Family Reunion Aquarium Day!

I promise the postings from the family reunion over a month ago are almost done. I have been really busy and haven't had much time for blogging. And with school starting I am not expecting it to get much better, so I definitely wanted to finish these before that happened. But there are some more cool pictures I wanted to share, so I think there is one more post coming about the reunion... Now to the Aquarium...

After we left the beach we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is a world renown aquarium that people come from all over to go to, and it is really close to the place I grew up. I only remember going there for a school field trip in Elementary school so I was excited to visit it again. And it did end up being really cool. They have amazingly large aquariums with some cool creatures in them. I got to see a fish feeding show with the sharks, and part of the otter feeding. I think the jellyfish and the sea otters were my favorite exhibits. But they had some other hidden treasures as well. They also have a place where you can go to pet the rays, and the star fish and other creatures. The kids loved that. I think the interactive exhibits at Sea World are better though. You get to feed the Sting Rays, and they have dolphins to feed as well. But we still had fun, and it is probably more animal friendly this way.

I did actually wake up early before we left the beach and went for a walk along the beach by myself. It was really peaceful and I wish I had done it more times during the week. I got to see some fishermen and just enjoy the sound of the ocean. The tide wasn't low that day so there weren't many shells, but I did get a picture of these Sand Dollars.


My niece Abigail trying to get the Sting Rays to come over to her.


Some weird creature that me and Julie had a contest to see who could get a good picture of. I think I won?


Living Sand Dollars. Really interesting and purple. They actually move which was weird to see. They turn themselves upright and spit out sand and stuff.


Sorry in advance, there are a lot of jelly fish pictures. They were so amazing to try and get shots of!








The Sea Otters were really fun to watch play. I think they are really cute too.










This is more for my own amusement. We came home from the aquarium to find this in our fridge. We all gathered around because it was the last thing we were expecting. Growing up we weren't even allowed to bring caffeinated soda home. Let alone beer. My parents had gotten home first so we knew they had brought it home. We could not figure out what it was doing there! But we were all thoroughly amused. Come to find out they had brought some soda home that my uncle had sent with them, and he must have accidentaly put this in with them. Upon pointing it out my mom immediately got rid of it. But I still have the proof! haha...


I have come to appreciate different lighting since I have started to get into photography. That night after we got home, just before sunset the light got this really cool golden quality to it. I grabbed Julie and made her come outside so I could get some pictures. I was right, it was perfect. I didn't have to touch the colors in these in photoshop. Anything I tried to do just ruined them. I love it when they come out of the camera this good!





I just learned how to do this, so I altered the above picture and turned it all Sepia except for her gorgeous eyes.