Sunday, July 18, 2010

things I don't see everyday

unidentified massive ship
Monterey Bay
June 26, 2010

I've been seeing some unusual things lately and figured I'd make a post of links for my records:

1) The reason why I remembered I had the photo above from last month is there's ANOTHER massive ship in Monterey Bay this weekend called the USS Mobile Bay. Funny thing is, I can't find any online information on the ship I saw above, which was definitely bigger than the comparatively small USS Mobile Bay.

2) In our Monterey Boatyard there's a cute, 2-person submarine sitting in the parking lot (if you saw it, you'd say it was "cute" too). Yeah, I know, who knew such things existed? I believe it's a yacht-class DeepFlight Super Falcon. I remember seeing a similar one here last year.

3) We drove out to Cachagua at the end of Carmel Valley yesterday and passed an unusual sign and very high fencing. I googled AT&T Jamesburg Earth Station and discovered its for sale or lease. Seriously, who knew you could buy such things? I didn't even know what an earth station was until I looked it up (it's a massive dish antenna with stuff to make it useful). Jamesburg's claim to fame is broadcasting man's first walk on the moon. Interestingly enough, it's only a couple million dollars... very cheap compared to some of our $16,000,000 local homes along the ocean... and look at what you get!?! Of course, it's out in the middle of nowhere in the hot, hot summer heat. As a coinkydink, we've been subjected to several days of jack hammering as AT&T installs new fiber optic cables along our street, which made the impressive dish less useful years ago.

Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some recent awesome nature blog posts:
Jessica's Nature Blog - neonatal Risso's dolphin
Walk the Wilderness - Indian wild dogs
Tree in the Door's Fauna and Flora - backyard bobcat