Happy New Year - Jellyfish are Rad

It's 2011 and what's more celebratory than a bunch of jellyfish floating around at the Mystic Aquarium in historic Mystic, CT? Give up? Nothing! Nothing is more festive than that. We were in New England all last week, landing just a few hours shy of a massive blizzard that paralyzed the Eastern Seaboard and much of the southern states as well. When flying in the dead of winter, be sure to time your trip between flu season and historic storms.

We also had luck coming back, managing to have a scheduled flight that fell on the day when all the airlines seemed to have caught up with their cancelled flights. One guy at our gate had been trying to return to California for five days. That is a lesson in patience, I guess. I felt for New York City, which doesn't run too smoothly under several feet of snow dump. In our case, we were not delighted with excessive wind-chill factors, but once that died down, the days were bright and beautiful. Much sledding and snowball fighting ensued.

Now we're back in cold, gray, wet California--hooray! The secret of California winters is: it's a basically a monsoon season. People forget that during the drought years. It looks like we're on schedule for regular winter dampness and gloominess. That is good. Check out these jellyfish. The Mystic Aquarium has some fabulous outdoor exhibits too, full of Beluga whales, penguins and California sea lions. I hope the sea lions aren't too homesick.

I find it impossible to watch jellyfish, no matter how beautiful, primitive, and ethereal, and not think of SpongeBob Squarepants. Thanks, pop culture and cable TV!