Day 2 at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Monday, July 16th, 2012    Monterey Bay Aquarium- Day #2

We woke up early (for us), had a hot breakfast and headed back to the aquarium.  We are very excited to see all the exhibits as there is so much more than what we saw yesterday.  We started with watching the feeding of the penguins and then the feeding at the Open Sea exhibit.  It was interesting how they feed all the animals but in different ways and at different times....say, the sardines at the bottom of the tank which are in with the sharks.  They are only fed after the sharks as they need to swim up through all the other animals to get their food.  They must hate feeding time.

Sharks



Jellyfish



There were exhibits of the Sea Otters who loved playing and were fun to watch, great exhibits on Jelly Fish and Sea Horses which were some of Tracy's favorites.  In their jelly fish section, they had great hands-on exhibits for kids with computers where they could make their own jellyfish and then they would go up on a huge screen, where they would swim away.  They kids loved drawing their own creations.



Sea Dragons



Chris and Annika creating

their own jellyfish on computers.



The Sea Horses were also just so amazing and you only have to look once at the Sea Dragon to see just a glimpse of the incredible creativity of our God.  AMAZING!!



Jonathan by the Tidal Pool



Leopard Sharks and Bat Rays



Chris's favorite spot was a touch pool that had Bat Rays and Leopard sharks in them.  A great deal of time was spent here also.  Good thing it was close to Annika's touch pools :)  They really did an amazing job of having so many exhibit and computer screens that kids could touch and learn more about different animals and how they live.  They had a huge tidal wave that would go off in a pool so you could see how waves affected animals and plants under the water.  It was fun to watch the way things move with the currents and how the animals just float where ever the water leads them. 

Josh checking out a bunch of jellyfish

 Needless to say, we had many favorite parts of the aquarium and enjoyed it all IMMENSELY!!!  We so wish we lived close to here so that we could come back and enjoy it more.  But...around 4pm, we decided that we again needed to cover more ground in the car.  By the way, we did take a break for lunch and went out to Cannery Rd.  We got some fruit, burgers and Josh and I had Clam Chowder in a Sourdough Bowl.  Very yummy!!!!  Monteray is a beautiful town and we greatly encourage anyone who gets a chance to go here.  Lots to see and do....and the temperatures are always nice and cool if you are looking for a place to get away from the heat!



Jonathan's favorite spot to watch the puffins.

We drove up the coast toward San Francisco where we Price lined a hotel in Oakland, CA.  It was the Executive Inn and Suites which was very nice.  We stopped at a grocery store and picked up some sandwich foods to eat by the pool.  The one request (besides the aquarium) today was to be able to swim.  So, we had a picnic by the pool, swam (it was a brisk swim) and enjoyed the hot tub.   What another great day- Thank you Lord!





Having a picnic and swimming at our hotel
in Oakland, CA.  The temperature here
is 59 degrees....brrrrr!