Marine Mammal Center - Sausalito, Marin Headlands

Fans of Coastal Living Magazine may recognize the Marine Mammal Center here in California, just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge in the Marin Headlands.  Coastal Living regularly "adopts" a sea lion, as part of the MMC's  Adopt-a-Seal program.

You might have noticed in the July/August issue of the magazine, Coastal Living has adopted "Arrow" - with a face just too cute for words!

The Adopt-a-Seal program is a wonderful way that you can help!  For only a minimum of  $30.00 you can adopt one of MMC's former patients, helping to feed and care for the current patients. With your donation, you will receive a ready-to-frame photo of your adoptee, a biography of "your" seal, (or sea lion), a personalized certificate of adoption and the center's e-newsletter.  Believe me, these seal patients eat a ton of food, and so many of them need a lot of rehabilitation care! Your donation goes to a very worthy cause.

I've been out the center twice since I've been here, as they are one of the causes' that our little company supports, (see our page - "Caron's Causes") currently staffed by 45 paid employees, but over 800 volunteers. When I was there last week, MMC had just released 24 animals back into the wild - awesome work!  The volunteer at the front desk has been with the center for 26 years, she has seen quite a few patients come and go over the years. Becky told me that this summer they were seeing more injured, ill and malnourished patients than the center  usually does. Not good news.... When I was here in January, there were very few patients in the hospital, this time, the pens were full of elephant seals, California Sea Lions, harbor seals, and a rare fur seal.

Volunteers are the backbone of the centers' work, helping with everything from rescue operations, education programs, feeding and caring the patients to working in the gift shop (raising much needed funds!)

The Marine Mammal Center even has a program for students, aged 14-18 to volunteer - what a great idea! The program gives kids an opportunity to help in the hospital and also as education docents.

I think I might try this, don't need to be an expert about marine mammals, they will teach me everything I need to know.  Not sure that I would be brave enough to get into the pens with the animals, but I could certainly try!  (these volunteers are trying to prevent a few escape artists from roaming the hospital!) Maybe I should volunteer to work in the gift shop?

Education is also an essential piece to what the Marine Mammal Center offers to visitors. Their program engages over 30,000 people a year!  The center has several programs for local schools, including the "Whale" Bus bringing outreach right to the schools, using hands-on techniques for students. (dang - why didn't I go to school here??)

"The Center's marine science instructors teach about the importance of marine mammals, the health of the marine environment, and how to become stewards of our oceans. "

This life-like Elephant Seal greets visitors as you wander through the courtyard back to the 

viewing areas for the hospital pens.  He's enormous!

Malnourished elephant seal - don't worry, I am sure that he/she will be just fine and released soon!

I think this California Sea Lion was feeling much better as he/she was doing a lot of barking that afternoon!

More elephants seals...

If you live anywhere close, I recommend that you take a drive out to the center - they are open every day for visitors.  If you can't visit - there is always their fabulous website  - http://www.marinemammalcenter.org. Make sure you stop in the gift shop, every little bit helps!

Introducing Guest Blogger Jody of ShabbyNChic on Etsy! Spring Break on the Oregon Coast

Jody was kind enough to let me share her blog post about Spring Break on the Oregon Coast! Enjoy the photos and the journey,  and make sure to visit her Etsy shop for great ShabbyNChic beach cottage ideas..
Jody's Etsy shop: http://www.shabbynchic.etsy.com

Spring Break at the Oregon Coast

If you follow me on Twitter, then you may have seen some of the pictures from our recent trip to the Oregon Coast for Spring break.  What an amazing time.  We went to Newport Oregon which is considered part of Oregon's Central Coast.  There is so much to do there and we took full advantage of that!

On our 3 day trip we enjoyed the food, antique shops, museums, beaches, lighthouse, state parks, and more!

The priority was for our young children to play on the beach and go to the variety of museums available there.  Upon arriving, we ate at Mo's World Famous Restaurant - famous for their clam chowder.  That is a requirement for my husband everytime we go to the coast.  The restaurant in Lincoln City (just North of Newport) sits right on the beach, so we were able to go onto the beach so the kids could have some fun digging in the sand.

It was cold and windy, which the Oregon coast is known for, but that doesn't seem to stop kids.  Later they both said that was one of their favorite parts of the trip.

Upon arriving at the hotel condo where we would be staying, we were more than pleased with the beautiful view of the bridge that connects both parts of Newport.  It was an amazing view in the morning when the sun was coming up and again at night with the sun setting behind the bridge.

We finished the day roasting marshmallows at Beverly Beach with family who was at the coast that night as well.  The kids were out quick that night, so we were able to get an early start the next morning for all of the museums we had planned to visit.

We started the morning by beachcombing for shells and agates, then it was off to Hatfield Marine Science Center which is a research museum and visitors are allowed to touch many sea creatures.  We saw: sea stars, an octopus, jelly fish, sea urchin, sea anemone, and of course all kinds of fish!

Then it was down to the docks which is a major tourist attraction in Newport.  My favorite is the sea lions.  There is a spot where they can always be seen and the crowd is always there to enjoy their barks.  I'm pretty sure this one was posing for me.

Down on the waterfront we went to: Ripley's Believe It or Not, Wax Works museum, and Underwater Sea Gardens.  I believe the latter was my kids' favorite since they were scared of the other two.  We finished the day eating ice cream cones, listening to a woman playing guitar and singing on the boardwalk.
Over our few days at the beach, the weather got better and better. Determined to make the most of our time there, we had a filled last day.  The morning started with my favorite - antique shopping!  We probably visited 6 different antique shops and I found a lot of great items - some I bought, some I just admired. 

Our final stop before heading home was the Yaquina Head Lighthouse - the tallest lighthouse in Oregon and a major attraction in the area.  I came away with a lot of great pictures and hope you enjoy all of them.

Don't forget to visit Jody's Etsy shop!
Here's the link: http://www.shabbynchic.etsy.com  Here's a cute Beach Cottage Crate that you might like featured in her shop -