Tanks for the Memories

Vacation Day 5

Greetings from Monterey, California. We haven't seen much of it since we arrived late last night but the little we have seen is very nice indeed. We spent most of the day amongst busloads of kiddies at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is located on Cannery Row, an area rich in history. John Steinbeck's book entitled Cannery Row is based on this area and he grew up not too far from Monterey but loved coming to the area. The sea water is pumped in from just outside at a rate of 200 gallons per minute. The aquarium displays approximately 550 species. The large kelp forest tank holds 1/3 of a million gallons of water and the exhibit windows range from 3-13" thick. The Aquarium was a gift to the community by David and Lucile Packard. The original cost of the Aquarium was approximately $55 million.

We left the aquarium around 4pm and ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Joe was pleasantly surprised at the quality of food. We walked around the Cannery area for a while and looked for some sea glass for Kelsey finding a lot of smaller pieces. I hope she makesme a nice piece of jewelery with some of what we found.

The fog rolled in quite early and the drive along the coast reminded us of living back in Saint John. The view was still great though. The waves were crashing against the rocky shoreline and there were some die hard surfers trying to catch the right wave. We stopped at one area and Joe noticed a bronze plaque so he drove over to it. I got out and read it and it was a memorial to John Denver. Pacific Grover is where his plane went down in 1997.

We're staying here a couple more days and we hope to get out to the beaches and catch some rays. Enjoy the many pictures I took.

Joe exploring Cannery Row

Kelp forest

Sorry I forgot to rotate

Grumpy "Kelsey" fish (sorry Kelsey but I thought it was funny)

 

Feeding time

 This is one huge tank (first half)

 Second half

 Jellyfish lights

 Did you know that the male seahorses actually carry the embryos around in a pouch and give birth?

 This fish looks like it's missing the back half of its body

 These guys reminded me so much of Mitch and Cam with Lily on Modern Family

We just had to try it out

 "Sometimes life is like a box of chocolates"

 The fog has rolled in

We stumbled upon this plaque by accident. It marks the location where John Denver died in 1997