Friday, Continued

Part three of yesterday's adventure was a stop at the Sea Center Museum on the Santa Barbara Pier.
 
I love that the docents - mostly college-age kids - really encourage young visitors to touch things and ask questions.
 
Leia was in heaven. She loved it all, from the underwater viewing area,
 
to petting a shark (no photo, darn it), to touching just about everything in the tide pool exhibit.
 
Leanne? Little Miss 'I'll just look, thank you' was happy to follow Leia around but touching anything was not. going. to. happen.
  
Leia put her back into pulling up the (empty, darn it) crab net - 

 
then dropped a grabber-tool-thingee (technical term . . .) down to the seabed,
 
pulled it back up,
 
and sorted through the sand, looking for shells or sea creatures.

The museum also has a new-to-us exhibit with jellyfish - one of my favorites - 
 
and an octopus that was more active then any I ever remember seeing.
 
It's not a big museum, so we were in and out pretty fast, but it was fun and definitely worth the stop. And it provided just the right amount of extra exercise that finally convinced the little girls 
 
that car naps are a very good thing.