Monterey Bay Aquarium

My oldest brother actually took a vacation. I know. I was surprised, too. He brought his family along, too. Seriously. They went to down to Socal and spent a couple days in Disneyland and California Adventure, then drove up north to spend a few days with us. It was so fun having them here.

Since our trip out to Utah in May, I have no desire to travel anywhere for a while, so it's nice making everybody come to us. We've got lots of visitors scheduled for next month (Asher's birthday!).

Akiko was still in school, but I pulled her out for the day and we drove south to Monterey Bay and spent the day at the aquarium. Here are the highlights:

Danny and the kids overlooking the bay.

Ian, Akiko and Savannah getting up the nerve to touch some sea stars, cucumbers and crabs.

I told you they wouldn't bite.

Brave little Moses dove right in.

These are called decorator crabs. They take bits of seaweed and camouflage themselves.

"Hey Ma! The water's wet!" Asher Splasher doing what he does best.

Rays that we could pet... if they came close enough.

Leopard shark that you could also pet. Sharks are so misunderstood.

The kids and Terra enjoying one of the many ginormous tanks.

So, Ian and Savannah get along with my kids really well. They're all close enough in age that they played with each other spectacularly. I expected Savannah to fawn all over Asher, but I should have known better. Savannah only had eyes for Akiko. Ian, on the other hand, totally fell in love with Asher. The feeling was mutual.

New best buddies.

What aquarium is complete unless it includes the cast of Finding Nemo? This was the only good pic I could get though and somebody spilled beer in front of this display and it made me gag.

Eels kind of freak me out.

The cousins in a giant clamshell. Forget about trying to get them all to look at you at the same time. Impossible!

So, the next couple pictures need a little explaining. There was this eggshell and both the boys wanted to climb in it. I figured it was a great picture opportunity. Only the first pic turned out. I took, like, 20 pictures and it's really amusing to watch them in rapid succession, but here are the winners:

My boys. I accidentally coordinated their outfits, but I'm glad I did. They're so cute.

Moses found it hilarious when I imitated Asher, "Hey! How do I get out of here?!"

"No Asher! Stay in the egg!"

Here are my favorite things to see at any aquarium:

So. Beautiful.

See all the tiny shrimp it's feasting on?

Yay for cute little seahorses!

I forget the names of these ones, but don't they look so cool?

My favorite: the weedy sea dragon.

Posing with a giant replica of a birthing daddy. That's right. Male seahorses are the ones who carry and give birth. Can you see the little baby coming out near the swirl on Moses' shirt?

Flamingos. Beautiful. Picture doesn't give them justice.

Asher really loved the sea turtles.

Seeing these really made me yearn to go snorkeling and swim with them on Maui.

Akiko made friends with an emperor penguin. It's fake. But she loved that it was life-sized.

So, a word, if I may, for those that may travel to the Bay area. There are two aquariums in the area: Monterey Bay and the Aquarium of the Bay at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Admission is about the same to get into either, but I highly recommend skipping the one in SF and just go two hours south to Monterey.

We went through the entire aquarium in SF in 1.5 hours and it took us an entire day to get through the one in Monterey. It's pretty easy to do the math and find out which aquarium is not only more awesome, but which one also gives you the best bang for your buck.

Love. This. Place.