I don't think you're ready for this jelly.

I think it's safe to say that without a doubt, the various jellyfish on display were my favorite part of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I haven't had much experience with jellyfish, or jellies, as they are properly called. ('cause they're not fish!) I've been lucky enough to have never been stung by one, and might have caught one or two at the various aquariums I have visited, but other than that, no real jelly time. I was filled with childlike glee when we saw an assortment of moon jellies on our whale watching adventure, but getting to see them up close and personal at the aquarium was fantastic!


First up, the purple striped jelly...






Next up, moon jelly - We saw these on the whale watching trip, but they looked much more pink than white as they floated along.


A zillion little moon jellies...so cute!



Ben was right, the sea nettles were my favorite. It was pretty mesmerizing watching them squish around in their tank.




A better close up of the tentacles...simply amazing!



Here's a (blurry) shot of the sea nettle tank - gives you a better idea of how big it was and more importantly how many of them were in there.


Hard at work, capturing the jelly madness.


I wish this wasn't so blurry...but just to prove we were really there!



Basking in the squishy jelly glow.

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!