Day 37 - We found Dory!
Sunday morning at Pinnacles showed us what the park has the reputation for. As we started our day, we watched the mass exodus out of the park begin. It was clear that not many of the camps that were there would be there tonight. Amy and I started a wager about just how many of them would actually be there for the second night. Both of us guessed pretty low.
Our start included pancakes (always good to have electrical), yogurt, and fresh fruit. Let’s hear it for the valley of California! After we finished, we took a short walk and discovered some of the reasons birders like to visit the park. On our short walk, we saw the turkey vultures that were still in the trees, but also some acorn woodpeckers and quail.
Once back to the car, we headed out for Monterey to see the famous Monterey Bay aquarium. We had given the boys the choice between whale watching and the aquarium and they both picked the aquarium so here we go.
The aquarium, while very expensive, might just be worth it. There’s so many different exhibits and the boys got to not only see the variety of sea life, but also touch a number of different things in the numerous touch tanks that the aquarium set up. While these are favorites of the boys and they will touch nearly everything in a touch tank, never before had they had the opportunity to touch a giant isopod (felt like a crab), feed abalone some kelp, or have hermit crabs placed in their hands to crawl around on them. They also got to touch some of the more standard touch tank creatures like sharks, urchins, sponges, and kelp.
We also attended a couple of the shows in their auditorium. One was about Luna the rescued otter and the various bioluminescent creatures that are in nature. They were very interesting shows because they were narrated by one of the naturalists of the aquarium making it feel very interactive. Robinson went and asked about their understanding of the impact of deep sea mining and how they will understand the impact if they have put a moratorium on it. The host felt it was a great question and this proud dad also thought so!
However, one of the more memorable aspects of the Monterey Bay Aquarium is that the aquarium is built right on the edge of the ocean they are displaying and some of the wildlife is actually there in the wild. The highlight of course are the otters and it was great to see the first one, but then as we were leaving we were able to see a full raft of them all holding together as a group as they are known to do. So cool!
As we were walking back to the car, I got caught by the tourist trap and substantially overpaid for some salt water taffy, but I was hungry and they had SO many flavors. We also likely overpaid a bit for some fresh strawberries on the side of the road. However, I would have paid a lot for them because fresh strawberries in California are just so special.
We completed our drive with a stop for groceries, gas, and some Wifi before heading back to Pinnacles for the night. Arriving back at camp, our suspicions were proved correct and capacity dropped to about 30% of total campgrounds. That’s a nice change.
Because we were running so late, we decided to let the boys have an extremely late night and we finished our day with a short hike to the distant bathroom so we could see the stars. Just another great day on the road!
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