Monterey Bay Aquarium to myself

I went to Monterey for Elkhorn Slough Foundation's 30th anniversary event.  They had their event at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You usually have to share this amazing location with thousands of screaming children, this time I only had to share it with another 250 adults (and 4 children).  And those people didn't seem as amazed as me regarding having the Aquarium all to ourselves, so I literally had some of the most popular exhibits all to myself.  I've been to this aquarium 4 times previous to this evening and I've never been able to hang out in the Open Sea exhibit for very long due to the crowd.  You cannot even imagine what it is like to be the only person there!  Incredible, frankly.

Which also means I got a lot of great photographs (at least I think so)...

Kelp forest










Rocky Shore
































The Open Sea


































Sylvia Earle was the main speaker for the evening...




Secret Lives of Sea Horses
I think the secret is that they sleep at night, because they were all asleep.


















The Jellies Experience












And the octopus came out at just the last moment...