We stayed in Marina for another night after my cows-by-the-sea homecoming queen act so that we could go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which opened when I was in grade school, so I grew up going there on countless school field trips with a bunch of kids who all wanted to be marine biologists before getting knocked up or shot by 11th grade. Almost everything from childhood seems smaller when you see it again as an adult--this awe-inspiring aquarium doesn't. It is as breathtaking as any display of wildlife in captivity I can imagine, and there is a lot of wildlife in my imagination. I took this picture of a cute sea anemone and his homely little sidekick buddy. Ben took sexy jellyfish pictures and turned a school of sardines into supermodels. What a show-off.
We ate artichokes, arguably the world's best cioppino, and a little bit of everything else at Phil's Seafood in Moss Landing. The sit-outside heaters were on high and the luckiest cat in the universe was on duty. It was all so good we forgot to take a picture until we had eaten almost everything on the table. I'm not sorry.
