Monterey Bay Aquarium

Monterey Bay Aquarium

We recently spent a long weekend in Monterey, California celebrating my 25^th anniversary with the company for which I work.  One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

I hadn’t visited for a few years, so there were a few exhibits I was looking forward to seeing.  The Jellies Experience was a lot of fun, as the curators played on the similarities of jellyfish movement and the lava lamps of the 60s and 70s, and the exhibit definitely had a psychedelic feel to it.  These invertebrates were mesmerizing in form and motion.

The Secret Lives of Seahorses was another fascinating exhibit.  What amazing creatures these are, with their prehensile tails wrapping around the vegetation in their niches.  Did you know it’s the males of the species that give birth and raise the young?  Pictured below is the leafy seahorse, well camouflaged by its anatomy.

Alas, no sightings of my favorite seabird, the pelican, however we enjoyed the sights and sounds of plenty of other seabirds, including a seagull who came and perched itself on the balcony railing while we sat watching the sun set over the Monterey Bay.  All in all, a wonderful time in a wonderful place!