Our annual Aquarium sleepover

I mentioned last year that sleeping over at the Monterey Aquarium was an annual tradition for my daughter and me. This weekend we upheld that tradition once again, for what might have been the 10th time (we haven’t kept strict track, but I think we’re somewhere around there). We did shake things up in one way: we changed our sleeping location.

Last year the Aquarium moved to reservations for the different sleeping areas (which I still think was a good idea). This year by the time I got tickets the area we’ve always slept (the Open Seas exhibit) was full, so we opted for the Ocean’s Edge instead (it’s the area on the 1st floor with the Kelp Forest and the exhibits of sea life around Monterey itself).

Overall I liked the new location. We didn’t get the bubble wall and the big fish zooming by our heads, but we did end up in a nice nook by the big Monterey exhibit, so we still got plenty of fish viewing. And the area was noticeably quieter than the Open Seas (which has a fair amount of light and white noise from the big exhibit).