Monterey Aquarium

One of the great things about our stay in Monterey was being able to see the Monterey Bay Aquarium with some free passes from the campground.  We were running out of time and decided the best remaining day would be on Saturday.

Oops. It was crowded.  Not "I can't move around here it is so crowded",  more like, "Wow - there a lot of people here.  Kind of tricky to get some pictures of the fish."

Monterey Aquarium is one of the leading tourist attractions in Monterey Bay.  It was founded in 1984 and is located in one of the old sardine cannery's in the famous Cannery Row section of Monterey.  And right on the beach.

It has thousands of plants and animals/fish on display and is visited by over 1.8 million visitors each year.  And we could see why.  It is very well done and very interesting.  In some ways it reminded us of the Oregon State University Mark Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport Oregon.    Monterey Bay Aquarium is significantly larger, and has a lot more to see, but both were worth the time and effort to visit.

The building itself is quite extraordinary.  Look at this tank.  It is three sided.  You can see people through the corner on the other side.

And it was huge.

And it was a bit mesmerizing just watching the fish.

The rays were keeping to themselves

And the penguins were entertaining the crowded.  By just being penguins.

And the sardines and mackerel go round and round...

And they were in a hurry!

The jellyfish on the other hand,  weren't.  They just floated around.

And we liked the hammer head shark and the turtles

We felt like this is a place we'd like to spend more time in.  There was so much to see, we barely covered it.  And the better time to go back would be during the middle of the week.  We were glad we got to go, and will look forward to putting it on the "Go see again" list.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles.