Monterey Bay Aquarium

On Monday, Jim, Adrienne and I went down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to check out the new jellyfish display. It was well worth the trip! We spent a great deal of time there and watching the sharks in the shark tank before heading to Giradelli's to get some ice cream treats.

	We thought it'd be wise to eat something before going and looking at tasty looking fish! This is the great view from where we were eating, and we even saw a sea otter, too! (He shows up as a black dot on this picture)
I've already forgotten this artists' name. A great deal of his work was on display in the jellyfish exhibit, as his work has many jellyfish qualities to it. There were some very beautiful pieces there!
	One of the gorgeous moon jellies on display. They had an entire tank of these things and it was interesting to see them all in varying shades of pink and white.
Upside down jellyfish! These things lay along the bottom with their tentacles facing upwards to catch whatever floats by. These things are lazy even by jellyfish standards!
	Jim stands in front of the floor to ceiling, wall to wall jellyfish tank. It was incredible to see the jellyfish ZOOM by! Okay, it was super dark and this is a super long exposure made even more blurry by the fact that the tripod I used was my knee.
These tiny guys are called spotted jellyfish. The lighting makes them look almost like etched glass.
	The quintessential shot of the 3 story kelp forest tank. This is one of my favorite places to take a break. The wolf eel unfortunately did not come out and play this trip!
The shark tank! We spent quite a lot of time watching the sharks swim in circles. The tiger sharks (like this one) were especially active while we were there. Their skin glistened in the sun as they swam by.
	One of the brightly colored Garibaldi fish swims into the light. I'm embarassed to admit, I only remember the name of these fish because I was a huge Babylon 5 fan.
<insert JAWS music here> In reality, while this shark is quite big, they're beautiful to watch. Of course that may be because I was safely behind very thick plexiglass.
	When we left, we stopped in this very pretty area to watch the ocean and take a few pictures which reminded me why I stay firmly BEHIND the camera.

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All photos copyright Anne Sullivan