We took a short drive mostly along the 101 this morning and visited the Monterey peninsula. We were in Monterey a few years ago but we only spent the night and didn’t get to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, so that’s where we went today. The drive was a little over an hour and since it was Tuesday we had no trouble parking Xena; although we did have to drive all over Monterey looking for a space close to the aquarium before going back to the first car park we saw.

We got to the Aquarium not very long after it opened but just late enough that there was no queue to get in. First stop off our visit was the sea otters, and I could have stayed and watched them cavorting all day, they are just so cute. They had two at the aquarium on display, a male and a female; the male was a pup who was found lost in the wild and he now has a nice lady friend to keep him company. They had just been fed when we arrived and they were very active, swimming in their pool and playing with the toys. They must have worn themselves out though as when we stopped by later in the day they were taking an extended nap in a bucket.

Next stop on our tour was the penguin exhibit; the penguins here are an African species and were fairly small. They were being fed when we got there although they only eat every few days so only a few of the birds were actually eating. The rest of them were hanging out in their ‘houses’ and fighting over pieces of grass. One of the lady penguins was in the process of shedding all her feathers and she looked a little rough with hardly any feathers left on her head. Apparently, the birds shed their feathers and grow back a whole new set in just a matter of weeks; and another useful piece of information, penguins can projectile defecate up to three feet, fortunately I didn’t get a picture, but it’s definitely a true fact.





The Aquarium has a really cool exhibit that recreates the Open Sea; it is three stories high and has all kinds of sea life in it. We watched the feeding and it was amazing to watch the different manner in which the different species feed. The sea turtles and sunfish are ‘called’ to the edges of the ocean with buoys so that they are out of the way of the fast swimmers, and then the frenzy begins. Squid and other fish, and vitamins are tossed in to the top and the dorado and tuna make really short work of it; they are super fast and can turn on a dime. The sharks stay well out of the way while the super swimmers go to work. After they were done, some lovely pink krilll was tossed in and the sardines rose from the bottom and danced around while devouring their lunch; they are mesmerising to watch. We tried to take pictures but they didn’t come out so well.



There were loads of other exhibits, the jellyfish,  the giant kelp, and the sea horses and water dragons. The horses and dragons were amazing, and some of the camouflage was unbelievable. We had a really good visit, it wasn’t overly crowded, not too many kids, and the exhibits were all really cool and quite educational.

Afterwards we walked along Cannery Row which is full of shops and galleries, and got to gaze out over Monterey Bay. We ate Indian for lunch which was a little disappointing, but that was the only low point of the day. 

When we got home we had a new friend waiting for us, I think she was a younger one than we’ve seen before as she was a little bit skittish and quite a bit smaller – still so cute though.

Mike: No Becc, we can't take her with us, she might eat Tal-y!