Monterey Bay Aquarium and Dennis the Menace Park

Tyler took this week off work and we are having "fun week". I am going to blog it all out of order, well, I guess because that's how I do things! Tuesday and Wednesday we spent in Monterey, I even got to wear a sweatshirt for a bit! Below we are walking Cannery Row to the aquarium.

Sadly the aquarium was incredibly busy, apparently all of Europe vacations in August. It was very frustrating to try and see the exhibits and enjoy ourselves, it took forever just to look at each tank. The kids, especially Peyton, loved this area below where every 10-15 seconds a huge wave would pass overhead.

The Europeans weren't as into this as some of the kids were so we hung out here for awhile.

I love the touch pools, I think the kids liked them too, my favorite...the sea cucumber (not pictured)

The splash zone for kids was a hit. Peyton found a little area just high enough for her to walk through that had several different tanks lining the walls; it was hard to get her to leave there.

I had to include this little guy. He was such a funny looking fish, can you see his lips?

We spent some more time in the less busy area, Hovden Cannery. The aquarium occupies the same space the cannery once did and part of it was left intact so we can see what it was like as a cannery. Here the kids are in a fish basket. WHAT A CATCH!

Well, we made the choice to take off from the aquarium and head over to the best park, Dennis the Menace Park. I was sad to leave the aquarium early, but it was really too busy. I made the suggestion that we come back the following day (we bought a membership which allows unlimited entrance to the aquarium for a year because it was only $20 more for our entire family). Below is Jacob going down a slide at the park, one of many it has. I know it isn't the best picture but I wanted to include it so you could see a few of the slides; these are very fun; they are curvy and bumpy.

Peyton conquered a fear there. She has a huge issue walking on suspension bridges, even the little tiny ones on play equipment, she hates how they move. Well, at this park there is a very big one, and she said she wanted to go on it. As soon as she stepped on I could see the fear quickly creep into her eyes and I said, "How fun, it's like a trampoline huh?" She loves tramps and immediately began jumping. She made it all the way across the bridge.

I went down this roller slide myself, on my bum though. It was so much fun, most of the kids were "surfing" down it like Jacob is here. I wanted to try and probably would have if there weren't so many adults watching!

Here Micah is "surfing"

I took a picture of Micah and Jacob several years ago in this same tunnel and wanted to get one of all the kids but Peyton was elsewhere with Daddy.

Southern Pacific Railroad donated this real engine that the kids can play on. The boys loved it and requested going back to the park the next day too, so it looked like we would go back to both places the next day and skip the beach. When we got to our hotel we went swimming (a bit cold) I let the boys swim longer and took Peyton back to our room where we played in a nice warm tub and she didn't let me get out until she was done too.

Here we are the next morning walking to the trolley stop. I got my way, we were going back to the aquarium! I thought it was so funny that Peyt was picking her nose up on Daddy's shoulders for all the world to see.

One of my all time favorite exhibits is the jellyfish exhibit. I hate to see them dead on the beach but love them in all their beauty swimming in an aquarium!

The aquarium has a few new exhibits, Seahorses, flamingos, and sea turtles. They are beautifully done and I enjoyed them but there was A LOT of global warming/polor ice caps are melting propaganda that I really could have done without. Anyhow, I am all for treating our planet well and recycling and being green and all that it just irritates me to hear it tied in with global warming. That being said, the exhibits themselves are awesome. Here is Ben with a seahorse statue. He was always ready for a picture. Did you know that the female seahorse gives her eggs to the male and he caries and delivers the babies?

This is Peyton with one of her "friends". It was like pulling teeth to get her away from these guys. A while after this was taken we lost her and I went directly back to the turtles and there she was, squating by her turtle friends, pooping.

The second day at the aquarium was great, much fewer people, still busy but not as bad. Again we went to the park afterward and had lots more fun, the camera battery died so I was freed from taking pictures and we just had fun. We then drove home. When we got in the car Ben said, "Where are we going now?" Ty told him we were going home and he started to whine. I guess they were having fun. More to come, stay tuned.