A Little Road Trip to Monterey Bay Part IV

Gentle Friends,  and finally we arrive and the last post about our day in Monterey... after the Aquarium we headed right out the front door and along Cannery Row...

.... since the day was still bright and beautiful was a nice to walk in the sun ...

... there are spots along the way where you can see the open Bay...and has an open feeling instead of a built-up wall of condos...

... there is a lovely park that has at the front a bust of Johna Steinbeck and a newer larger statue of nine historical figures... this area is called Steinbeck Plaza...  then it was on to lunch.....  

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... we headed to Sly McFly's...

... and ordered a round of drinks...

... and I thought what better way than with a Bloody Mary... gotta have that vitamin C...  

here are our lunches...

... fish and chips...

... Turkey club...

... roasted Chicken Salad...

... and I had a Chef's Sampler Platter of tempura fish, shrimp, and squid "steak strips"...  then some live music started up and we settled in for a little listen...... and another round...

.... with a delicious Buffalo Trace bourbon Old fashioned!!!  It was a lovely afternoon!!!

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... then we went shopping... Rico tried on squid hats!!

... and we hit a candy store...

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Then it was time to get back on the road and head north and home.......

... at last, shot looking out over the Bay towards the open Pacific ocean......

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That wraps up our day in Monterey, I would highly recommend a visit!!  Thanks again for coming along with me a reliving our trip it was lots of fun!!  

Take care,

edgar

A Little Road Trip to Monterey Bay Part III

Gentle Friends its Tuesday and the adventure continues.....

... it's hard to see in a still photo but this exhibit is huge - it's is a gigantic overhead tank of Pacific Sardines... they swim in circles and flash brightly as the sun above hits them... this leads on to the "Jellies" a really beautiful exhibit that is a real "not to miss" section of the Aquarium!!

... The Purple Stripped Jelly......

...The Sea Nettle Jellies...

... The Moon Jellies....

There were many more Jellies I just didn't want to overload you with pictures... the entire exhibit is hypnotizing and beautiful, a real treat for the eyes!! 

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...then it was on to the Baja Peninsula where there are desert dwellers like this tarantula (hard to see but under the rock) and his bronze counterpart on the ledge

... and along the bottom are there Garden Eels..

... and then we came up to another enormous tank of swiftly swimming fish called Lookdowns - again they swam fast and flashed color. it was quite mesmerizing!!  These fish usually stay close to shore as young then move out to the open water as adult fish thus linking the reefs to the open ocean moving freely back and forth.

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I think that will wrap it up for today.  There's only one more Post to this ongoing narrative that I'll get up tomorrow.... thanks for letting me revisit our day I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Freinds, here's where I left off on HEIOTS....

... not too much, that tree for some reason was a bear to stitch... I kept having to go back a recount the silly branches and twice had to frog quite a bit back.... eventually I finished it up and it looks pretty bare!!  Oh well on to the leaves and apples.......

That's about it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Road Trip to Monterey Bay Part II

Gentle Friends, the tour continues upstairs at the touch pools...

... in the children's area are large "touch pools" and there are good and bad comments on the internet about these - however I think that getting small children and even some adults interested in the conservation of our oceans and seeing up close sea life far outweighs anything negative... 

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In addition to the open oceans, the Aquarium also has exhibits about the ecosystems of California...

... the Coastal Steam is one of those systems... they connect the redwoods to the sea creating green corridors through a dry land.  The rocks and roots form deep pools, where fishes like trout and salmon thrive.  Above these deep pools are lush green banks sheltering many creatures.

...  in addition to the steelhead and salmon, they have an exhibit of...

... the California Toad!!  Who knew we had a toad !!  They live in coastal streams and ponds.  With the destruction of these streams and habitats throughout the state these once very prolific toads are quickly disappearing...

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We climbed up to the very top of the aquarium to see what we could see and found something very interesting...

... the open top to the large kelp forest tanks... and even there the didactic information continues...

... I love that they continuously explain and teach here.....

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... here's a shot of the open side of the aquarium from the Bay at the mezzanine level...

... looking down from the top at the same spot...  

In fact the entire day it was really just a beautiful day ... it was nice and breezy, sunny and just lovely.....  this time of year was just perfect as the crowds were very small and movement through the institution was easy and slow...

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...  going back inside I ran up against this great exhibit in the children's area...

.... and here's the information presentation for the younger crowd... 

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The Aquarium is actually in multiple buildings and connected by overhead bridges and gangways...

...here's our friend the gray whale from Part I up close...

... and looking him in the eye and barnacle...

... and I turned around and look who was posing with the killer whale...

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That wraps up part II.  Thanks for stopping by, I'll pick up the narrative next week.  

Have a super weekend!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Road Trip to Monterey Bay - Part 1

Gentle Friends, last Saturday we headed south to Monterey 

...for a Day Trip to the Aquarium...

.... the Aquarium is in one of the old canneries... 

 .... when you first come in there is a huge life-sized model of a gray whale... so impressive and drives the point home that these wonderful animals are just huge!!!

...then you turn a corner there is the tank full of frolicking sea otters - so hard to photograph but so cute and they were feeding them so it was even harder to get any kind of snap...

... here's a snap I pilfered from the internet of an otter floating in a kelp bed...an interesting fact about the otters I learned... is while at rest, all four limbs can be folded onto the torso to conserve heat, and conversely when it's hot out, the hind feet can be held underwater for cooling... I really love the learning side of a road trip......

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... when they made over the building from cannery to aquarium they left a section of the original machinery in place... it was originally Hovden Cannery .....

... it's amazing how much seafood was processed through this area and the reason for the collapse of the fish population in the 1960's and 70's along the California coast...

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The next area along the way was the Kelp Forest ...a really magnificent tank of kelp and the creatures that live in and around these pants...

 ...all the tanks need continuous cleaning and an army of volunteers keep things positively sparkling...

... again it was difficult to get nice snaps of the great fish and creatures...

... I found this video on YouTube of the Kelp Forest...

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Then we headed over to the Octopus Exhibit... 

 ... on many of the exhibits are brass sculptures of the animals in the tanks...and although really great to look and very decorative they actually have a very real purpose and function...they are specifically there for the visually impaired to feel what the animals are like...just another way The Aquarium reaches out to the public... I saw lots of people feeling them... 

 ...there were lots of different octopi to see but the only one I got a halfway decent snap of that you can really see is of the Entroctopus dofleini (I looked it up), or as it is more commonly know as the Giant Pacific Octopus... there were also some really beautiful anemones.... the octopus is hiding so he has turned the color of the rocks....

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 Next up were the crustaceans and crabs... this super crab is called a Sheep Crab...

.... and the Sheep Crab brass sculpture next to the real thing.... this crab scavenges along the deep reef, it rests by day and forages for food at night - it will eat anything it can find .....

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 ... here is a snap of a Broadnose Seven-Gill shark... in the Monterey Bay Habitats Tank...

... I really loved this touch and feel of the bottom of the sea display...

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We headed to the Vanishing Wild Life and the Sandy Shore Exhibits...

...these open tanks held Leopard Sharks, Bat Rays, and small ducks....  across from this tank was a huge exhibit called the Sandy Shore...

 ... it is an open-air exhibit holding all sorts of shorebirds...

 ... the Western Snowy Plover - it is the smallest and whitest of the American plovers...

 ... the Black Necked Stilts, these are young ones...

 .... here are some older Black Necked Stilts.... an interesting fact about these birds.... they stand on one leg to conserve heat and energy....  gotta love the very informed docents that are everywhere to answer your questions!!!

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I think that will wrap up this first installment of our trip.  Do stop back for part two.

Take care,

edgar