Trinidad, California // Car Adventures

The other day my friends and I went on a drive and found this wonderful vista point.  We were driving along the coast in Trinidad and just decided to park at this random turnout.  It had a little path which lead from the turnout to  a rock that jetted about 500ft into the ocean. It was really cool to be up so high and have waves crashing all around you.  Plus it was absolutely gorgeous even with the misty rain coming down.

I really love finding places like this in my own backyard.  No one has to travel hundreds of miles to find something exciting or beautiful.  If you look hard enough or just travel outside of you're comfort zone, you'll find something amazing. I used to be frustrated by living three hours from a decent mall or movie theatre but recently I've accepted that certain entertainments are not available where I live and I need to appreciate the ones I do have, namely nature.  

Now that I'm looking at where I will live next year for college, the idea of being away from the ocean worries me.  I go to the beach at least twice a month and drive past the bay every single day.  Living in a non-coastal town will be different, to say the least, but I want to make sure I appreciate the ocean while I have it.

 

Blackfish

On Labor Day, I went with my father to watch an amazing documentary called Blackfish about Orcas in captivity. This movie attempted to explain why acts of aggression towards humans have been taking place at amusement parks like SeaWorld. For the past 40 years there have been quite a few documented acts of this aggression, three resulting in the deaths of trainers. The film includes interviews from many former Orca trainers and their experiences.  The main focus was on the whale named Tilikum, a 12,000 pound male Orca currently living at SeaWorld, Florida.  This whale has a history of aggressive acts and has been involved in the deaths of three people. The film tries to determine how purposeful the whales are with these acts of aggression and how has their environment has promoted these reactions? The interviews show slightly different viewpoints but it is clear that these whales are only acting as such because of their living conditions.

Ever since I was little, I've loved Orcas.  If I had to be any other animal on this planet, I would choose to be an Orca.  Nothing kills an Orca, they aren't even hunted by humans, they're powerful, and most of all they are smart.  So naturally when I heard about this documentary on Tumblr, I couldn't wait to see it.  A couple months have passed and I saw that this movie was showing at my local theatre so I went to the next available showing. I can't remember the last time a movie has such an effect on me. I've always held on to the naive belief that SeaWorld and other parks were giving their animals a decent life but that view is forever shattered. These animals are as aware of the world as we are and perhaps feel more deeply than we do yet we keep them in the equivalent of a bathtub in which they are attacked by other whales and then we have the nerve to separate their offspring. Frankly, they deserve to be a little aggressive.  If there is one documentary you should see this year, I would say it's this one.  I can't even imagine stepping foot in a park like SeaWorld ever again. If you're interesting in watching this film, it will be aired on CNN on October 24th at 9pm EST.