Monterey Aquarium

I keep forgetting that the California version is only spelled with one 'r.' What kind of spelling freak does that make me?

We did go to the Monterey aquarium, along with 3 other billion people that Friday, although I did muscle my way to the front of some of the exhibits because I was feeling camera happy that day. Too bad I only managed 1 picture at the wedding. I was too busy getting a raging sunburn, I guess.

Anemones. What you can't see from my crappy picture is all the little flat fish hiding in the sand with only their eyes poking out. I love that they come in all these different colors (the anemones. The fish come only in 1 color: sand.)


I could just sit and watch the jellyfish all day.

The display said that this particular variety was actually doing quite well in their natural habitat (the Mediterranean) and reproducing out of control in some Spanish lagoon. Yes - not a color distortion, their bottom parts really are blue.

The seabirds mostly come to them as injured rescues and get too used to people to be released back to the wild. I think these ones were studiously trying to ignore the oggling crowd.
K and I were probably far too interested in the wave-making machine making fake waves for the bird's little beach.

The sardines just keep swimming round and round and round and round and round. There were a few punk sardines wandering off on the sidelines, being sullen and refusing to swim with the crowd. The ever-rotating sardines (the tank is just a cylinder, maybe 6 feet in diameter?) are kind of mesmerizing but K the Love Monkey finally tore me away.

I have an almost uncontrollable urge to knit mittens. Stranded ones, because it can't ever be simple, can it? Like suddenly my life will be complete if only I could Knit Some Mittens NOW.