lovely, squishy things.

Prepare to get schooled...



Presenting: The adventures of Ben and Bryanne at the Monterey Bay Aquarium!!

Although I didn't know it would be part of the weekend plans, ever since I had become aware of Monterey's aquarium I wanted to go there. I may not be the biggest fan of seafood, but I *love* going to aquariums. When initially discussing potential things to do when I went to visit Mr. Dundee, the aquarium was one of the first things that came up.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium certainly lived up to my expectations and exceeded them. I've been to aquariums before that deal primarily with local wildlife and it was nice to see that here. (Even though I really would have liked to see some clownfish! I will have you know I was a fan pre-finding Nemo. :) )

Ben had his new camera to use, and I was ready to take lots of pictures, so over the course of a day and a half, we took a ton of pictures. Here are some of my favorites - undoubtably this will become a series of entries. There just too much fishy goodness to cram into one.


The giant kelp forest tank was getting a nice scrub down from some friendly scuba dudes.





My favorite anemone - the cute pink strawberry variety.



Starfish - up close and personal.


I had no idea sand dollars looked like this!



Ben's favorite anemones look like something out a dr. suess book.


As does this engaging little critter.


Perch tank wonderland



Up next - Starfish bonanza! They were all members of a touch pool posse, so I gave each of them a little tickle after taking their photos. I figured it was only proper.




This little guy is called a bat star. I have no idea why. Although if he took off flying around to save gotham I certainly wouldn't complain. In fact, that would be pretty awesome.




A whole blurry pile of these blue spotty guys


The colors of this one were particularly striking


Look! They have people at the aquarium too!

A whale of a surprise

When I headed out to California to visit Ben, I knew very little about what events would take place while I was there. I was informed before my arrival that there were "surprises" planned. Of course, I had no complaints about this whatsoever! Who doesn't love surprises?

Friday morning, we were up bright and early. Prior to the trip, Ben asked me if I got seasick (to which I confidently replied "no") and told me for this surprise I would need to bring a sweat shirt, a "woolen hat" and binoculars. I was armed and dangerous when we took off from the bed and breakfast around 8:00 and found ourselves at Fisherman's wharf - The secret was soon out. We were going whale watching! I was most pleased by this news, and excited to spend some time out on the water.

Before long we were enjoying views of swimming sea lions and the occasional floating jelly fish as we headed out into the bay towards deeper waters and potential whales. Ben provides much better description about how fast and far we went...all I know is the wind was in my hair, camera in my hand, and smile on my face.














After a while we got our first glimpse of whale mania - off in the distance we saw the plumes of water from a spouting whale. There were several pods on various side of us. Even being at this distance and capturing little glances of whales as they crested above the water was exciting. We had no idea what was coming next!



After some nice views from a distance, the whales decided to come investigate our boat, and investigate they did! The next hour was one of the most amazing I've ever experienced. The whales swam back and forth under our boat, coming up to investigate on either side, while all the happy humans on board oooh-ed and aaahh-ed and got repeated first hand exposure to the fragrance that is whale breath. (Yes - it's as bad as it sounds)




I think this next view was most striking to me - seeing that whale...looking all whale-y and such. Just like it's supposed to be!


This stunning whale sneeze hit Ben right in the face. Excellent!


The orifice responsible...



Now with all the whale excitement, which resulted in lots of rocking back and forth of the boat, I was a bit surprised when I realized I wasn't feeling so hot. Maybe it was all the whale breath in the air, or perhaps the slightly unsavory quiche I had eaten for breakfast, but before too long I abandoned my post, snapping pictures and gazing at the whales and instead found myself leaning over the back railing, puking my guts out. Not one of my proudest moments, but amusing in retrospect. Naturally I immediately felt better. (Maybe it was just the quiche...) I was a bit embarrassed, but more than anything surprised. I've been on plenty of boats before, small ones included and have never gotten sea sick before. First time for everything I guess!!

After I sat down for a whale, took a brief nap on Ben's shoulder, and drank some water I was feeling better and able to enjoy the remainder of the excursion.

Here's Ben, doing his best "Holy shit, it's a whale!" pose.

Happy (albeit slightly chilly) whale watchers.



Tune in next time for "Adventures at the Monterey Bay Aquarium"