On October 16th, we left Grass Valley in a drizzling rain headed for Monterey, CA. Kevin and Dodie and the boys were about 45 minutes behind us pulling their trailer behind their pickup truck. By the time we reached Lodi, where we stopped for fuel and lunch, Kev caught up to us.
In Auburn, it started raining steadily with big drops and continued that way, on and off, all of the way to Monterey. It was even raining in the RV park in the County Fairgrounds while we set up our rigs.
We had come all of this way to re-visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was the first of its kind and set the bar for all of the aquariums to follow. Some today, like the new facility in Atlanta, GA are reportedly, even better but it’s still undeniably the finest on the West Coast.
in which they could handle sea cucumbers and starfish and the larger tanks where they could pet a shark or sting ray. Here Kevin helps Andrew get up close and personal with some creature in the trough.
In the tank below there was a beautiful school of anchovies.
One of the reasons Kevin was so anxious to come here was the fact that they had another Great White Shark in one of the display tanks. It is the fourth Great White they’ve had here at the aquarium, and it’s the only place in the world to successfully keep one alive. The previous three have all been returned to the wild ocean when they became big enough to become a threat to the other fish in the tank. The current animal is just a baby about 4’ long and 7 months old. He’s certainly easy to differentiate from all of the other fish and sharks in the tank when he swims by the viewing windows. Unfortunately, flash photography was forbidden so we couldn’t get any usable pictures of it to share with you.
We were able to see the sea otters at their
feeding and training time. We have seen performing sea lions and porpoise before but to actually see the otters perform particular activities on command was really surprising. Andrew and Judy really enjoyed watching the show through the under water window.
The most unusual and spectacular displays are of the various jellyfish. There are so many species on display and each seems to be more interesting or unusual than the last. They seem to move so effortlessly through the water just pulsing along at their own pace—and many of them are so colorful.
On Thursday, Kev and family returned to the Aquarium while Judy and I took the opportunity to go do some shopping in the interesting and unusual shops on Cannery Row.
We met later in the day at the Monterey Maritime Museum before heading down to the beach for the kids to play a while. Thursday night we went to a lovely Japanese restaurant near Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner and to celebrate Kevin’s birthday which is really tomorrow.
We’ll return to Grass Valley tomorrow, Oct 19th, 2007.
In Auburn, it started raining steadily with big drops and continued that way, on and off, all of the way to Monterey. It was even raining in the RV park in the County Fairgrounds while we set up our rigs.
We had come all of this way to re-visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was the first of its kind and set the bar for all of the aquariums to follow. Some today, like the new facility in Atlanta, GA are reportedly, even better but it’s still undeniably the finest on the West Coast.
The kids enjoyed the “touch-it tanks”
in which they could handle sea cucumbers and starfish and the larger tanks where they could pet a shark or sting ray. Here Kevin helps Andrew get up close and personal with some creature in the trough.In the tank below there was a beautiful school of anchovies.
One of the reasons Kevin was so anxious to come here was the fact that they had another Great White Shark in one of the display tanks. It is the fourth Great White they’ve had here at the aquarium, and it’s the only place in the world to successfully keep one alive. The previous three have all been returned to the wild ocean when they became big enough to become a threat to the other fish in the tank. The current animal is just a baby about 4’ long and 7 months old. He’s certainly easy to differentiate from all of the other fish and sharks in the tank when he swims by the viewing windows. Unfortunately, flash photography was forbidden so we couldn’t get any usable pictures of it to share with you.
We were able to see the sea otters at their
feeding and training time. We have seen performing sea lions and porpoise before but to actually see the otters perform particular activities on command was really surprising. Andrew and Judy really enjoyed watching the show through the under water window.The most unusual and spectacular displays are of the various jellyfish. There are so many species on display and each seems to be more interesting or unusual than the last. They seem to move so effortlessly through the water just pulsing along at their own pace—and many of them are so colorful.
On Thursday, Kev and family returned to the Aquarium while Judy and I took the opportunity to go do some shopping in the interesting and unusual shops on Cannery Row.
We met later in the day at the Monterey Maritime Museum before heading down to the beach for the kids to play a while. Thursday night we went to a lovely Japanese restaurant near Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner and to celebrate Kevin’s birthday which is really tomorrow.We’ll return to Grass Valley tomorrow, Oct 19th, 2007.
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