monterey, part 2

Just as many photos as yesterday, I suppose.
I'm a couple of days behind on replying to comments, too...sorry...but I will take care of that as I soon as I post this.

Where did I leave off. Oh. We were heading out to dinner last night.

Wellp, MyFavoriteKid realllllly wanted to go The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., and since I knew that MrPickyPantsEater would be into the food there, I had no problem complying. Besides, I knew that they'd have a killer pomegranite margarita on tap for Mommy.

Now you know this place is gimmicky, and I know this place is gimmicky, but lemme tell you....MyFK thought this was one of the greatest places on earth, and I just got a hoot out of watching him enjoy it.

He has just seen the movie for the first time this past year, I think, and so every single item in the place was a novelty for him. The list of every dish you can make out of shrimp is painted on the wall, the cocktail menu is on a ping-pong paddle, there are framed "family photos" of Lt.Dan on the wall, plus display cases with various costumes from the movie, etc. The waitress came by and asked him trivia questions, and he knew all the answers. It was pretty comical.

(And that's all I got to say about that.)

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Okay, so this morning it was complimentary breakfast in the room.
Sweet. (I never want to leave this place, I tell ya').

Then off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It would seem that perhaps we spent an unusual amount of time there. An employee that we had seen early in the morning caught us later in the afternoon and said, "Wow, I can't believe you guys are still here! Having fun?"
And I couldn't believe how we could NOT still be there.
There was SO much to see, and if you really do stop and look, and take the time to read stuff, and see feedings, and talk to the people that work there so you actually learn something, well.....honestly, I dont know how you couldn't be there for as long as we were. We didnt even give the final section a thorough pass because we were so wiped out!

What we were most excited to see was the new Sea Horse Exhibit.

There's the type of seahorse we were expecting. The more "typical", yah?

But get a load of THIS guy:

And you should see him when he's hiding in the seaweed!
(okay, well I guess in that case, you would NOT be seeing him)

We caught several feedings, our favorite being the Outer Bay Exhibit and the "fast feeders" (dorado, tuna, barracuda, etc). But we also really like watching the Sea Otters chow down.

Hey, and I learned something new. Did you know that River Otters mark their territory with "spraint"?! As in, like, "it's kinda like sprayin'? but it AINT?!"


They actually had a sample whiff for you to take, if you can believe it---hahaha.
(not pleasant)

My favorite exhibit, just as it was the last time I came here, what...8 years or so ago?
The jellyfish exhibit.


One thing that is really great about the Monterey Bay Aquariium is that half the place is rigged up on webcams, so you can check it out yourself, too---right there from wherever you are ;-)

Okay, so after the Aquarium it was a rest at the hotel, some more wine and cheese, some more walking around the 'hood, and another dinner out. We head home tomorrow, but for tonight, we're enjoying the place.



Way fun :-)