The BIG Day!

If you know us personally, or if you read this blog with any regularity, you know of Luken's obsession with octopuses. He lives and breathes them (with a few snakes and spiders thrown in here and there, just for fun! ;) )

When planning our San Francisco trip, we decided that a drive down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium would be a MUST! After all, where better to see a Giant Pacific Octopus but Monterey?

Todd's sister and her kids decided to join us, and of course, his parents were with us, as well. In addition, my dad - "Bicycle Grandpa" decided to drive down from the North Bay to join in on the fun, and he got up before the crack of dawn to meet us at the house and ride along in our car. We managed to get 11 bodies there in 2 cars, and we made judicious use of the carpool lanes whenever possible! :P



Luken, inspecting the guide pamphlet. (OK, he was probably looking at a photo of an octopus!)


And where do you think he wanted to go first? Hehe!


These pictures are pretty terrible, as the octopus was in low light (they are nocturnal, though one of them gave us quite a show right away) and no flash is allowed, so I just had to do my best...


















Eventually we were able to pry him away from the octopus tank and explore other parts of the aquarium.

Examining some starfish:


Some little wormy guys. Luken was quite enamored with the eels that were next-door to these guys, but my picture of them didn't turn out at all. I thought these were kind of cool, though!


Keeley, checking out some fishies:


A diver in the kelp exhibit, feeding the sea animals:


Keeley, enamored with something, and looking terribly lovely! Yes, she is wearing her octopus dress, of course! :D


Oh, look, another octopus! This one is tiny and hiding in someone else's shell!


Keeley was mesmerized and frightened by a section of the aquarium where waves crashed overhead. Here she is reacting, looking quite rattled. But she refused to leave, haha!


Oh, no - she's being eaten by a giant clam!

And it found Luken, too!


Just being cute...


Getting hands-on:




Me, I think octopuses are cool, and I LOVE indulging Luken in his love of them, but my heart lies with the jellyfish. They are just so amazing and beautiful and calming, and a well-done aquarium will almost always have some darkened rooms filled with well-lit-to-glow jellyfish that just mesmerize me. In my dream home, I want a meditation room with a giant jellyfish tank! ;) Here are some of the ones on display in Monterey:
























They even have jellyfish art there. These babies go for $1,000!!!!

I'd rather have a tank with real, live ones!!

After a VERY full day at the aquarium, (we broke for lunch at Bubba Gump's, then went back for some more) and laying out probably way too much at the gift shops, we hopped in the cars and headed back north.

I think we wore the kids out. Oh, and Bicycle Grandpa, too, haha!


We had planned to get back to the South Bay/Peninsula around dinner time so we could enjoy yet another food favorite for dinner, Amici's Pizza!



When Todd and I lived in San Mateo, we discovered the deliciousness of their wood-fired pizza, and fell in love with the combination of pepperoni and fresh garlic. It is amazing! We miss Amici's and 360 almost daily out here in TX, so whenever we are back home, we MUST get our fill! (This time, we only hit each restaurant once, but on other visits, we have gone multiple times in as many days!!)

We were still a party of 11, so there were a lot of other people at the table. We were quite upfront about the fact that we would not be sharing. Period. This baby was allllllll ours!


More drooling...


It was perfect! Ahhhhh!!

After dinner was over, (*sniff, sniff*... goodbye old friend!) we needed something sweet so we walked down the street to a yogurt place for dessert.
Here are Luken and Ashleigh enjoying their cool treats!


Keeley was not so enamored with her concotion - chocolate frozen yogurt and M&M's. The girl is an M&M FREAK, and was not pleased with the stuff in the way.


So, I had Daddy ask for a small cup of JUST M&M's.


And this is how she felt about that!


Being goofy with Grandpa:


Boy, we were all exhausted when we got back to the house. It was after 9pm by the time we got back! We had left the house at 8:15am!

It was well worth it, though. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is truly world-class. I know I have been spoiled by seeing some of the most spectacular aquariums in the US -Monterey, Seattle, and Maui. I know there are some fans of the Dallas World Aquarium out there, but there is just no comparison! We really enjoyed our amazing day there!! We will be back!