I am a sucker for Marine Biology.

Truth be told, it was the subject I had intended to study in college. Unfortunately, I did not fare too well in the required Science classes. Henceforth, I degreed in my other favorite hobby: reading.

Nevertheless, my enduring love for aquatic biomes has yet to subside and I find as many opportunities to share my love with those around me.

Marine Science Center for the day? Don’t mind if I do!

So, it wasn’t a terribly large place…and granted, I only have the Monterey Bay Aquarium for scale, so it isn’t exactly a fair comparison. But they really packed a lot of interesting stuff in here! We loitered for well over 2 hours, and I honestly believe we could have stayed longer except we were tired and becoming delirious with sea cucumbers at that point.

We are very big in touching squishy, wet and slimy things. So the fact that this whole place was filled with touching stations made us squeal with delight. There were critters we knew, like anemones and urchins, and other critters I have never seen before! The docents were also extremely helpful, and friendly, and showed us where all the pipe fish were hiding, and the eels…and the secret backroom with all the microscopes…

 

The microscope was so much better than the microscope I have, which uses a mirror…that I just could never get the hang of. But this one was pretty neat. We were looking at a jellyfish, and we could see the plankton swimming in the middle of it. If that isn’t totally nifty, I don’t know what is.

We also got to work in a side room with TONS of skeletons, and videos, and audiostations, and magnifying glass stations…honestly, I can’t believe we only spent 2 hours in here.

We definitely outlasted the afternoon crowds…

 

After visiting a sister exhibit across the road and seeing even more amazing skeletons, and learning about a class for kids where they get to assemble a gray whale skeleton in the back room (dude, seriously), it turned out that we really were totally beat from all this amazing exploration and information gathering.

So we trekked down the road a bit and hung out at the beach. Made a few driftwood forts. Walked the shore. Got to watch a baby otter swimming around looking for lunch.

Picked up some enchiladas on the way home and called it a day.

You really can’t get a better field trip than this.