Life goals: Have a pet squid. Perfect the smoulder. Have a hairdo every cephalopod would be jealous of.

“Contessa with Squid” by Omar Rayyan (2011), part of the “Tentacles” exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

 Today I said goodbye to the city of San Francisco, which I fell in love with surprisingly quickly. I have a feeling I’ll certainly be back soon to explore more! We drove out from the hustle and bustle of the city out through Silicon valley. The burnt golden-yellow hillsides, spotted with an infinite number of scrubby textures, rolled with fog and provided a tantalizing landscape as we cruised south. It was a bit of a shock seeing such wide-open sunlight-dappled golden hillsides after endless limestone and siding in the city, but I loved the lack of billboards or tall signs along the highway. For the first time in my life, we drove 30 minutes down an American freeway without seeing any golden arches, and it was blissful.

As we approached Gilroy, my mother reminisced about stopping for fresh strawberries at stands along the highway 22 years earlier. We were just cruising along when OH MY GOSH THERE’S STRAWBERRIES RIGHT THERE AHHHHWENEEDTOTURNNOW and the tires squealed and the gravel flew and my typically cautiously driving mother practically drifted that poor rental car into the fruit stand parking lot. Luckily us risking life, limb, and the car insurance deductible was worth it, because these were hands down the best strawberries I have ever had. And I am a complete strawberry nut. Not only were they beautiful and nearly as big as my hand, they were oh so sweet, juicy, and delicious.

There are a few more in the fridge… We’ll see if they make it through the night…

 

…But you never really can have enough strawberries, can you?

 Pumped with endorphins from our strawberry adventure, we headed onward to Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Located on the site of what was historically a sardine cannery, this beautiful facility pumps seawater directly out of the bay into the aquarium exhibits themselves, ensuring the floral and fauna experience conditions as close to that of their natural environments as possible. Though this makes life better for the menagerie of life at the aquarium, this system comes with unique challenges. During the day the incoming seawater is filtered to remove particles that cloud the water, allowing museum visitors a clear view. At night, the incoming water is not filtered, allowing the naturally occurring particulate matter to cycle through the tanks, providing necessary nutrients but also introducing some surprises, such as larvae from unwanted species. The output of the seawater back into the bay is also another challenge. Strict regulations (as they should be!) dictate what chemicals, larvae, waste, etc. can be pumped back into the bay, and vary greatly from one species and exhibit to another. I’m glad it’s not my job, but someone at the MBA is probably frantically hurrying around from habitat to habitat, checking that the proper filters are in place and that certain species aren’t mating and that others aren’t exposed to certain antibiotics and a million other seemingly minor but incredibly crucial regulations are followed to ensure the health of the Monterey Bay for generations to come.

Another wonderfully planned feature of the MBA is its location in the heart of the bay, and a quick step outside onto the outdoor deck provides an arsenal of binoculars and knowledgeable staff and volunteers happy to answer any and all questions and to identify any wildlife you see in the bay. In about 5 minutes on the observation deck overlooking the kelp forests in the bay I saw sea otters, sea lions, a bounty of flora and crustaceans, and more seabirds than I could count. You can watch a live webcam of wild California sea otters here if you’re interested – in my opinion they’re much cuter than kittens.

I could rattle off a million fun sea-creature facts I learned today, but I’ll try to keep this short and sweet and stick to my favorites. The absolute most mind-blowing thing I saw today at the MBA was a skate egg case that aquarists had placed a window in, allowing aquarium visitors to watch the skate embryo grow over the nearly one-year period it spends developing in the egg case. MBA took a much better picture of this amazing skate than I could, click here to see it for yourself! How amazing is that?! Another favorite of mine was the Hawaiian Bob Cuttlefish; here’s a juvenile less than an inch in length.

We also had the pleasure of meeting with the very personable George Peterson, the Director of Dive Programs at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He took us behind-the-scenes of the large 28-ft deep kelp forest exhibit, where we got to watch the diving volunteers and staff put on an underwater program. This program utilized full-face masks (for those of you unfamiliar with dive equipment, these create a seal around the entirety of the face, which is filled with air from a typical scuba regulator, allowing for better field of vision for the diver, better eye contact with others, and, most importantly, a means to communicate clearly underwater via a network of radios and microphones with other divers, the safety crew, aquarium staff, and visitors looking into the exhibit from “the dry side”.

After seeing every single exhibit in the aquarium (we did it!), we made our way over to Carmel by-the-sea. This lovely community evokes Montreat, NC and Naples, FL mashed into one with just a dash of West coast pizazz. The drive into the heart of town took us down a few twisty, narrow roads lined with beautiful, tall trees and an occasional glimpse of the Pacific on the horizon. We swept past bungalows with prayer flags hanging from their porches and yards overflowing with a rainbow of succulents and flowers, though I’m certain nothing around here is for sale for nothing less than $1 million. Time to win the lottery. Even our quaint hotel had plenty of character and a bounty of flora.

For dinner we decided to go out on a limb and try a local, highly rated French restaurant: Patisserie Boissiere. I love trying ethnic foods of all types – Indian and Ethiopian are some of my favorites – but somehow French cuisine had fell through the cracks. I ordered lamb shank and potatoes au gratin and WOW. This was the most tender piece of lamb I have ever ate, and it was served still steaming in its own broth with a bounty of fresh basil leaves.

Another fitting meal for the end of another wonderful day. Now, we move on to Santa Clarita!