happy
bovil and I drove down to Monterey to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium.I got up at oh-my-gosh-in-the-morning to meet my trainer for my regular 7AM workout. Before I left, discovered that
fairegoddess might want to be catch up with us and dropped her a return commment. I got to the gym on time only to discover my trainer had had a blonde moment and double-scheduled my slot. Oh, well, we talked briefly about what I should train and I did it myself.Got home, woke up the Tall One, called Recycle Plus to schedule the pickup of the old mattress, traded a couple more messages with
fairegoddess so we could meet up, then off we went to breakfast at the Original Pancake House, and hit the road to Monterey.Parking was nearly impossible, but I spotted a spot in a tiny pay-yourself lot and we hiked over to the Aquarium. Fortunately, I'd bought our membership last night and it turned out we could buy Lynn her ticket at the members' entrance rather than make her wait in the long long long long line stretching around the corner.
This is the first time I'd visited the MBA since before they'd built the Outer Bay tank, so there was plenty of wonderful stuff to see, of course. The Outer Bay tank was as spectacular as I expected, as was the beautiful "Jellies: Living Art" exhibit, which featured the very precious touch of framing every tank window with a giant picture frame.
My favorite moment, though was when one of the two giant octopuses decided to take a stroll across its tank and then jet back to it's preferred corner while we and several astonished children watched. I'm pretty sure it was eyeing the kids (who were at its eye level) as it strolled in front of the window.
We also managed to get squeezed into the restaurant for lunch. Faced with a plethora of spectacular gustatory experiences, I punted and opted for a Caesar salad and (halibut) fish and chips. It was wonderful.
We managed to stay until closing and get home safely. Maybe I'll post more later. It was a lovely day.