These jellies are huge. Their bell is about the size of a human head. They are gorgeous. Their dance is utterly spellbinding and I could stare at them all day. If by chance you can make it to the Monterey Bay Aquarium before September I highly recommend seeing the "Jellies as Art" exhibit. But it goes away come September.



We went ahead and bought membership passes to the Aquarium. Adult ticket prices are $24.95 and kids are $15.95. The yearly family membership pass is $120.00. Lucy and I more than made up for the price by the end of the first week we were in Monterey. Fortunately for us, the Aquarium was nowhere near as packed as last July but there were still many people especially young kids on field trips and everybody from Europe. Like last year, Lucy and I made it part of our daily routine to take the trolley down to the Aquarium and spend an hour or two there and do something else afterwards. I can't even imagine doing the whole thing in one visit--fighting the crowds and trying to catch all the animals. But I guess my parents did it many times going to Disney and Busch Gardens.

There Are Worse Ways To Pass The Time

My family has returned to Florida and I have exactly 5 days to get all the stuff I needed/wanted to get done done before the start of the fall semester. The list is tremendous. The weather is uncooperative. And Lucy has been attached to my hip since June. I love my girl but it is extremely difficult to get anything done when you have a toddler mimicking everything you do, asking you a thousand questions, and stealing your laptop and hiding it in her closet so that she can check her email.

Once the semester starts no one will be home. Lucy will be at preschool all day, Bell will be at work or on field projects and I will return to the studio and live the hermetical life of an architecture student. I am going to miss languishing in boredom while Lucy watches Peter Pan for the twentieth time. I am going to miss choosing from a myriad of activities. Activities that were fun for me, too. I am going to miss coloring with Lucy in her coloring books, painting and drawing, reading and napping, singing and dancing. The closing of summer days always leaves me with a tinge of the meloncholy.

Not a day has passed since we returned that Lucy has not requested to go to the aquarium. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is an amazing place. Sadly it is maddeningly packed in the summer. Fortunately for us, Bell has a friend who gave us guest passes that Lucy and I thoroughly wore out. We went every other day. Because the place was so packed we would limit our visits to one to two hours focusing on only a few things. Believe me when I say that you could completely lose your mind trying to see everything in such a claustrophobic environment in one day. After so many visits Lucy has become a junior marine biologist.


Sea otters are so cute. They are a lot larger than I expected.


The Outer Bay tank.


One of Lucy's favorites, the Mola Mola or ocean sunfish.


Feeding time in the Kelp Forest.


Sea anemones


My favorites were the jellies. I could sit for hours and just stare at these beauties.




When I win the lottery I won't go crazy and build a solid gold house. But I will want a room with floor to ceiling glass walls filled with moon jellies.



If Lucy decides to give up on the marine biology thing she can always fall back on her sardine canning experience.

We really miss the aquarium.


Here is the Album with a ridiculous amount of photos but you have to understand we went so many times and I never tired of photographing the jellies.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Bah-ram-ewe!

Bell had a great father's day. He celebrated the day by doing something that I wanted to do, go to the Wool Festival in Estes Park. What a guy! I think he still had a good time. We saw many animals that provide wool for yarn, --sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, paco-vicunas, angora rabbits and even some yaks. Bell is considering buying a goat. You can get one for 50 bucks. A bargain for something that provides milk, clothing, mows your lawn and eats your trash.

Lucy eyeing the goat's gruff.



Some cool spotted sheep.



Lucy with the recently sheared paco-vicunas, a relative of the alpaca and llama.



We also watched sheep dog demonstrations. Lucy kept asking when the pig was coming out.

After the Wool Festival we went to Rocky Mountain National Park for a picnic and Bell got to do what he wanted to do, some fishing with his little girl.