OTTERS BEYOND THE AQUARIUM: If you've ever lingered before a large window, or above a briny pool, while watching an otter twist and dive and roll and snack and be utterly, 100% adorable, you know there's only one word to describe how you're feeling: transfixed. Yes, there's probably a crowd at the window, because, spoiler alert, otters are way, way popular, and otters aren't always being super-cute, meriting your state of transfix-a-tude. (Wait, yes they are.) It's an enchanting, oh-so-California-y experience, admiring otter antics in an aquarium, but then... There's seeing the furry fellows out in the Big Water, hanging out, tending to their grooming needs, seeking dinner, and whoa: That is a thrill, one that zooms up transfixed scale, for sure. But where to possibly, fingers-crossed, whiskers-crossed, everything-crossed come across an otter, or several, out in the waves? Look to...
MORRO BAY, which has been seeing "record numbers" of otters recently, per Discover Morro Bay. "A survey taken last May of the Morro Bay harbor documented 36 adult sea otters and nine pups, a significantly higher number than the typical five or fewer otters frequenting the harbor in the early 2000s." Prepare to sigh: "Mommas and babies are everywhere eating and grooming each other as if no one is watching." Sweet stuff, but you can have a peek yourself, right now, at the Morro Bay otter scene, via a video taken in March 2017. Where should you go, once you're in view of the big rock? Make for Morro Bay Harbor Walk or Coleman Beach near the intersection of Coleman Drive and the Embarcadero.
