This was our third trip to
Monterey Bay Aquarium with the boys. The last visit was about a year ago. What a huge difference a year of growing up has made. The boys had a blast! At four and half and nearly six the draw of the aquarium was the fish, and not the play area.
In previous visits I timed a visit upstairs, knowing that they would be sucked into the play area and toddler zone. Now they are too tall for the toddler zone, and the slide or the tunnel in the play area doesn't seem as exciting. Don't get me wrong, we did stop there, but they played for minutes, instead of hours.
Meanwhile Caleb's new discovery was the control room. We must have watched the video loop at least three times.
The other big surprise was that the boys could now tour the aquarium together. In the past, my youngest would linger at every exhibit, while my oldest would rush through more interested in pushing every button made available to little hands. This time there was genuine interest in everything. They asked questions, they grabbed my arm and pulled me toward something that they saw that was really exciting. They were giddy with joy.
If you've never been to the aquarium, it is immense, beautiful and worth a visit. It centers around the Ocean Edge Wing 1/3rd of a million gallon tank with a giant kelp forest and the 1.3 million gallon tank in the Outer Bay Wing where you can view sharks ... this most impressed Caleb who is quite the Shark fan. It also has beautiful exhibits of sea anemones, and jelly fish. Quite popular the sea otter exhibit is fun to watch.
My favorite are the hands on exhibits. You can touch a sting ray, or play in the tide pools.
We live 90 minutes from the aquarium, and for a long time have been meaning to buy a family membership. If you plan to go only twice a year, the membership is a great deal. The boys had so much fun, we finally got the family membership and we'll be going back again soon.
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