California without a car Day 6

[ali-s]

|California without a car Day 6 Monterey Aug 14th

Aquarium today. It’s about a 10 min walk from the hotel, we get there for opening at 9.30am. I have bought e tickets, so we don’t have to join the queue at the ticket office. There is a viewing area overlooking the water, just by the entrance. We see our first sea otter playing not too far away, but we don’t watch him for long as we’re eager to get into the aquarium before the ‘crowds’ arrive. ( it never got that crowded though )

We collect a map and start off with the jellyfish exhibition- though it isn’t what I thought it would be – studying the map , I find another jellyfish exhibit on the first floor. This aquarium has a rather confusing layout. It’s on 2 floors, and split in 2 halves- to get from one half to the other, you have to go up escalators ( if you are on ground level ) along an aerial type walkway, and down escalators on the other side. We kept getting confused which side and level we were on as the names on the map didn’t always match those of the exhibits. We tried to find the sea otters to see them being fed ( but ended up on the wrong level ) we missed them feeding, but hung around to watch them playing with their keeper afterwards- she had 2 plastic barrels full of ice, the otters were jumping in and out these barrels, chasing each other and generally being cute, we spent ages watching them.


We found the 2nd jellyfish exhibit, I think this was the one advertised, so many different types and fascinating to watch.




The most impressive area was the kelp forest, a 3 storey tank containing kelp ( you don’t say ! ) and the various fish and creatures that live in it. You could stand on the ground floor looking up and it felt like you were stood on the ocean floor. Brilliant idea.




We saw penguins, freshwater otters, and every type of fish imaginable. There were several ‘touch pool’ areas where you could touch rays, sea cucumbers (ug ! ) starfish etc, these were the only areas that got a bit crowded as the kids congregated there.
We had lunch in the self service café there. An excellent selection of soups, sandwiches, hot meals, salads,cakes,pastries, juices, sodas etc.Also very reasonably priced- I queried the total when the girl rung it up, thinking she’d taken for 1 tray instead of 2 !
The boys spent some money in the gift shop ( where else could you buy a cuddly manta ray ? ) we left about 2pm and spent some time at the viewing area looking for sea otters- wouldn’t you know it ? they were nowhere to be seen and I hadn’t got a decent photo the first time, I warned DH and the boys , I was now on a mission find more sea otters !

We dropped the boys purchases back at the hotel and headed out on the recreation trail to walk to Lovers ‘ Point. This was on the itinerary anyway, but I sold it to the boys as an opportunity to look for more sea otters. We didn’t see any- lots more sea lions, various birds, but no otters ! The scenery was pretty enough – lots of rocks and sea ( obviously ) but nothing to rave over, and the trail was getting a bit tedious, I’m not sure how far we walked- I’ve got a feeling we passed Lovers point - we turned around when we got within a couple of hundred metres of shops and houses which may have been Pacific grove, I wanted to go have a look around, but of course the boys were bored and wanted to head back to spend more money in the souvenir shops.


We did a tour of all the shops in cannery row, the boys didn’t find anything they wanted, but I bought myself a rather unusual ‘chicken’ clock, with fried eggs as hands and an American barn as the pendulum ( haven’t unpacked it yet, I assume it’s still in one piece) also a lovely pair of earrings which I am now paranoid about losing whenever I wear them !



There was a little beach on the way back to the hotel, bribing the boys with time to play in the sand, I sat myself on a rock with my binoculars and eventually spotted 2 sea otters, they were being rather boring though, just floating around in the kelp beds, and too far away to take photos of. Oh well, at least we saw them close up at the aquarium.

We ate dinner at the Trailside Café. DH was moaning as there was nothing on the menu he fancied – but he’d had his choice yesterday when we ate at Bullwhackers, we started off on the patio which looked quite pretty with all the flowers ( so many flowers in Monterey )but we had to move inside when we noticed an unpleasant ‘drain’ type smell. ( we seem to be plagued by smells on this holiday ) I had sand dabs ( little flat fish ) in a caper sauce- it was absolutely gorgeous, best meal of the holiday. DH had chicken with Mango salsa, which he said was yuk !DS12 ordered the usual chicken strips and fries – except , to his disgust- it was ‘proper’ chicken cut into strips, and homemade fries. He ate it, but complained. DS9 just had fruit and ice cream.

Back to the hotel to pack the suitcases, tomorrow morning we fly to San Diego.

[highlander447]

Sounds like a good day, great pics

[Cyclospora]

Reading you trippie is like being there again! The aquarium was packed when we were there to the point where you just wanted to get out at times! Glad you had a better experience!

[Guest]

We went to Montery 13 years ago and i had sand dabs and I still remember it as the best meal of the holiday. We were in San Diego for 2 weeks just before you ,so I cant wait to see what you thought.

[DisneyMadAng]

Oh your photos are wonderful!

I don't know, fancy taking you DS to a place with 'proper' chicken

[Guest]

Another great report with lovely photos.

[Jools]

The photos of the jellyfish are amazing.

Another lovely trip report/ - Thank you

[Guest]

A great day & lovely photos!

[Strommie]

The aquarium sounds and looks brilliant.

[Dizzy]

Wow...amazing photos, especially the jelly fish ones
Thanks for another excellent report