Friday, January 12th 2013
Monterey Aquarium, 17 mile road, Carmel
There was light frost on our car. It
was foggy and pretty cold (I guess for California). We just made some
sandwiches for breakfast and then drove to Aquarium. We were pretty
lucky and parked on the street very close to the entrance. (Metered
parking.) There were at least two buses of school children (really
noisy). Other then that, it looked fine.
We just went through the entrance (as
we had passes-nice-thank you). At that point, there were more staff
people then visitors (entrance lobby). We were looking at map, were
told that penguins would have their feeding in 15 minutes. We were
(by family) told to see octopus first (as he is lazy and does not
move much). I guess we were pretty lucky, because both octopuses were
pretty active and amazing. Nice beginning.
Too many people already waiting for
penguin's feeding. Four people inside, talking and feeding them small
fish. There was as well one poor penguin, who was loosing all the
feathers. He looked funny. It was sunny and pretty nice outside
(while waiting I was looking around and from the windows).
Fish hiding or living in the rocks:
Whole bunch of sardines:
There were two sections of the exhibit
about jelly fish. J. really loves the jelly fish, so we spent there a
looooong time. It was interesting and pretty, but …
Next to jelly fish was an exhibit about
sea horses.
Hmmm, sand dollars:
Among all the interesting things,
hiding fishes:
There was as well smaller (separated)
exhibit, where they had fish and some birds. We were walking less
then three feet from those birds and they did not move.
We spent about three hours in the
aquarium. It was amazing. Some additional finds:
Our next adventure was 17 mile drive
(and Pebble beach, exclusive community and golf course, apparently).
We drove from Monterey, via Pacific Growth to Pebble beach (all
together). As a desired tourist destination, the whole area and 17
mile drive, it is gated community and you have to pay 9.75 to drive
on ti. There are actual gates and guarded stations. Interesting. Even
it was somewhat windy, we saw many golfers.
I guess, J. just could not help
herself:
One of the many stops (for our fee we
received a map) was a bird rock. There were many birds, sea lions and
sea otters. They were too far for good look (but we already saw many
of those animals). The beach was beautiful, the view was
unbelievable. Just a dream. J. had to again goof around the beach and
found lonely sea otter just lying on the beach. She called me and we
were standing probably 4 feet away and watching that funny animal. It
was incredible. J. was worried about the otter and called the
aquarium (there is a line to report injured or stranded otters). They
told her that it was fine (unless the animal was bleeding or had
trouble breathing). Interesting, it is so easy to talk to somebody
about the otter, but try to call your bank (or other office).
We continued along the road. It was
really enjoyable experience (including all the houses around). It had
to be nice to live here. Other stop (one of the most photographed,
apparently again), was Lone Cyprus tree. It was nice. More
interesting was the sign saying, that the image is protected as a
trademark and cannot be commercially used. Really?!?
Obviously, we tried to see as much as
we could, so we ended up driving through the golf course and club, to
access a beach. It was strange, there was like 15 free public parking
spaces, in the middle of course and close to the beach. More a coast
line. Strange.
After that, we left 17 mile road and
drove towards Carmel. Along the way, we saw some interesting houses
and even some interesting roofs. Who knew, that roof could be
interesting.
We stopped by the beach. We as well
remembered, that we visited this beach about 5 years ago, when we
were in California visiting J.'s sister. We talked to some couple
(briefly), because they had long hair dachshund dog. Funny. It was
getting colder and the evening was coming really fast. We finished
driving along the coast, got to see some more incredible views and
houses and ended up by the Carmel mission. It was about half an hour
before closing, so we did not go in. We drove back to town and took
the walk around the downtown Carmel (high end shops, including
Rolex).
As the sunset was approaching, we drove
back to the beach, but there was too many clouds to have really nice
view of it. We still saw really nicely colored sky. After that, we
drove back to Monterey, stopped by the store again (to get some food)
and watched television for a while.
