Something Fishy in Monterey Bay

Yesterday for my girlfriend's birthday she and I did a road trip with the boys to Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Monterey Bay Aquarium is located on the site of an old sardine factory on Cannery Row. The aquarium is beautiful with spectacular bay views. The exhibits are wonderful too including stingrays, jellyfish, kelp forests, otters, sharks and penguins. Right now there is a special sea horse exhibit.

My youngest, Caleb, loves to look at everything, and at his own pace. Xander my oldest could take it or leave it… so I felt like a shepherd all day. I did dress the boys in matching yellow shirts, so they were easy to spot in a crowd if they got separated … which was easy to do.

Caleb’s favorite was a hands-on exhibit where he could touch starfish and sea urchins. Xander liked the buttons. Seriously, for the older kids there are little exhibits with buttons to play video, light up barnacles on a rock, move a fishes fins, etc. Xander likes to push buttons.

We thought it would be less crowded, because it is was a Monday. But August is vacation season, and the aquarium was packed. We arrived early, and cued for tickets. The line was quick and we were in the aquarium by 11 am.

A note on tickets, they are extremely expensive, $29.95 for an adult and $17.95 for each child. If you live in the Bay Area and plan to visit the aquarium more than once a year, buy the annual membership. It costs $145 for a family of four … so it pays for itself after two visits.

The aquarium is huge, so the map that they gave us came in handy. Not that my small kids cared about inner ocean or outer ocean, but it ensured that we saw everything.

My only criticism is that some of the exhibits are a little dark for small children. It would be nice if the aquarium invested in floor lighting, like on airplane. On the other hand, it is such a gorgeous location, the floor lighting might detract for us older kids.

This time we avoided the kid play areas. My reasoning was pretty simple, as soon as we got there the boys wouldn’t want to leave, and selfishly we wanted to see some fishes first.

The plan was to go to the play area after lunch, but the crowds made the snack bar and restaurant untenable, and we were starving by 1:45 pm. The boys had snacks so they were fine… but we had to leave the aquarium to find food, and decided to head home.

Next year I think we’ll invest in an annual membership, and go back to the aquarium a couple of times. It is such an amazing place it would be nice to explore it in parts (not all at once). There are also some other places I’d like to explore in Monterey if we had more time like Denise the Menace Park.