There’s a piece of music called “Kelp Forest” from Douglas Morton that plays here in this part of Monterey Bay Aquarium that I can hear when I’m looking at photos from this tank. It’s a short loop of music I’ve heard countless times, and it is yet to sound boring as it fits the vibe perfectly.

If you are wondering why we are not speeding down the road to the next stop, it is because two hours in the aquarium weren’t enough.

Just as we come here to look at sea life, the sea life looks back at us.

Well, I don’t think the jellies really look back at us, but for all we know, their cilia are performing double duty by acting as a kind of quantum antennae used for receiving our thoughts and broadcasting emotional triggers that talk to our sense of wonderment, and that’s why we stare in awe nearly hypnotized when we are looking at jellies.

Comb jellies, on the other hand, are the ocean’s disco, where plankton go to listen to clam music and dance.

I’m fairly certain some astrophysicists stole this design to explain how matter travels through a black hole to emerge on the other side of a parallel universe.

After spending the majority of the morning in the aquarium, it was time to go hunt for lodging near our next stop, but first, we needed to deal with the four-hour drive to get within range.