Field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Mark had to take an afternoon off or start loosing his PTO. So we looked around for activities or day trips we could make together, and decided to head down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Important lesson for Mom and Dad: Monterey is farther away than Santa Cruz.

We thought we'd have lots of time to play at the aquarium if we left at about 1:30. We got there around 3:45. Bay Area traffic, y'know. Even early on a Friday afternoon. The aquarium closes at 6.

Ah, but it's not a big deal, because the real fun will come after the aquarium closes and they start their Halloween party! I'd seen it listed on their web page when I was investigating admission prices vs annual memberships. The party is a members-only perk and included Trick-or-Treating in the aquarium after dark. Cool!

So we figured we'd browse the aquarium for a couple hours, go get dinner, then come back for the members-only party (because it makes MUCH more sense to buy a membership than to pay for a single admission!). Except that just as the aquarium was closing I realized that I'd lost our temporary membership cards. Were we going to need those to get in to the party? Uh oh!

So I retraced my steps ... which went pretty much everywhere because Duncan was not interested in staying near one tank to see everything that might be hiding in it, but in seeing one or two big things and moving on to the next tank. Oh, and he was hungry, too, so he was asking constantly to go find food. So he and I moved through the place pretty quickly, and thoroughly.

After not finding the cards I asked a staff person in one of the stores, who sent me to the information desk, where they misunderstood what I was looking for as 'tickets' rather than 'cards.' So they took me to another desk where the staff member assured me that our tickets for the party were in the computer, so they'd just look me up. It took me SEVERAL exchanges to make clear to them that, while I *was* interested in coming to the party that night, I was not looking for *tickets,* but for my membership cards. And it took all those exchanges as well for it to become clear that the party that night was not a FREE members-only event, as EVERY other member event was. It was $15 a head for 3 years and over. Yikes.

It did say that on the event page for the website (I went back and checked), BUT, it did NOT say that on the membership page where I'd seen it listed. And, when we'd arrived I'd told the woman who sold us the membership package that we wanted to come to the party, and she sent me to the Membership desk, and the woman there said we were all set. At no time did the person taking our money, nor the person at the membership desk, both of whom were made aware of our desire to attend the party, say anything about it being a paid-admission event.

Sigh.

Well, we enjoyed the time we did spend there, and given our sparkly new memberships we can go again and again. And we will! But we had a mostly disappointing visit all around this time. We apologized to the kids for getting their expectations of a party up by taking them to dinner at their favorite Chinese place in Mountain View. They decided that was okay.

So, next time we'll leave earlier and plan to spend all day at the aquarium. And I'll bring about 10 lbs of snacks for the eating machine that is Duncan. And now we know that aside from the Halloween party, all OTHER members-only events are free. I should go look to see what's on the schedule ...