Morro Bay wildlife

Today I decided to take Amelia to see the seals down at the Morro Bay aquarium. On the way I noticed that enough fog had cleared for a good view of Morro Rock and thought I might try to get some good shots of Amelia on the beach (since my camera is again operational).

Amelia had a fun time on the beach. First she encountered a group of kids with their parents and proceeded to introduce herself and play with their sand shovels. This girl is so outgoing with other kids it makes me laugh. She then wanted to see the water, but she was an extremely good girl and stayed close to mommy holding my hand all the time she was near the water. She also seemed to not want to get too wet for a change, which was great since I did not want to get wet either.

Once I managed to get Amelia back up to the parking lot we spent some time chasing the small squirrels that live in the rocks and beg for peanuts. Amelia referred to the squirrels as "mice," which was pretty funny and fairly accurate. After spending some time with the seagulls and squirrels we were off to see the seals.

I got a good parking place right next to the aquarium. Unfortunately, this space was also near the entrance to a small pier that slanted subtly down toward the boats below. The pier was designed so it would be safe for little ones like Amelia, but she loves going up and down ramps so much it was almost impossible to get her to move on and see the seals. Seals, as you may know, are obnoxiously loud. When they started barking nearby Amelia perked up and said, "Elephant." I told her that was actually a seal she was hearing and she started looking around for the seals. She looked over the side of the pier and concluded the seals were "hiding in the rocks."

Eventually, I got Amelia inside the aquarium. The aquarium only cost $2 for the two of us plus $0.50 for a bag of fish pieces to feed the seals. The seals at the aquarium are being rehabilitated from a variety of injuries or other reasons that aren't clear, but they're happy to bark and slap their flippers all day for smelly fish bites. Amelia liked the seals.

Inside, the aquarium was only slightly less depressing than I had remembered. Back when I lived here the dark room that is the aquarium contained large tanks filled with fish hidden by green sludge. The sludge was gone, but you can't help but feel bad when you see a tank is almost one-quarter octopus. Yeah, it's nice to see an octopus that close up, but the poor guy obviously can't swim around at all.

Amelia and I both came home and took naps after our adventure. She's been such a good girl today! Soon, we'll be going out to eat then tomorrow we're off to Fresno for more adventures.