Aquarium!

A few years ago we had a membership to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and it was one of the coolest and most worthwhile things we've ever indulged in.  With the zoo membership Mom and Dad gave us last year expiring and a list of friends we want to share this amazing place with growing in our minds, we decided to go for it and become members again.  This means we once again have 2 transferable guest passes to share with you!

What was awesome about returning to the place we knew so well after taking a few years off was seeing new exhibits-- this Tentacles one in particular.  Featuring what I consider to be the most amazing creatures in the ocean, the cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish, octopus, nautilus, etc.), visiting it was by far our favorite part of the day.  This is where I took the most pictures.

 We started out by admiring the strange squid.  We watched them eating whole fish too.  It was weird and wonderful!

 For this exhibit, the aquarium acquired two new giant octopuses, and they are ACTIVE!  Each time we returned to check them out, they were zooming all around their tank changing colors and making us squeal with excitement.

 A trip to the aquarium always makes me remember what an artist Creator God is.  The nautilus was beautiful, its shell appearing to be hand-painted.

And then we came to the family's favorite: the cuttlefishes!  These guys changed their color, pattern and even texture right before our very eyes!  When we walked up, this white guy above was disguised as a snail; he had even turned his tentacles into antenna.  As we watched him move around his tank, though, he smoothed out those spikes on his skin and switched to what looked like dark tiger stripes (below).  IT WAS INCREDIBLE and we could have watched it for hours.  We're going to look into what it would take to get a cuttlefish for a pet! :)

This octopus was another quick change artist, we watched him switch from pure white, to the pattern of this corral he lived in, to this orangish/brownish color.

Besides the fascinating creatures in this exhibit, there were some cool interactive displays too.  Here Delia messes around with a computer that changes her skin color and texture like a cephalopod.

And here are some shots of us doing the more typical, but always fun, aquarium stuff.  Above, visiting the jellies.

Being brave at the touch pools.

 Posing in the giant clam shell.

 Peeking at the penguins.

 Giving the bat rays a back rub.

And getting surprised in the wave room.

Well, did this post sell you?  Are you ready to visit the aquarium with us now?  We'd love to share these amazing sights with you too!!

Monterey Wildlife

After the mission, we made a few stops at some of our favorite places to take in coastal wildlife...

The Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary, where the butterflies were fluttering around more than they were clumped up in the trees.  We're thinking that was because it was a warm sunny day.

The ocean, where we watched huge waves crash into the rocks.

And got up close to the pelicans on the rocks.

And touched sticky anemones and crawling crabs in the tide pools.  

And climbed around with the help of adventurous Daddy, especially those of us with fragile bones!

The last thing we did on this day was take a walk down Fisherman's Wharf.  Here we watched the fishing boats, coming in for the day, cleaning their haul.  This was a highly entertaining feeding frenzy as the fishermen tossed fish guts and heads to the crowd of hungry and aggressive pelicans and seals waiting outside their boat.
 

Dave made friends with this fellow.

We also got to see lots of up-close otters, seals and sea lions.

All this ocean wildlife was a great little appetizer to the feast of it we'd explore the next day at the aquarium...

Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo

First things first.  As promised, I will reveal who Ella's Biography Pumpkin is supposed to be.  Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Moses, and even Gandalf were good guesses but it's....John Muir!  Ella picked this subject all by herself and was excited to learn more about the man who first explored some of our favorite places in California and brought Yosemite to the public.

With the biography done, it was time to switch gears to a new project this weekend.  When you are a fourth grader in California, you are expected to do a big project on a mission.  Ella had to pick a mission, research it, visit it, decide which aspect of it she wanted to write about, and then create a project that reflects what she learned.  She chose this beautiful mission in Carmel, the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, and wants to build a model of it.  While her choice was based purely on the fact that this particular mission had several fountains and a bell tower that Ella was excited to construct, I had no complaints about her choice because it's in one of our favorite areas and gave us the opportunity to make a little family getaway out of this long weekend.

To help with her report and project, I took tons of pictures, so here are just a few from this really pretty place.

While we visited, they were holding a high mass.  We did not attend the service, but had some great conversation with the girls while explaining kneeling benches, holy water, lit candles, confessional booths and priests in fancy robes and why Protestants and Catholics have similar and different ideas about things.

The cemetery

Just a really cool looking, old, twisty tree

Bell tower

Fountain #3 in the courtyard

This mission is also a basilica, which we learned means a place the Pope has visited and deemed as important.  Here Dave and Ella check out the robes and various other items Pope John Paul II used when he visited here in 1987.

In walking around, Ella realized that one of the main stories of this mission was about its founder, Father Junipero Serra.  Father Serra founded 9 of California's missions.  This one in Carmel was his favorite and the place he even chose to be laid to rest.  For her report, Ella is going to write about Father Serra.  While answering Ella's questions, a docent spoke about the love Father Serra had for the impoverished natives of this area.  His vision was always to connect them to resources and knowledge that would provide them with a better quality of life and tools they could use to acclimate in a changing culture, all the while furthering God's kingdom and showing Christ's love.  With our church's work in Guatemala, this message and the original work of the mission hits pretty close to home!

The front of the basilica

Lovely flowers everywhere!

The mission was an interesting and beautiful thing for all of us to take in.  Now the work begins, as Ella sorts out all she learned and dives into this huge project.

Guess Who

Fourth grade is known as "The book report year" at our school.  Each month Ella is assigned a new genre and has to write a report and do a special project on the book she chooses from that genre.  She's a voracious reader and our house happens to have shelves and shelves of quality children's lit to pick from.  These reports are something she and I both enjoy! :) This month the assignment was "Biography" and the project was to decorate a pumpkin to look like the person you picked.  Anyone have a guess who Ella chose to read and learn about this month???

I'll reveal the answer the next time I publish a blog post...

Nighttime in the Pumpkin Patch

Every year we make our annual trip to the pumpkin farm.  And even though our weather won't feel like it until November, I don't think it's really Fall until this outing takes place.  This year we decided to do something different.  No football games or other plans were on this Friday night calendar square, so we visited the pumpkin patch at night!

Though the kids are older and have outgrown some of the attractions, the animals never stop being fun.  We thought these noisy turkeys were especially entertaining tonight.

Another new experience for us was trying out Farmer John's cool corn maze.  We went in just as the sun was turning the sky pretty colors...

And soon enough had to pull out our flashlights to find our way through the twisty corn paths!  Ella was an excellent navigator and impressed us with how well she kept her bearings-- better than me!  I am directionally challenged and was lost the second I stepped into the maze.  Taking his youth group to a corn maze in the dark is something Dave does every year.  This night was his idea and I know he really loved sharing this experience with us too.

The maze took a good chunk of our night, so there was only enough time left for a quick hay ride under the stars and some pumpkin shopping.

It's tradition, so a visit to the pumpkin patch is always fun, but this year we loved switching it up with a nighttime trip!  Bypassing the hay trampoline and corn kernel play box (things I'll spend time doing with my preschoolers when we are back here for a field trip next week) and tackling the corn maze in the dark instead makes me realize once again that our kids are growing up!