The Monterey Bay Aquarium | San Francisco Animal Photographer

Hav and I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium last Saturday afternoon. Neither of us had been there before but had been trying to get down there for the past few weeks, so it was nice that we actually made it this time! We had a late start and didn't arrive until about 3:30pm -- we thought it closed at 5 but we were lucky because it was open til 6 on the weekends!! So we started off on the first floor and looked around at the fish at "Ocean's Edge" then we made our way over to the Sea Otters then to the jellyfish and finally the sharks and sunfish. What the heck is that fish in the photo on the left? It looks fake, right? Well, it's called an Ocean Sunfish and it was freaking HUGE -- the weirdest thing I've ever seen! Ocean Sunfish are the heaviest bony fish, weighing up to 5,000lbs! ...so crazy! I got a bunch of great photos of the jellyfish as well - all different shapes and sizes. I've never really seen so many jellyfish before... I went to the Shedd Aquarium when I was visiting Chicago two years ago and I don't recall seeing any jellyfish (or any that were as memorable as the ones here) -- Monterey Bay Aquarium definitely has a great variety of them!     Finally, it was REALLY cool to see sharks -- up close and personal! The 1 million gallon tank allowed the giant fish to swim within inches of you... (including the sunfish above). It was pretty amazing... to finally see these creatures in the flesh and not in Zoobooks or magazines or tv... They weren't really as big as I imagined, but then again, the white shark in the tank was a baby... in any case, I wouldn't want to be alone with any of them! Overall, it was a really fun day. The aquarium was nice, clean and full of screaming kids. It was a little smaller than I had imagined, but well worth the trip (about 1/4 the size of Shedd Aquarium in Chicago). If you haven't been to the Monterey Aquarium, I definitely suggest that you go! It's a great place for kids and adults... it's located in the beautiful Monterey Bay and is surrounded by a number of fabulous restaurants, boutiques and of course, nature.