Monterey Bay Aquarium: Part 1

On day 2 of the Monterey trip we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Besides Disneyland, the aquarium was one of my favorite places to go as a kid. The ocean has always fascinated me with all the strange creatures that dwell in it. In fact, at one point in my childhood I wanted to be a marine biologist. That dream went died when I realized how much I don’t enjoy science classes, don’t like the beach (yeah, that’s right. I said it. Salt water in my eyes? No thanks. I’ll just stand in the sand), and became a germaphobe — the ocean is basically a large toilet for all the things that live in it. Did you know that “marine snow,” bits of debris and poop from the upper level of the ocean that falls into the deep part, act as nutrition for the animals that live way down on the ocean floor? They eat poop! Yuck!

I’m a bit weird though because I totally love tide pool areas at any attraction where you can touch star fish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and sting rays! Germaphobe issues go out the window when I find places like that. Like I said before, the ocean fascinates me. I watched that Disney Oceans thing on Netflix instant queue and saw a Mantis Shrimp kick a crab’s ass. Watch!

That shrimp is a B.A.M.F.

Anyway, I don’t quite remember how the aquarium looked since I was really young when I last went, but there were really neat exhibits like the Seahorse one. I was a bit creeped out with the statue of the little baby seahorse coming out the dad’s man vagina (mangina?), pictured above. And when I was taking pictures of the Potbelly Seahorse, [all my pics of those turned out crappy, click the link if ya wanna see them] a little boy in front of me said, “They don’t look like they have potbellies. They look like they have boobs. Big sexy lady boobs!” I wanted to die. 😀

Every time I see jellyfish I think, “Jumpin’ jellyfish!” and say it in *Sebastian’s voice.

More pictures from the aquarium in the next post!

*Sebastian, as in the crab from The Little Mermaid. Durr.