Monterey

We had been invited on a weekend away to the Angelo Reserve by one of the students in the lab, Emily and her husband Mike. The Angelo is a reserve in the heart of redwood country and we were excited to go. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t play ball, and rather than sit in a small cabin getting poured on, we scrapped the plan. Instead, we headed down to Monterey to go check out the aquarium. Another student from the lab, Kevin, joined us, and the 5 of us drove down together.


We had visited the Monterey Aquarium many years ago and had been blown away. This time was no different. It is a fantastic aquarium and I was excited to get some good shots. On arrival, I had made my way straight to the Blue-Fin Tuna tank and pulled out my camera. I turned it on, took a random shot, and the battery died! I had forgotten to charge it. So that was that as far as photos went. Still, I had a great time looking at all the exhibits. The aquarium had really stepped up its exhibits about education about seafood. Some really clever stuff, including an interactive fake restaurant where you could order different types of fish from a menu and then watch the chef and waitress telling you about what you just ordered. Really well done.


After the aquarium, we all went for a long walk on the beach where we played “jump rope” with Laminaria (kelp) stalks and saw seals and wild sea otters.



I had warmed up my battery in my pocket for several hours, and I managed to get a couple shots of the sea-life before it died again. Fortunately, Mike is an excellent photographer and sent me some shots from the day (all the black and white shots on this page).

Eventually the rain hit Monterey too, and we drove back though the downpour to the Bay Area where we finished off the day with an excellent Mexican meal. A fun day.