Here's a short, 3 1/2 minute video, showing some of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, by David Hill Photography. This give you a quick, and well shot, look at some of what you can see there. I went there in the spring of 2000, and really loved it.
Back in 2000, I was a taxi driver, and heard on the radio about a book signing happening with Julia Butterfly Hill. She was the activist that lived in a redwood tree for over 2 years, from 1997-99, so they wouldn't cut it that huge tree down. She gained worldwide fame (and ire from many lumber industry people) for her stay in "Luna," as she named the tree. But the act, supported by many other activists, did save the tree from being cut down, and several others nearby. So I decided to go to her book signing in Santa Monica, and buy the book, The Legacy of Luna.*
By some weird quirk of fate, a guy I knew from the BMX industry years before, Frank Scura, was working with Julia and her group at the book signing, and he introduced me to her. I listened to her talk, bought the book, and read it in the next few days. While I had seen some "small" redwood trees in the mountains near Santa Cruz, while living in San Jose in 1985-86, I'd never made it way up to the big groves of redwoods in the northernmost part of Northern California. At the time, in 2000, I was living in my taxi, having become homeless, while learning the ropes of the taxi industry in late 1999. I decided to drop my cab off for a week, take my old Datsun 280ZX, and drive up the coast to the redwoods. There was no more thought into it than that. Taxi driving was a drag, and I needed a break. Back then, you could take time off as a taxi driver at any time. After reading Julia's book, I thought, "I need to see the redwoods sometime in my life, and now's the time." So that's what I did.
My week of wandering alone, in my car, up the long California coast, to the redwoods, and back, became one of the best weeks of my life. I shot video of the trip, and made a 20 minute video for my niece, then less than a year old. I started in Huntington Beach, and spent about 4 hours driving up congested Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), through the O.C. and L.A. traffic, and then picked up speed when I hit Malibu. I had no big plan, no itinerary, and a couple hundred bucks for motel rooms, gas, and food. I wound up seeing juvenile elephant seals near San Simeon, visited Hearst Castle, but the tour was closed for the evening.
I slept on a car turnout somewhere south of Big Sur the first night, waking up to one of the best ocean views of my life, and the smell of the pine forest. That was amazing. That second day, I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which where I had a great time. I wandered slowly through it, shooting video of fish, and other animals, in the various aquariums. I saw a few sea otters, from the deck outside, and one seal, swimming in the ocean, next to the aquarium. I love watching animals, I always have, since I was a kid. I got a lot of cool fish and video footage at the aquarium. I hit the Monterey Skatepark after that, then headed north, up though San Francisco, and over the Golden Gate Bridge.
A year later, I made a BMX video, and used a bunch of my footage from Monterey Bay Aquarium in it. You can check that out here. There's also footage of animals from the San Diego Zoo, the Santa Ana Zoo, and some wild critters, as well. Anyhow, I've never made it back up to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the 20 years since, but I plan to at some point. If you dig animals, it's a great place to spend an afternoon, while in NorCal. Here's their website, where you can find more info, directions, and order merchandise online. Here are several more, much more recent videos, and live feeds, from Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Monterey Bay Aquarium- 15 minute video
Great white shark feeding (2011)
Tuna and other large fish feeding
Great white shark nips Sunfish (not on display now, the shark was released back to the wild)
Sea otter gives birth outside aquarium
Kelp forest cam stream (from November 4, 2021)
This video was not shot at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
* not a paid link
