Monterey on Veteran's Day

The drive from San Jose to Monterey is about an hour and twenty minutes. Given that, it is a convenient and fun destination for the boys. On a hot August day we'll head to Dennis the Menace Park to escape the heat. On a rainy school Holiday, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a fabulous destination.

I can't believe we haven't been back to the Aquarium since we purchased a membership in April. Memberships are only good values if you use them. So today with the boys off school for Veteran's Day and membership cards in hand we headed to Monterey.

We had great karma and a wonderful day. First we found street parking with a four hour meter that took credit cards a block from the aquarium. Our parking for the day was $6 versus a $15 lot.

The aquarium was packed, but the boys know it well, and we were able to explore everything without being inconvenienced too much by the throngs of people.

The boys favorite exhibit is still the Mission to the Deep control room. They can sit at chairs in front of monitors while a video plays on a large screen.  They also liked the Deep Sea (which is a giant tank) with sardines swimming below and tuna, dolphin fish, sunfish, a sea turtle and a hammerhead shark swimming at eye-level.

They also liked petting the cownose ray, watching the otters and the penguins, and of course seeing the giant octopus.

After three fun filled hours at the aquarium we headed up the hill to Lighthouse Avenue to eat at Gianni's Pizza (seriously one of our favorite pizza places in Northern California). The boys loved it, eating more than both Jonathan and me -- a taste for what it will be like when they are teenagers.

We had a wonderful Friday in Monterey, that put us in the right frame of mind to tackle our overly busy weekend.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Revisited

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.

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.