Monterey Bay California

May 28th Chris and I took a trip to Monterey Bay. A lot of people said that the Monterey Bay Aquarium was a must see, and it most definitely was! We got up early to start our trip down to Monterey Bay which was a two and a half hour drive, but it was worth it. The drive was wonderful being able to see different areas of California, and going to the bay was wonderful as well. The first picture here is a vista point that we stopped at on our way to Monterey in the Central Valley. Such beautiful country with the vineyards and orchards. However more cows would make it even better!

Once arriving in Monterey we parked Kia in a parking garage and went to the aquarium. The first critters that we saw when entering was the sea otters. They are so darn cute and were rolling around playing.
After seeing the sea otters we went over to the two story kelp forest which was amazing to see. All the sea life in this exhibit was what was out in the bay right outside. The divers were busy cleaning the glass and feeding the sea urchins when we arrived. They would also point to fish that were hard to see so that we were able to see them. This was a really cool tank that had areas where it was like a magnifying glass to be able to see a more detailed view of whatever fish was there at the moment. The otter lining of the tank had displays of fish that had information and a closer view of them which made it nice to see the fish because the kelp forest was HUGE!


Here we are standing on the second floor looking at the kelp forest. We were waiting for the diver to come down to feed the fish in the tank. It was beautiful having the light come down and shine in the tank.


The aquarium had many different kind of animals including penguins, turtles, birds, touch pools and many many more. I even gained up the courage to touch the sea life in the touch pools. I am not really a fan of touching sea life because they are weird and slimy, at least that is what I always thought. I even held a decorator crab!

The aquarium also had a new exhibit open that the day that we went was the first day it opened, so that was pretty cool. Walking into the exhibit they had a circle tank above you with sardines swimming in like a racetrack motion. Their was also tuna as well, however the volunteers there said that they were already swimming in the wrong direction than what was intended, we thought that was pretty funny! The fish were suppose to swim in the direction that people were walking, but I guess they wanted to swim the other way. They also had some really cool jellyfish exhibits.
The aquarium also had a sea horse exhibit and the dragon horse was the most popular.

After spending most of the day at the aquarium we went and walked around town. It was nice because their were Trolleys that were free since everyone has to park in parking garages so that you are still able to get around town. We went down to a couple different beaches, this one was the one next to the Fisherman's Wharf. I couldn't believe how clear the water was and I wanted to go into the water so bad. The sand was also different than in Washington. After going to the beach we went and walked the Fisherman's Wharf and got some frozen chocolate coated bananas. It was pretty good, we had never had one before and wanted to give it a try. We also went to the restaurant on the end of the dock... I can't remember the name, their was a lot. It was nice to sit down and relax and watch the seals jump onto their sun bathing spots and enjoy some yummy clam chowder.

During dinner I had decided that I wanted to go walk in the water before heading back to Stockton, however when we got done with dinner it was sprinkling outside so we decided to call it a day and head back. We had seen the things that we wanted to see so it was no big deal... other than I didn't get to walk in the water. Hopefully we will go to a beach before we leave so I can at least walk in the water on a California beach where hopefully the water is a little warmer and more doable than in Washington. On the drive home when passing a reservoir we saw a rainbow. It was nice to have the rain on the way home. The one thing that we like is that when it rains it is usually warm out still and Kia can also get her bath, so it is a free car wash!