Monterey Bay Aquarium

Walking down the hill from the parking lot to the main street. That building is a bit of a landmark. 🙂

The kids running back towards me, as I had injured my heel and wasn't a fast walker.

Other landmarks for Monterey include the 'street-bridges', dating from when this town was a functioning cannery-town. The aquarium is at the far end of that road.

Jason and Augusto calmly crossing the road. Sarah had stayed behind in the car with Clarissa in an attempt to feed her, but she turned out to be way too excited about the new environment, so they caught up with us pretty quickly.

Yet another landmark: the bust of John Steinbeck, the author of 'Of Mice and Men' and 'Grapes of Wrath'.

Hello pretty view. 🙂

McAbee beach, one of Finnur's favorite diving locations.

Checking out the view in detail.

Aquarium time! Our first act was to feed the kids, who were already hungry, even though it was barely past 10 am!

Feeding and training of a couple of sea otters. My camera thought the droplets on the window were much more interesting though...

All visitors to the aquarium must bring back photos of the awesome jellyfish.

Those are also real jellyfish, it's not just a flat picture!

This was the first time that we've ever arrived early enough at the aquarium to witness the feeding of the Big Tank, aka Outer Bay Exhibit. I don't recall them having sardines in the tank, but there was a big swarm of them in there (they're the cleaning crew apparently), and you can see them parting as the ray swims close. Also note the hammer-head shark and tuna-fish.

They went though the whole feeding program, and the last to get fed were the sardines. Knowing it was their turn, they came up from the bottom and swirled around the top half of the tank for a good long while. In the meantime, fish or, in this case, a turtle, would swim by and they'd make room. It was a mesmerizing sight. 🙂

The kids looking into the big tank.

The view from the back of the room. Sardine-swarms are awesome - the cloud kept changing shape and I took way too many pictures... 🙂

Next up: A diver feeding the shark and other fish in the Kelp Forest exhibit - chatting away with the lady up front.

Augusto and Clarissa sitting on the stairs by the kelp forest.

The aquarium seems to realize that not all kids can be mesmerized by fish alone, so they've also installed a small playground in one of the corners. It's also pretty neat that there are lots of doors that lead to outside patios where one can eat and enjoy the view.

I don't think this has changed in many years... 🙂

The biggest attraction by far for Bjarki and Anna was this water-gun and water-levers play-area that would periodically dump fresh water down the chute. My feet were happy to rest for a while... 🙂

Bjarki eating lunch on the go to avoid the clever flies who know where the food is.

Sarah holding on to Clarissa, who seemed pretty determined to throw herself head-first off her mother's lap.

Jason on the other hand would never contemplate such an idea. See how he's holding on? 🙂

We had a pretty nice packed lunch, and then wandered around some more.

The aquarium is great about showing how the sea is always moving, and has areas where they periodically dump a bunch of water, in this case over a plastic see-through shell. When you stand inside it, it sort of looks and sounds like looking into a flushing see-through toilet.

Shortly after 2 or 3 pm we were all getting tired and hungry, and it was time to head home. First, we stopped by the cafeteria and had some grub to keep tempers from flaring. Then we headed to the minivan and drove back to home-base after a fun day! 🙂

Meanwhile in San Francisco, Finnur took this lovely picture of the view from his office. 🙂 Yes, that's the Bay Bridge.

But that wasn't all, because before the day was out, Augusto and Anna removed one of the siding boards (?) to attempt to stem the flow of ants into the dining area, using silicone. We've yet to determine if they were successful.