It was another grey and rainy day, so Henry and I decided to head off into town to spend the morning at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We love aquariums, and take every opportunity to visit one together. It's tradition.

Located in the shadow of the Yaquina Bay Bridge, we parked at the Aquarium and jogged with hoods up to the entrance to avoid the drizzle.

The aquarium was beautiful and well laid out, both inside and outside. We hadn't really anticipated a large portion of the exhibits being outside in the rain! 

We learned that the aquarium had been the original home of Keiko, the orca and star of the Disney movie Free Willie. He lived there for two years until 1998 when he was shipped back to Iceland where he was later released into the ocean.

​We did not see any whales in the aquarium and for that we were thankful.  The exhibits looked clean and the marine mammals appeared happy and well cared for. We enjoyed the outdoor exhibits, especially watching the otters swimming together, rolling around in the water and watching us right back.  

In the walk-through aviary we heard the puffins, with their expressive macaroni eyebrows, singing to each other, pottering about with their comical gait, and stretching their wings. Puffins are just born to stand out. We also saw a variety of oystercatchers, guillemots and murres flying freely inside the netted tent.

Entering the indoor galleries we found ourselves in a deep, dark underwater world filled with exhibitions of ethereal jellies, leggy stars, pink crabs, horses with curly tails and both local and brightly colored, exotic fish. We progressed in the semi darkness to an huge acrylic underwater tunnel titled Passages of the Deep where we enjoyed a 360 degree view of sharks, eels, rays, skates and a rather nosy grouper.

We smiled at the Pacific Banana Slug that had been elevated to the title of ambassador at the aquarium.

There was a lot of information and many exhibits on the conservation and I read as much as Henry would allow.

At the end we visited the aquarium shop and bought a souvenir T-Shirt for Kim that had a picture of a fish on the front with the word 'Salty.'

Nice. 

Definitely worth a visit.

We ventured down to Cannery Row, of John Steinbeck fame, in Monterey to seek out the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Henry and I love aquariums and as a keen fisherman, Kim is always happy to learn more about fish varieties and the ever changing environment they need to survive and flourish.

Monterey Bay Aquarium is the very best aquarium we have ever visited.

Perched on the picturesque shores of California's Monterey Bay, it is a global leader in ocean conservation. It even featured in the movie "Finding Dory" where it was depicted as the Monterey Marine Life Institute. 

Since opening in 1984, it has established itself as a well respected institution, a beacon of marine education and research that captivates visitors and fosters a deep sense of connection with marine plants and animals in a modern, spacious, spectacularly beautiful facility that feels like a world class art exhibition.

In particular, the ethereal boneless beauty of the varieties of jelly fish; the Moon jellies with silvery pulsating bodies, the rich orange Pacific Sea Nettle jellies with impossibly long ribbons and locks floating elegantly behind and underneath them, casting secret spells, the illumined teeny tiny Bell jellies like little Edison light bulbs. The jellies become startling and utterly mesmerizing against the Monterey Blue background canvases in rounded tanks that make you feel as though you are peering through the windows of a submarine while it is trolling the depths of the ocean. During the Covid lockdown, Kim and I would pull up the live feed from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Jelly Web Cam on the telly as we found it to be soul soothing. You can check it out here.

Of course we found Nemo and Dory. We loved the bobbing penguins, the antics of the puffins and the adorable sea otters that we could see inside the Aquarium and also right outside in the Bay. The fairy tale kelp forest exhibit, colorful coral reefs and the variety of fish from enormous sharks and rays to the almost invisible plankton were all captivating in the way they emphatically declared the vibrancy of marine life. My favorite of the day was the most magnificent giant octopus who seemed to be feeling his way towards our hearts. Wow!

The Monterey Bay Aquarium once again inspired me to be a champion of the ocean and to renew our family efforts to reduce plastic and pollution to protect the wonders of the worlds oceans.

Just a quick one night stop at the Pacific Dunes RV Resort in Pismo Beach in central California but even though we arrived mid afternoon, we could not let the day slip by without a quick trip to our beloved Morro Bay to see the sea otters.

We have visited Morro Bay a few times now, including earlier this year. It is such a special place for wildlife, we all love it!

We arrived late in the afternoon, driving through some moody sea fog to get there, and were delighted to see the sea otters frolicking in the bay. The sea otters love the kelp sea forests of the deep central Pacific coast of California. We loved watching the otters play right there in the misty, sheltered bay, close to shore, bobbing, diving, lazily swimming on their backs, some of them were in groups called “rafts,” nibbling at food, cracking open clams, crabs, sea urchins and other undistinguishable shellfish. Sea otters are the smallest of all marine mammals and they are agile and quick. They can dive up to 250 feet for their food, using their whiskers to locate their prey in tight crevices and then using their strong forepaws to dig them out. We saw one otter using both its teeth and a rock as a tool to crack open its dinner. A joy to observe.

Even though Morro Rock is a haven for birds including the endangered peregrine falcon, it was so quiet and still, we only saw a couple of gliding pelicans, a few seagulls who were surprisingly quiet and some cormorants in the distance.

We stood and gazed out towards the shrouded rock for ages, taking in the sights, sounds and salty smells of the magical bay.

Not wanting to cook after a long day of travel, Henry suggested we stop at In N Out Burger for dinner. So we did. 

Back in 2008 when Kim had his sabbatical from Intel, we set off in the old Sunset Creek trailer for a 2 month road trip up Highway One in California. One of our most favorite stops was Morro Bay, so we were excited to revisit and make new memories. 

Here are some pics from back in 2007 ❤️

And here are the pics from 2023 ❤️