Monterey travelogue (with pictures - LOTS of pictures)

Thursday after school, we got in the car and left for Monterey. The school organizes a field trip to the aquarium there every other year for the 2nd and 3rd grades so we've done this before and had a good time.

Here the kids are Friday morning. Watching TV is soooooo very fascinating when you only get to watch videos at home and it's not fair and so on. But then again, it's not fair when nothing's on that looks any good or that your mom will let you watch, ie in the evening.




We set out far too early because kids+excitement+hotel room is a recipe for disaster. We parked the car and went for a walk on the other, less-populated (non-Cannery Row) side of the aquarium and soon came across this:



Harbor seals on the beach at the Stanford something-or-other marine research station.


Boys watching seals.


Boys - and dad and little sister - climbed down a little path to some rocks and then down some rocks to the tiny bit of beach and rocks. With the tide coming in.



So a bit later with DS2 soaked and complaining that we should go back to the hotel to change and DS1 a bit damp, we went back over to the Aquarium.

We met up with everyone else from the school and the adults got Chaperone badges and we all went into the auditorium where there was a presentation about Freaky Fish and a little booklet was handed out with questions and such. We managed to lose it within minutes. Oh well. Almost right away, we headed over to the touch pools, where DD splashed and tried to drink the water. DS2 was intent on touching as many fish as possible, but those darn Bat Rays were too smart and only rarely swam anywhere near where people could touch them. In fact, they were rather desperately trying to get into the neighboring observation NON-touch pool.









They had more or less dried out before that. Next time: short sleeves, no matter how cool it is outside.