This past weekend, I had the privilege of taking a road trip up to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with the Marine Biology class. Now, I'm not taking Marine Biology. But the professor is the same one that teaches my Ornithology class, and he thought it would be a good chance for us to get to see some birds that we wouldn't see down here. I was the only one that took him up on the offer to tag along, and I'm very glad I did. I've actually been there once before, last spring when I took Marine Biology, but it's such an amazing place that I couldn't pass up another free trip to see it (Biola pays our admission).

We left on friday afternoon and planned to stop for dinner at In-N-Out in Santa Maria.Then, one of the students, Andrew (who is from Santa Maria), got a call from his mom saying that she wanted to have us over for dinner. So, we stopped there for a yummy meal of pizza, chopped fruit, green salad, Snapples, and freshly baked cookies. As we drove off to continue our trip up the coast, Andrew's parents stood in the driveway and waved goodbye until we were out of sight. It looked like it was straight out of Leave it to Beaver or something. So great.

We got to the camp ground after dark and set up our tents as quickly as we could. I wouldn't mention the camping bit, except that somewhat of an adventure came of it the next morning. There were two tents of girls: four in each. The girls in my tent kept our shoes inside the tent overnight. The girls in the other tent left their shoes outside. And when we got up in the morning, those four girls were each short one pair of shoes. I couldn't believe it! Somebody stole three pairs of women's flip-flops and one pair of tennis shoes (the tennis shoes were quite expensive. If it weren't for the loss of that $80 pair of shoes, it would have been completely hilarious. As it was, it was still pretty amusing.) So, we took down the tents and headed to Longs to buy flip-flops for our barefooted buddies.

Breakfast was at a place called First Awakenings, which makes the best pancakes I've ever had. One takes up the whole plate, and is enough to satisfy most hungry stomachs. If you're ever up by the aquarium, you should definitely eat there.

The aquarium itself was of course amazing. Among the best exhibits are the otters, the tuna (those guys are big and can move really fast!), and the Jellyfish exhibit entitled Jellies: Living Art. My favorite of the jellies is the Comb Jelly. It's amazing to me that something like that exists. They're simply fascinating.

I also saw a few new birds during the trip: the Yellow-billed Magpie, the Pelagic Cormorant, and the Pigeon Guillemot.

This aquarium is just great--everyone should visit it at least once in their life. It's the #1 aquarium, and the #3 top-rated family attraction in the country. So, go; take the kids.