If you’re ever in La Jolla, you’d be remiss to skip the killer Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. As a little girl, tracing my fingers in the sun-kissed tide pools and gazing at the ethereal jellyfish were among my favorite things to do ever. I would trick or treat at the aquarium on Halloween and take summer camps there every year. I dreamt about kelp and shark teeth and chambered nautilus. So last week, I made a long overdue visit. It was better than I remembered. It’s amazing how much sea life reminds me of space life, both in the way things float and unfurl and jet about but also in the way things look so completely, utterly, overwhelmingly alien. It was very Avatar. The last photo – of these insane sand worms – are pretty much what I imagine the surface of Hades to look like.
