We pulled into the Monterey Elks on August 18th to stay in an RV site for 5 nights. There are two entrances to the Elks parking lot. The one we entered from, (and left through), had a couple of neighborhood roads with tighter turns, but I think it was better than the other entrance that has a big dip. You can see that plenty of RVs have scraped the pavement when they used this entrance/exit. This Elks Lodge has a beautiful outdoor pool, an indoor hot tub/spa as well as a sauna. The pool water looked and felt enticing, but the wind kicked up making the outside temperature feel even cooler now, so we went inside for the spa. Yes, we’ve become swim wimps. I must say the hot tub/spa was a little different, but it worked great. We did not use the sauna, but it looked good.
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MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM
August 19, 2021
I was very excited to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium! It was so worth it! This aquarium is incredible! There is so much more life in our seas/oceans than we realize. The aquarium educates visitors of all ages with its phenomal aquarium displays. We were actively engaged at the aquarium for almost five full hours!
Deep reef crabs rest during the day, but scavenge at night. In the video below you will see one’s fast-moving mouth parts tearing/processing food. Sheep crabs and king crabs will feast on anything. A California king crab relies on its armor of spines to protect itself from predators.
Flatfishes are pretty funky. When motionless on the sand they look like dead fish. They are not easy to see, especially if partially burrowed into the sand or rocky bottoms. Watch them move in the video below.
Many of us have walked along a beach first thing in the morning to find treasured sand dollar skeletons. But did you know in quiet waters that these animals stand on end, half in the sand? Where waters are rough, sand dollars hold their ground by lying flat or burrowing under. Adults fight the currents by growing heavier skeletons. Youngsters swallow heavy sand grains to weigh them down.
SAND DOLLARS STANDING ON END!
BIZARRE, right!?! WHAT IS THAT?
Those are spiny brittle stars. They are sea star cousins that bury themselves for protection. They leave an arm or two free to catch bits of food, but sometimes their wave hails a hungry fish. Oops. Their arms snap off like lizard tails, and a new arm grows from the stump.
Spiny Brittle Star
More from “The Ocean’s Edge” aquarium section. Striped bass, sting rays, sturgeon, leopard shark, etc.
How do you tell the difference between an anchovie and a sardine?
It was really cool to focus on the tails of hundreds of these fish as they swam by. Unfortunately, the video I attempted didn’t allow you the same focus. They swim by way too fast.
I got the chance to pet a bat ray as seen in the video below. It was incredibly smooth and soft–like a super soft wet chamois.
AFRICAN PENGUINS
Leaping Blennnies–a fish that likes being out of water. These jumping fish can be found in and around tide pools. When a blenny is not underwater it breathes air! Watch these funny gymnasts in the video clip below.
Living in Washington, Barry and I were quite familiar with slugs–land slugs. We had no idea there were also sea slugs. Watch these graceful, slow creatures below.
Adorable Sea Otters
THE JELLIES!! This was probably our favorite area of the aquarium. The lighting and the music that accompanied the jelly exhibits made the experience fully engaging to our senses. It was very calming and promoted an artistic appreciation for the graceful beauty of these magnificent creatures.
Moon jellies were what I saw on the beach when we stayed at the Pacific City Thousand Trails. They were most visible as the tide was going out and they were stranded on the sand. As time passed, they quickly dried out and became almost unnoticeable to most. The majority I saw ranged from 3-inch to 6-inch in diameter. It was cool to see them alive here at the aquarium!
Bigfin Reef Squid. This squid is propelled by jets of water and waving long, translucent fins.
The octopus can be elusive while it hides in rock crevasses. Enjoy our videos of a couple different octopuses. An octopus can change color and texture patterns to accommodate emotional changes and/or to camouflage into its surrounding environment in order to hide from predators or to get its prey. It can do this in 0.3 seconds! Each of the eight arms move independently, and can regrow if damaged. The octopus is the smartest of all invertebrate. It can open childproof bottles, and distinguish one human from another!
Notice in this second video of the same octopus, the tube-shaped body organ called the siphon (sometimes referred to as funnel). The octopus shoots water out of this organ to quickly jet through the ocean. (At first I thought the octopus was trying to eat something it picked up. LOL)
The FLAMBOYANT CUTTLEFISH: These guys were so cool to watch!
There was even more to see. We highly recommend making this a priority when in the area! I hope you got to see something here today that you’ve never seen before.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I appreciated the last area we visited that dealt with the huge plastic pollution problem in our oceans that specifically ends up in the North Pacific Gyre. We have become so lackadaisical when it comes to using plastic bags, disposable water bottles, helium balloons, plastic drinking cups, etc. They are convenient, but we really need to consciously decrease our use of those things, and find viable alternatives to protect the ocean life.
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