Unfortunately, we had to postpone most of our staycation adventures due to illness, but we did make it down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium today. :) I put a selection of pictures up on my Tumblr -- go for otters, octopi, cuttlefish, and other critters! As usual, it's likely that T's pictures will be better than mine, so if he gets around to processing, I'll share those, too.

We also took a behind the scenes tour of the aquarium! It was presented as an otter tour, but it was really more of a shortened version of the usual backstage tour with a particular focus on talking about the otter facilities -- we didn't actually get to see any off-exhibit otters, or any of the spaces they use, although we did get a quick look at live video feed of the mama otter who's currently fostering two pups. (They keep baby otters out of the public eye most of the time, because they don't want the pups to get too used to humans; it causes problems when they get released back into the wild. The one we saw earlier this year was an exception, because it was the first pup that adult had ever fostered, so they didn't expect him to be releasable anyway.)

(PS: if you like baby otter pictures, you should click that link. I can't remember whether I shared here before, and I suspect it is relevant to many of your interests. ;) )

Anyway, so it was interesting, but not quite as otter-tastic as we had hoped for. However, we did pay several visits to the otters on exhibit, and also saw at least three gamboling in Monterey Bay, so it was worth it.

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