Live Pronto!: A Day At The Aquarium, Lunch At Cindy's Waterfront

We've had an eventful few days…a huge hike in Garland Park, an evening enjoying The Lighted Boat Parade, and a fun day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium…plus eating and drinking as we went along. Big Fun.

Though the temperature has been a little left of the dial, we still got out to enjoy the beautiful clear days and crispy cold evenings. I love that there are so few people around, and most of them seem to be at the mall, or in front of their computers. We had the whole peninsula to ourselves, it seemed.

This is the greatest part of having our weekend in the middle of the week.

I had noticed that it is "Free For Locals" week at the aquarium(thru Dec. 15, so GO!!!), and we long ago let our membership lapse from lack of use…so a perfect time to hop on over to see what was new. Well, I also wanted to have lunch at Cindy's Waterfront , a new venture from the wonderful world of Cindy Pawlcyn, the mega chef behind Mustard's Grill & Cindy's Backstreet up in the Napa Valley. Thing is, you have to get into the aquarium to lunch at the restaurant. So this was perfect timing.

It's been many years since we have just spent a day wandering around the aquarium. And there were hardly any people there. Sure, mid-week in December, but it was really cold, too. All good for us. We got to see everything up close & personal.

See? It's a ghost town! YES!

I had forgotten how cool this place is, and how amazing it must be for first time visitors….

I have never gotten to get up close to this big tank!

One fish, two fish, big fish, little fish.

The many displays are colorful and creative…they have developed over the years into colonies of sea life beyond my imagination.

Strawberry anemones gone WILD!
I want a sweater like this, all pink and fluffy...

Ooooh…Ahhhh…..

Sand Dabs before they are just the shells we see on the beach.

Johnny headed us straight to the aviary section, with the birds and shoreline life. He loves this area the most.

Birds so close, you can almost touch them.
You can see how pretty a day it was...

We came across a wonderful older painting that we were very happy to see. Bruce Ariss, circa 1971. A classic scene of Cannery Row and Fisherman's Wharf. He was one of the old school local artists from back in the day, when there was an actual "artist colony" here. It's nice that this work has a place of pride, and that people from all over the globe can enjoy it. I'm sure Mr. Ariss would be proud.

I'm not sure if there were all the tropical fish here the last time we visited, but I certainly enjoyed them. They were in the same area as the penguins, which I found kind of odd. Kids love seeing "Nemo" in these tanks, and then the penguins, I guess….I took some pictures of the little black & white flightless birds, but they were all conked out. Really, I think they must have just had lunch. I giggled watching them try to stand up while they wobbled around, almost asleep. Cute. But the pictures I took were not so cute….

The corals and tropical fishes came along great….

The ever popular Pasta Anemone.

Ooooooooh. I like the aquarium.

The jelly fish are so beautiful and magical and fanciful and beyond reality-ful……It's dreamy, walking through this area. Especially with that perfectly trance-inducing music being piped in. Really, all I needed were some serious hallucinogens, and I would have been gone, baby…gone.

Since I was still looking forward to an awesome lunch, I decided against the hallucinogens, and just enjoyed the jellies in my natural state of anxiety, stress, and guilt.

The jellies are the anecdote for whatever ails you, it's true:

Can't you just hear the Windham Hill soundtrack? It's perfect…right here.

I have to say, my favorite fishy is the funny looking to the point of "wtf was Mother Nature thinking…."

….. Sunfish!

This fish, also called "mola-mola", looks like something went wrong when it was created. I wonder if the other fish make fun of it.... I'm certain there is a reason for it's odd shape, and will look into this some day, when I have nothing else to do….

I saw one years ago, while scuba diving way out in the bay. It was huge, and from below, looked as though it were the sun passing over…. it eclipsed everything for a few short moments, and was gone. Slowly, slowly, making it's way through the cold waters of Monterey Bay. So that's my Sunfish story. We are forever tied together, in a watery dream world.