Yes, I went for a conference, but took a bunch of lenses with me, especially anticipating the dinner at the Monterey aquarium (and joking that they might have sushi there!). Unfortunately, the sky was a dull, lifeless grey the whole time we were there, so mose of the outdoor shots looked rather drab.

These cute little Sea Lions were all over the place. They look, act and bark like dogs. Most of the day they spend lying on their backs floating in the water, or lying on these rocks. It's really funny to watch them as they maneuver themselves onto the rocks, becuase they have no arms, so they have to jump, twist, bob and wiggle their way around!

A big water fountain.

Someone found lunch here. Again, with no arms it was funny to watch these birds try to eat a fish. All they can do is poke the fish and try to rip it by jerking their head quickly. It would be so much easier with hands. Why didn't they "evolve" any??

This shows the unpredictability of the coastal life. The sand has buried this walkway.

And here's an abandoned building whose foundation washed away! "We have guided missles but misguided men." How true!

Another building that succomed to the waves became a hangout for birds.

My dinner at the Monterey Aquarium where we had a strolling dinner. The chicken (obscured by the noodles) was really awesome - it had some kind of filling with goat cheese, my favorite!

Sharks!

A school of fish.

Close up of one spotty guy.

A mean looking monster. He was about 3 feet long!

Some beautiful sea plants.

This was a nice room with a giant view of the sea. Look how big those fish are!

Fish swimming in endless circles in a cylindrical tank!!

The Jelly fish displays were breathtaking. This image was probably the best out of camera shot I ever took with my 1D. There is very little processing here. This guy's "head" was about 6 inches in diameter and his "legs" about 2 feet long.

No brains, no eyes, no ears, but graceful, live movement and careful design. How mysterious is God's creation.

These "Lion jelly fish" were about 1 inch across with streamers going out about 3 feet!!

These TINY guys are about the size of a button!

Here are some really skinny fish that could probably fit through a straw!

More beautiful sea plants.

And a yellow crab living in yellow kelp.

A starfish doing a split. Here you were allowed to touch them, but they didn't move or anything.

This bizarre animal is a "Gumboot Chiton" or something like that. It's basically the foot of a snail, but it's a giant one! It's about 10 inches long! It's skin felt tough like leather and it would move when you touched it. It moved from one end of the tank to the other in about 30 minutes. Here he's crawling over a starfish.

These are called "brittle starfish" probably due to their appearance, but they reminded me of spiders! They move VERY fast and move very spider-like, except they have only 5 legs!! They guy is about 6 inches from the end of one leg to the other.

Here's Nemo hding under a plant.

A Sheepfish

A very soft-looking plant.

Some underwater plants that look like carrots!

And finally a giant octopus! It was VERY dark near the tank, so I underexposed the shot about 3 stops and then pushed it up about 3 stops again (that's about ISO 10,000!). He was really scary with arms that were easily over 4 feet each and suckers up to about 2 inches in diameter! Looking into his eye, you couldn't help but wonder if there was intelligence inside.