I don’t normally split a single trip into several pages since it annoys me on other sites where you have to keep clicking “Next” just to get the complete story, however I was impressed enough with the Monterey Bay Aquarium that I thought it deserved separating out. There is another page for the commentary and pictures from Berkeley, Point Lobos and Carmel.

One of the main focal points in the aquarium is the Kelp Forest, a large tank with kelp and a diverse range of fish swimming around. Of course, as a long-time user of Linux I’m always impressed by penguins, and who wouldn’t love a playful sea otter?

Most of the penguins were stood still but one was busy. It would carefully select a pebble, passing over most of the easily reached ones for that perfect stone. Picking it up in its beak, it would waddle over to a little cave, drop it in there and start over the whole process. Quite why I have no idea. The other penguins seemed either to be just as bemused or maybe just indifferent.

I was most impressed with the jellyfish. I had no idea that they were so diverse and beautiful. It was all helped by the nicely contrasting lighting.

The bad news is that it was very dark and most of my pictures came out blurry, dark or both. I guess that just means you’ll have to go see it yourself!