Summer To Do List: Monterey Bay Aquarium

Over the weekend we visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. SUCH a cool aquarium!! And clearly, we are not the only people who think so, because the place was packed! There was a line around the building when we got there (at 10:30am) and there was STILL a line around the building when we left (at 1:30pm).

Adelaide had an AMAZING time exploring the aquarium. She and Matt went up to every window/tank and looked at EVERY animal and asked questions and answered questions and took it all in. It was really neat to watch her engage with each exhibit. It’s really the first time she’s done this. Usually, she gets so overwhelmed that she just runs from one thing to the next without pausing. Maybe it was the subject matter, maybe it was because Daddy was super into the subject matter, but whatever it was, she was calm and engaged and it was awesome!

Cadence, less so. The girl was not having a great time. She was definitely too young to get much out of the museum but she had fun looking at the “fissies”, meeting the cast of Finding Nemo ;), splashing in the “touch” exhibits and the little kids area (climbing, sliding, crawling, jumping) was right up her ally too.

My favorite exhibits were the Jelly Fish and Great Big Ocean rooms. They were dark…there was calm music subtly playing in the background, people were quiet, and Cadence took a nap! I could have stayed in there for hours! haha! Not to mention the views!! Underwater with full floor to ceiling walls of fish swimming. That is such a soothing thing to watch. I seriously could have stayed in there all day. haha! Can I get one in my house? I loved it!

Matt’s favorite exhibits were the Great Big Ocean room (sharks, hello!) and the octopus tank. He and I both were mesmerized by the octopus crawling all over the glass tank. SO cool to watch! And Adelaide learned about suction cups 🙂

Adelaide’s favorite room was the “wave” room. It’s this tiny little hallway (really, just a hallway) where the roof and one wall are glass, and a “wave” washes over the room every few seconds as if you were on a beach. She loved it. We had to go back to that room for “one more time” before she allowed us to leave the aquarium.

We were accompanied on our aquarium expedition by my good friend, and college roommate, Janie—it was so much fun to get to spend some time with her! We all grabbed lunch at a local restaurant (Cannery Row Brewing Company – delicious food, great beer, family-friendly environment=win!) and I enjoyed every minute of conversation and catching up. The girls adored her company too 🙂

Here are the photos from our day!