Today we spent several hours enjoying the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After breakfast at the hotel, we drove to a downtown Monterey parking garage and got on the free electric trolley that does a circuit around to various tourist destinations. It dropped us off at the waterfront aquarium around 10:30 am. We enjoyed seeing this world class aquarium, including the awesomely large open sea exhibit, where it was feeding time for the dorado (mahi mahi), rays, Pacific sunfish (mola mola), hammerhead sharks, yellowfin tuna, and sardines. All of the exhibits are very well done. We saw various jellies, octopus, cuttlefish, huge tanks of living kelp with associated fish, and cute sea otters. On the deck overlooking Monterey Bay, we also saw a wild sea otter eating a crab, a couple of sunning harbor seals, and a few different birds.
After seeing all the exhibits, we went into the auditorium to watch two short video talks on great white sharks and sea otters, both very interesting.
We emerged into the sunshine about 2:30 and walked along Cannery Row a short ways before seeing a lunch spot. We had a pleasant lunch of burgers, salads, and ice tea. Back out into the sunshine to admire the view and wait for the trolley back to the car. I didn’t take any photos inside the aquarium, but here are some from Cannery Row.
After returning to the hotel, I went for a walk around a small lake adjacent to the hotel. There were some fancy cars at the hotel because of a car exposition starting later in the week.
Lori's Travels 