Aquarium Diving

   Before I share some of the photos from my birthday dive at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA (thanks, Kelley!!!), here's my favorite self-portrait: me and my friend Ray. This was taken at the Osaka Aquarium in 2007, purely by accident: the ray swam up next to me just in the nick of time. And smiled.

   But I was the one with the huge smile on this trip! Some of the fish with which I swam were: Bonnethead shark, the smallest member of the Hammerhead family, and Zebra shark, which have long tail fins... but not quite as long as one of my favorite sharks, the Thresher. Beyond that, there were several rays of all sizes, a giant green sea turtle, fish much larger than myself, and a full spectrum of colors.

In any case, I'm glad I wasn't "acquired" on this dive:

And then we headed home on the crazy train.