This is a photo montage of the whale watch I blogged about earlier. There are also a couple from the Monterey Bay Aquarium at the end. All are courtesy of Peter Agar, a photographer par excellence

Rafts of sea lions churn up the water while feeding with the humpbacks. They have to get out of the way quickly when the whales surface.

Humpback tails, close up and lost in the wide blue sea. Individual whales are identified by the barnacle patterns, I think on the underside. You can match your picture online. We were about nine miles from shore.

Here is the adult ocean sunfish, or mola mola, we saw floating just alongside the boat. It is at least five feet long. It was quiescent, just sunning according to the naturalist, until it dove and swam away. It’s interesting but ugly.

We were puzzled by this sign at the entrance to the mooring area. Sea lions seem awfully nice when you watch them. Maybe they are a little grumpy close up.

Here’s just a slice of the giant ocean tank at the MBA. Probably fifty people could stand shoulder-to-shoulder in front of it, and it’s both taller and deeper than this picture shows. The school of anchovy you see includes about 25,000 fish.

In the Tentacles exhibit, soothing New Age-ish music wafts through a darkened room, flash photography prohibited. These sea nettles are in a tank with an opening about fifteen feet wide and six feet tall, of which a portion is shown. The animals also waft, and the overall impression is meditative.

Even pictures this great can’t capture the full experience of either the whale watch or the MBA. Maybe this will inspire more of you to visit us. Winter is coming.