Monterey Bay Aquarium

Robin and I LOVE aquariums (and zoos!) When we were planning our day trip to Carmel-by-the-sea, we knew we had to section off some time to explore the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  We left San Francisco around 9am and took the famous Route 1 down to Monterey, which took longer but was so beautiful. We rolled into the aquarium around 12:30pm, a good time since the mommy and kid rush tends to die down after lunch time. 

We wasted no time and started off with the kelp tank, deep sea and big fish exhibits. I geeked out over the octopus, one of my favorite animals. Robin adored the hammer heads – he kept running around the tank looking for them like a little kid. We eventually wandered over to the touch tanks and it was MY turn to act like a little kid and touch all the kelp and starfish I could possibly touch! Robin on the other hand wouldn’t even stick a finger in the tank due to “germs”…. so high maintenance, that one. We stayed for a good two hours before our stomachs started rumbling and we decided it was time to hunt for a late lunch (photos from that coming next time!

I wore this striped polo from a vintage store on Haight Street here in San Francisco (similar here). Since I knew it’d be a lot warmer down there than in SF, I wore these high-waisted shorts from Forever21 (sold out but similar here) which I love so much. They’re so comfy! I always have trouble with shorts since my legs are so chubby, I usually can’t find flattering shorts, but these guys are the bomb dot com. When I left the house I had on my sandal heels, but I also packed flat sandals (similar here) for just in case and ended up changing into them in the car – I just knew that we’d be doing a lot of walking.