Friday, December 29, 2006

A Visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium


Northern Sea Nettles
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.
(Okay. I am setting aside the insane crowds, the noise, and the chaos. I'm setting aside rude people who pushed their children in front of mine while I was insisting my kids wait their turn. I'm setting aside the number of times that I was pushed out of the way of something just as I was snapping a picture of it. All that is gone now.)

We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium today with the kids. We spent 3 hours there and had a fantastic time. We somehow missed the penguins (Greg was in charge of the map so I'm not sure how that was possible!) but we saw everything else.

Highlights . . . the great white shark was amazing as was the Ocean Sunfish in the same huge tank. My favorite was the jellies though -- wow! They named the exhibit Living Art and I couldn't agree more. They were spectacular! I got ONE good shot and I'm thrilled with it. I enjoyed the Sandy Shore exhibit and would have liked to spend more time there. Great captive shorebird photo ops.

ShorebirdsKilldeerWillet

The kids had a blast . . .

Ruthie at the Bat Ray tankWave Wall

My favorite shot of the day was this one of Greg and Gage watching the sea otters. I was grumpy (still fighting a cold and fighting for good pictures) and snapped at Gage to have Greg help him to see (charming, eh?). And, so he did and look what good came out of even the grumpiest mommy moment:

Greg and Gage at Monterey Bay Aquarium

Another pretty shot I got was this Tube Anemone:

Tube Anenomes

We ended the day by walking through the tourist-trap stores on Cannery Row. We were keeping our eye out for White Elephant gifts for a New Year's Eve exchange. We found just the things! Hurray! The kids also bought representative souveniers -- Ruthie got a soft, fuzzy sea otter with a shell and Gage bought a quite large shark toy. We had dinner at a restaurant (Sly McFly's) that could be called "mediocre" only if you were being extremely generous. Let's put it this way . . . the corn dog nuggets that Gage got were the best thing we were served. My calamari was a travesty and I didn't eat it. Oh well -- what was I thinking getting calamari at the site of the biggest calamari fishery in the US? Foolish me.

Still, it was a great day. Good strengthening those family ties kind of day. I think I'll go kiss my kids now and put myself to bed! Yawn!

2 comments:

Mary said...

A great day! It was always a special treat for my daughter and a friend when we'd visit the aquarium in Baltimore. It was a whole day event and worth every minute.

Sorry you are under the weather - I have a miserable cold, too.

Your photos are beautiful.

JP (mom) said...

You got some great pics with your new camera!! I'm having so much fun with mine too! Happy New Year! JP