Vale la pena visitare il Monterey Bay Aquarium?

Il Monterey Bay Aquarium è ora uno dei miei posti preferiti e vale certamente il viaggio. Posso essere un po 'di un grinch su potenziali "trappole per turisti," ma questo ha facilmente superato la mia barra molto alta - ho avuto un'esperienza incredibile e non vedo l'ora di tornare nel prossimo futuro.

My trip to the aquarium

(Note: all photos and videos are my own)

Jellyfish

The jellyfish put me into a trance — they're so mesmerizing and have a surreal quality to them:

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Moon jellyfish:

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Tiny jellyfish (not sure of the official name):

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Fish

It's a sad sign of our largely artificial world that I was somewhat suspicious that these fish were even real. They're just so uncannily bright:

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More bright fish:

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I think these might be squid:

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This was my favorite fish at the aquarium. È abbastanza misantropo - molto scontroso e non ama la folla. Yes I know I'm projecting that onto him:

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Schools of fish

The schools of fish were also beautiful; they embarrassingly reminded me of those Windows 95/98 screensavers. If you're attracted to patterns and geometry you'll like these:

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I was also surprised at how fast the schools can move. I usually think of fish as slow but I was clearly wrong:

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More fast fish:

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Here are some anchovies swimming:

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Corals and aquatic plants

The “still life” at the aquarium would have been worth seeing even without the animals. È così raro vedere tutti quei colori insieme nella vita reale, e così perfettamente messi insieme:

Non-fish creatures

The sea otters were really cute — the feeding was way too crowded though, and adults had to stand pretty far away, so if you're not with kids you're probably better off coming back after the feeding when there are fewer people around:

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I was surprisingly iffy on the penguins; they didn't do much. Here you can see them doing their thing:

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The aquarium had a special exhibit showing the intersection of wet and dry animals and plants. This tortoise was cool, if antisocial:

They also had an Albatross feeding — here you can see the Albatross spread its wings:

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All in all, the aquarium was awesome! Se hai intenzione di andarci, tieni a mente alcune cose:

• Il ristorante è piuttosto brutto e troppo caro. Ti permettono di lasciare i locali e tornare indietro, però, quindi puoi prendere il cibo in una delle tante opzioni lungo Cannery Row se la qualità è importante per te.
• Sono andato a fine dicembre nel primo pomeriggio, e la folla era terribile (da qui il forte rumore di fondo in questi video!). Fate attenzione alle poppate perché sono le più affollate. Fa anche molto caldo all'interno, quindi indossate qualcosa di leggero sotto lo strato esterno.
• Datevi un sacco di tempo! Potreste facilmente passarci diverse ore; c'è così tanto da vedere.