Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea, joy to you and me

My mom and sister scored a bunch of free guest passes to the Monterey Bay Aquarium last week for our big group: my parents, Melinda, Brock, HolleeAnn, Nico, Amy, Tyler, Steven, and Aaron and I plus our children. (Garrett and Parker were too cool for schools of fish and played around outside on cannery row) 

This place is amazing. Its absolutely worth the $40 it costs to get in, I'm just too cheap to pay. We stared out watching the SCUBA divers to a live feeding demonstration in the giant kelp forest. It was pretty cool for 15 minutes and then turned into little bit of a propaganda demonstration about which restaurants to purchase organic seafood products from because they belong to some ocean protection association, how the aquarium uses only sustainable feed for the wildlife, and how certain fish can choose their own gender and become male if they don't want to be female, etc. It was interesting, but we were honestly only there for the thrill of watching the sharks come close to chomping the diver's fingers off. 

My precious pearls. 

Soren and Nico played in the baby splash area for a long time. I appreciate that this place was designed with education for all ages in consideration. 

The jellies are everyone's favorite. 

Open water tank. There were lots of hammerhead sharks and other huge sport/man eating fish that came by. There is a 2nd level with amphitheater seating up above so everyone has a good view, even though the aquarium is always crazy over crowded. 

The Monterey Bay aka my favorite place in the world. Coming "home" to Ca feels less like home and more like a vacation every time I visit. But when I am in the Monterey peninsula I feel right back at home and California Meg sort of wakes up. We made 3 trips there during our visit to soak everything up. 

Corbin, Tyler, Brock, and Melinda

Another favorite. 2000 gallons of fresh ocean water is flushed info the tanks from the tide pools every minute and there is a glass tunnel you can stand under and wait for the wave. 

Touch tanks

Our exciting morning was followed by lunch at a cool make-your-own pizza place on cannery row. 

It's a little ironic that after spending the day at the aquarium, we went out for sushi at Miyakos, that night. It was...ok. I know it's hip to like sushi, and all, and I think it tasted ok, it just left me starving for real food. It's more like ...a snack if you ask me. And don't worry, everything I ate was fully cooked. I don't do raw eel. 

Being pregnant for your first real sushi experience is like a get out of jail free card. I didn't look like a wuss for not wanting to eat anything disgusting. 

Mmmmm...pickled ginger, anyone? Pass. That stuff was super nast.