Monday, May 21st: Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Bright and early we got back up and headed to Monterey via San Jose where we had booked our hotel for two more nights. We even could check in early instead of just leaving our bags in the lobby. Much appreciated! Here's a view from our room.
After a quick pit stop we headed down to the fishwife, a fish restaurant that Jan's former colleague Lynn had recommended. A good suggestion indeed - the salmon was amazing!
After a quick pit stop we headed down to the fishwife, a fish restaurant that Jan's former colleague Lynn had recommended. A good suggestion indeed - the salmon was amazing!
Freshly nourished, we drove a few more minutes to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, something I had been looking forward to the whole vacation! And I wasn't disappointed.
The aquarium was built at the site of an old cannery that closed down after almost 60 years when the sardine fishery collapsed (1916 - 1973). Plans to transform the site into an aquarium began in 1977, but it took another 7 years before the aquarium opened.
We started our tour on the first floor exploring the Kelp Forest (that also stretched all the way to the second floor),
watched the otters (they're fast - i.e. a bit blurry!),
saw the big octopus,
lots of crab and eel,
beautiful, fragile, and colorful plants and fish in hiding,
sanddollars (!),
and more beauties.
My personal highlight, though, were the jellyfish. So elegant!
More fish (here, a sunfish, which looks like half-a-fish!) and crabs:
Here are some tufted puffins. Super cute!
More fish and trees,
sea horses,
a green eel and a puffer fish.
The jellyfish exhibit also had several cuddle fish and a nautilus.
And lastly, this was the entrance into the jellyfish area (I think):
Tuesday, May 22nd: Yosemite National Park.
We got up early today (so early that we had to order in-room breakfast!) and headed to Yosemite with a tour bus. Since Yosemite is quite a drive away (over 3 hours), we figured that was the best way to see at least some of that park without feeling too exhausted. Here are a few photos from the drive.
Our first stop were the Sequoias in the Tuolumne Grove. These trees are not just tall and have a wide trunk (wide all the way to the top), they are also quite old.
The sequoias were a mile hike from the bus stop (downhill), which felt like a good walk after sitting in the bus for hours!
Our next stop was the Tunnel View. Very scenic!
And back into the bus again to drive to the Valley Visitor Center (with a quick stop at El Capitan, a vertical wall of rock that people like to climb).
And yes, we saw some deer (and the city dwellers in the bus went wild!).
Jan and I walked to the Lower Yosemite Falls,
grabbed some coffee, and finished the day with a little walk through the meadows.
After two hours of "free time" to stroll around, we started heading back to the hotel. We made another quick stop at El Capitan (our driver was very much into rock climbing), and arrived back at the hotel after 8 pm. A long day, but definitely worth it!
