I haven’t met an exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium that I didn’t love. Their newest exhibit, The Secret Lives of Seahorses, is no exception. We took advantage of our membership to to get a sneak peek at those secretive sea creatures during the member preview weekend.
We wandered through the four rooms of the exhibit, housed in the area where the jellyfish art was previously displayed, to see about 15 different species of seahorses, pipefish, and seadragons. The largest tank was for the yellow seadragons, which were my favorite.
There was a lot of multi-media used throughout the exhibit, with games and videos. The television screens were integrated so seamlessly, that they looked like real viewing windows. My son’s favorite part of the exhibit was a game where he had to help camouflage a seahorse on the screen, by changing its color, texture, and size. He had a 70% success rate, since he had a bit of trouble with the control that changed the size of the seahorse.
Besides that game, there was a few touches throughout the exhibit that made it more accessible for kids. The tanks are all low enough for kids to get a great view, and there was a section at the end that had some hands-on plastic seahorses. And of course, there is the seahorse statue for the mandatory vacation photo.
The exhibit opens on April 6 and entrance is included with the aquarium admission ticket.
I learned about the Sugar Cane Train on one of my son’s favorite train videos, I Love Toy Trains. I can’t tell you if we saw it on volume 1, 2, 3, 9, or 10 (or why I own that many volumes of I Love Toy Trains), but we saw it there first.
