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Another cool start to our last day, maybe 20 max in the morning, warming up in the afternoon to mid 20's.
We've been talking a lot on facebook with Michelle whom we met at MACNA and she had called all three places we were to go to check out today and set it up for us, thanks Michelle!
We kicked off after breakfast with a visit to Quality Marine. Our tour guide there, Eli was an engaging young man with loads of passion for the industry. They have a pretty cool set up and some, as their name suggests, quality stock.
The next place, only a few doors down was a little different. Despite a similar call to say we were coming took a different approach. Unlike the first there was no "ask for Eli" type of instruction, it was "Drive to the side to park, use the side entry door which will be propped open with brick, don't use front door". It felt a bit wrong to just walk in but we did. There were a couple of workers unpacking stock who seemed surprised we asked if it was ok to look around. Surprised as in, why ask? Just go for it lol
This was a much smaller operation and we felt a little uncomfortable so we took a quick look at the coral systems, thanked the staff and left.
The third was a whole different thing. They were also expecting us and Michelle was meeting us there. Turned out she knew the owners there very well :-) we were made to feel very welcome at Unique Corals by Scott Fellman & later by his business partner Joe Caparatta. It's a very new business, just a year old, dealing in mostly small colonies and frags. They don't frag them all themselves, they also source from other top notch aquarists and are in partnership with Joe Yaiullo's Reef Gen. Again we struck it lucky with Scott as our guide, another passionate about his work kind of guy. They have an amazingly simple but very effective set up with just one pump per race.
We were getting ready to leave when his business partner, Joe came flying in looked a tad harassed. It seemed they're trying to set up some tanks in time for one of the Royal family from Brunai's imminent arrival in Hollywood. A little tricky when the plan keeps changing, expanding and getting more and more elaborate by the hour.
It was a really good morning and it was good to catch up with Michelle, thanks again for the ice block too :-)
Taking the locals suggestion we left there and did a bit of a tour of some canyons which was cool. It's quite a different landscape to anything we've seen before and the narrow very winding roads made it interesting lol
Then it was time to face the peak hour traffic, grab some gas to top up the hire car, drop it off and check in for the 14 hour flight home. As we approached the airport the sun was setting, setting on LA and setting on our big adventure.
Checked in four hours before our scheduled midnight departure, Thankfully LAX has free wi fi to pass the time.......
We've had a ball, met some awesome people, done some unreal things and visited some really gorgeous places.
To those who've added to the whole experience we have to say thank you, you know who you are :-) Keep in touch, you never know when we will be back if you're one of the many US or Canadian citizens we've had the pleasure of meeting or when we may be over your way in the case of those from the UK we had a blast with on the Jewel of the Seas.
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