Travels in a Tin Can

From the boat we rushed to the aquarium, with still half a day to look round.
Unfortunately we did not have half a day of energy left due to the early start,
so we had to amble round rather than doing the usual 'we will see everything'
museum march – the curse of the museum worker and the bane of his wife!
The aquarium was also very busy which hindered optimal visit speed.
Apparently residents get to visit for free on Sundays - disgusting, tourists
should come first!
The place is vast, and includes some very innovative interpretation –
such as cameras that visitors can move around to see creatures up close
with, and a 'learn to talk like a penguin' exhibit. Our favourite display was the
sea otters, we sat watching them (and failing to get photographs of them) for
ages, and they were so sweet and playful. I also really enjoyed the fairly
disgusting spitting fish, which make burrows by moving gravel around in their
mouths.... my pleasure in seeing this was probably a boy thing.
We stayed in the aquarium until it closed, at 6pm. too early for dinner
but too late to go back to the campsite as we were eating in town. Instead we
had a rest in the van and changed for dinner. This brought home the joys of
taking your house everywhere with you! And led to the thought that maybe we
should all be snails? That would certainly help to reduce salt consumption...
We went to dinner via a drive through some of the cannery district. As
in Santa Cruz we suffered for a lack of clear roads signs and directions as we
headed for dinner - but this time we were following a local recommendation
rather than our guidebook. Eventually we found it, the Monterey Fish House, a
small restaurant but well worth the search. The food was excellent, beginning