Big Red Octopus

A few weeks back, my Mom and I took T to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, as she hadn't been to the new 'Secret Lives of Seahorses' exhibit. It happened to be a very warm and gorgeous day that day and we had a really fun visit. I think all 3 of us would agree that our favorite part was getting to watch the giant red octopus get fed. I don't know about you, but my experience with octopus in any aquarium is looking at them burrowed into the corner of a tank, not doing anything else but pulsating. This particular day, the aquarium worker was able to entice the octopus with a floating red balloon (don't quite know why that works) and get it to eat small squid and shrimp. We actually got to watch it take the food with it's tentacles and bring it to it's mouth! T though this was the coolest thing ever. We considered ourselves very lucky to see such an active octopus.