My one and only otter experience took place at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium south of San Francisco California near the end of a 10 day drive up the coast from San Diego with 3 year old @bxlphabet and my 70 year old mother suffering from undiagnosed early stages of dementia. The trip aged me about 30 years in that time as I tried to take care of them both.
My baby had the “terrible threes” instead of the “terrible twos” and he was not happy driving and being in a new place each night. My mom could not sit in a car for more than one hour without needing a walk or a break. Between my son crying for us to stop driving altogether, refusing to get in or out of the car, and my mom telling me to find a place to stop 5 minutes after we just started back up, I was in a 10 day nightmare. Drives that should have taken 3 hours would take 8. And we could only keep driving until we got to San Francisco for the last four nights.
The only thing I really wanted to do or see on the whole trip was this famous Aquarium I had heard of all my life. I researched to find you needed to be there at 9 am in order to beat the crowds. My mom liked to get up at 9 and do her hair and makeup until about 11 am each day, and my son liked to get up at 5 am and take a nap at 11.
I had arranged the trip so that we got to the local hotel the day before at a 1 pm check-in. I begged my mom to go to sleep early so we could get up and be out the door by 8:30 the next morning. I was going to let her sleep and play with my kid outside as long as I could that night so that he would sleep a bit later in the morning. Amazingly we accomplished that feat.
I had researched to know that we could tour from 9 until 11 and then eat in a nice onsite restaurant that opened then. They had bench seats, and I thought I could get @bxlphabet to sleep while we ate for a couple of hours and then do a couple more hours of touring before we left at 3. Even though they closed at 5, I was happy to think I was going to get this time in. I had a map printed out with all I wanted to see in those 2-two hour windows, and I thought I had it made.
The huge parking lot was empty when we got there to park right in front near the entry. I had paid a lot of money for advance tickets so we would be in the “fast” lane for entry and here we were! Only about 100 people were ahead of us and I was so happy! I was where I wanted to be, when I wanted to be there. Even though it was July, the weather was drizzling, windy, and freezing at at 8:50, but we only had 10 minutes to be outside.
As I got out of the car my mom said. “I am going to wait here while you go in. I don’t want to see a bunch of fish.’
“Mom! You cannot sit in this cold car for 6 hours! You can’t sit in a warm car for one hour. I already bought your ticket! You have no food or water out here. I have this all planned.”
“Sell my ticket to someone else. I am not going to spend an entire day looking at fish. Leave me the keys and I will put the heater on every so often.”
I’m not sure what was said next, but it made @bxlphabet start wailing. I grabbed him, threw the keys and her ticket at her, and went to go in line. 100 people hated me as my son screamed and tried to get down. The rain poured. The wind howled.
Then suddenly we were in.
A huge, huge darkened atrium. @bxlphabet stopped screaming. What could this place be? Something was lit up ahead.
I put my son down and we walked forward to see a huge sunken river feature with bridges and greenery and otters.
Hundreds of otters.
Otters floating, playing, babies on mom’s tummies, young otters wiggling around on the grass. Diving, play fighting, growling noises. Three feet long Grandpa otters. Mud slides the otters could dive with. Pools of swirling water the otters could spin in.
My son was ecstatic! The river feature ran for a huge expanse diagonally across the atrium with high bridges, low bridges, balconies to overlook, benches to sit in. This place was like a fairy tale.
He could run up and over and keep up with one otter or stop when he came upon some more. Some were huge, some were tiny. My son was in otter heaven!
This water course seemed to run forever and we circled it for at least an hour. The he caught sight of 3 story kelp tanks in the next room, and we moved over there. I just followed him as he was delighted with sight after wonderful sight. I did not care about what my map said. Whatever he ran over to, we looked at until he was done.
Finally he was pooped close to 1 pm, and we went to find the food. The restaurant benches were as advertised and he ate some food and conked out. I sat and ate by myself, and people smiled to see this little kid sleeping while sprawled out on the bench.
He woke up at about 3 and we got back on the wandering game. We passed by the otters, but now they were at rest, so there was nothing to see.
Whatever we saw was whatever we saw. The only thing I made a point to get to was the “world’s largest window” where he stayed for a good long time looking a sharks and other big fish as they swam by his little body. At about 4:30 we found a back entrance to Monterrey Bay. It had stopped raining and was warmer so we went and looked out at the view.
Here came my mom. “Did you have a good time?” she asked.
She handed me her unused ticket. “The man let me in to look for you without paying. Maybe you can get a refund. Are you ready to go?”
The final 4 days of the trip were in San Francisco, and some of the hardest days of my life. But luckily I had this day, to make it all worthwhile.
My post is for the #freewrite daily challenge by @mariannewest. Freewrite is a great way to post on steemit when you do not think you have the time, or talent, or anything to say. It’s a great way to start regular posting on steemit. I know you can do this too! Here is Marianne’s freewrite prompt post for today. Give it a try and surprise yourself.
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Oh dear I feel your pain and stress.. For a moment I thought your mom would have left with the car.
I don't envy you and this trip.
💖
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I seriously did not care if she took it. But she never would have. It was a rental and she was not on the contract and really did not like to drive anyway. I'm still glad we took this trip. There were some good times. But it was really hard on me :(
While reading your post I could feel through your words everything you felt on that trip ...
Thank you very much @isgledysduate! That is the best result for a writer :)
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