Monterey Bay Aquarium

After the Mystery Spot, we continued driving south and go to Monterey about an hour later. It was around 1pm by this time and we were all hungry. We had planned to go to Bubba Gumps for dinner but decided to go for lunch instead. They made us wait nearly an hour but it was Bubba Gumps. It's a restaurant based on Forest Gump. See the "Run Forest Run" sign? There's also a "Stop Forest Stop" sign to stop the waiter. I wish I had shown my family this movie before we went. I think they would've appreciated everything more.

But it was a good meal anyway. Apparently soda is free too. But of course my brother got this icee thing that had lights on the bottom and costs more than a kids meal. We got 3 things and shared. We were all stuffed at the end and didn't even finished the mashed potatoes.

We walked over to the aquarium. We decided to go because one of my high school teachers had given me two tickets for this place. And since we had wanted to go last year and the adult tickets are $25 each, we decided to take advantage of these tickets. My brother got the kids price ($10 off) and I got the student price ($2 off -- huh? why do they even have a student price?).

I led my family straight to the jellyfish exhibit. They were really impressed. If my dad hadn't told us to keep on moving, I think we would've spent the whole time just trying to get through this one exhibit! The rest of the aquarium was really cool too. I think my family really enjoyed it. This is my 3rd time there so it's not quite as exciting for me but the jellyfish are still cool no matter how many times you see them. I mean, just look at them!

We were all really tired by the end of the day. But it was good. We haven't done a family trip in a long time. I think the last time we went somewhere as a family was when they drove me down to Caltech for a summer thing. That was 4 years ago. And I think this is the first time that my whole family went out to an American restaurant. My dad said it's only his 2nd time. I don't think my mom was very impressed by this. Somehow my dad also missed out on all my scholarship dinners and my mom got to eat at all the fancy places with me. Heh. Gotta remember to do this more often with my family.