Monterey Aquarium (Elks Lodge 522 – San Jose, CA)

Happy Veterans Day!  Here’s a short YouTube® tribute that my Uncle Alan shared with me:

(Lexi, for Veterans Day)

Thanks Uncle!


We got a somewhat late start on Wednesday and headed down to Monterey to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium (←link).  This time we took our little dog Coach along.

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We took the route highlighted in blue (above) and after about an hour drive, we saw the Monterey Bay (below).

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Soon after, we pulled into the town of Monterey and followed the road signs to the Aquarium.

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We found a parking lot just up the street from the aquarium.  We had to pay $15 to park.  Ouch!

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Entrance to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
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Entrance to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Since today was Veterans Day, we didn’t have to pay the $79.90 entrance fee!  That was a nice savings 🙂

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Now enjoy a select number of photos we took on our visit to the aquarium today:

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View of the tidal pool on the ocean-side of the aquarium:

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No seals or sea lions hanging around today 🙁

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We went to the upper level.

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The waterfall (below) is supposed to simulate a tide.  The water runs over a glass enclosure.  You can also watch from the inside.  Pretty cool.

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View of the tidal pool from the upper level.

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Back inside the aquarium.

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This guy (below) seemed grumpy:

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Flatfish (below):  Did you know that one of their eyes migrate around or through their head during development!?!  They can also camouflage themselves like a chameleon.

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In the bird sanctuary area, we were told that these were all ‘rescue’ birds:

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After finishing up our pleasurable tour of the aquarium we walked down Cannery Row (←link).  Now don’t worry, we didn’t forget about ‘Coach’ who was waiting for us in the truck.  I checked on him once while we were at the aquarium and we left the windows down a bit.  We also had the sun shade in the windshield.  It was a cool 60° all day at the most and partly cloudy.  We also walked him before we wandered around Cannery Row.

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We browsed a few of the shops and stores before we  headed over to Fisherman’s Wharf (←link).

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There wasn’t much going on at the wharf, so we headed back towards home (the San Jose Elks Lodge), which by-the-way we paid for an additional 4 nights ($88).  That puts us out of here on Sunday unless we change our mind.  My cousin Phil is trying to get Friday off, so maybe we can do something more together then.

On the way back, we stopped in Gilroy, CA at Applebee’s to take advantage of their free entree for Veterans.  It sure is great that some of these major chains support our veterans by providing a service or benefit of some type. Kudos to them 🙂

Stay tuned…