 hours every week. If you go down the road from the place, you get an amazing view of the ocean.. and that's what these pictures are. It is San Pedro, CA. I could spend forever looking out onto the ocean from the cliffs there! Well, on Tuesday, I got some good tips about places to go kayaking out in the ocean to see dolphins and some great places to look at tide pools. I am hoping we can go next week- since Kraig gets President's Day off- lucky! Well, I have been having a good time volunteering. The first day was kinda not fun though because I had to clean out seal poop from these kennels. The water that I was cleaning with would drip on my head, and all I could think about was that it was seal poop that was falling on my head! Anyways, it has gotten better since then. I have worked prepping the "gruel" which is like a fish milkshake. It is nasty, but it is for the really sick animals that need to be tube fed. I got to help weigh out all of the food for specific feedings of the animals during the day. I have gotten to help feed the animals too. I get to throw the fish in the pools and watch to make sure that all of the animals eat. Next week, I get to hand feed some animals. Yay!!! I have also gotten to watch the animals get tube fed, and learn how their blood is drawn. The vets also give them fluids by IVs which actually are just placed into their subcutaneous fat layer! The center takes care of a few different types of seals. The seals get stranded on the beach because they are either sick (pneumonia or some parasite), "pups"-baby seals, that get lost from their mothers, and animals that are harmed by people either by pollution or people hit them with boats- or something like that. They are most concerned with the animals harmed through human action (because that should never happen). That's how I feel too. It is all really cool, and you get a little dirty. So it is fun. Hopefully I will get some pictures of the seals later!