Tuesday, September 7, 2010

We Love Aquariums

Georgie has liked fish from a pretty young age and has now been to six aquariums in six different states. 
First was the New England Aquarium in Boston in 2006…
Octo 016
then Sea World in Florida in 2007….
06 28 07 171
the National Aquarium in Baltimore in 2008 (Vicki’s first aquarium)….
2008 06 29 123
the Atlantic City Aquarium in New Jersey in 2009…..
2009 09 04 049
the Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach, SC in 2010…..
IMG_4368
and finally, the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut for Labor Day Weekend 2010…….

The Mystic Aquarium was similar to Sea World in that it had inside and outside areas.  Most of the other aquariums we visited were inside only.

We started out watching the Sea Lion show…
IMG_4742IMG_4741 IMG_4745
and visited the Beluga Whales – something we haven’t seen at any other aquarium….
IMG_4750 IMG_4752
as always the jellies are among the kids favorites….
IMG_4789 IMG_4790 IMG_4791
they liked the touch tank with the starfish and crabs but refused to touch the Rays or the Sharks….
IMG_4771 IMG_4775
they got to see how big a shark’s teeth can be…..
IMG_4765
and of course, the Nemos are always a big hit.
IMG_4777
Back outside, in the marsh exhibit we saw a lot of really big tadpoles, some with small legs coming in and one really large frog.
IMG_4794
The kids really enjoyed watching the penguins (and we learned Georgie knows how to read “Gift Shop”).
IMG_4796
Our last stop was at the Birds of Australia exhibit (not sure how relevant it is at an aquarium but it was pretty cool).  There was an extra fee for this exhibit but I’m really glad we did it. The kids were given a small popsicle stick with millet on it and then we were allowed into a giant flight cage filled with cockatiels, lorikeets and budgies.  I used to have a cockatiel so I’m very used to handling birds but it was very hard to get a bird down to Vicki’s level without it flying away.  They preferred to be up on the high perches throughout the room but I was able to get a couple to come down.  Georgie managed to get a couple birds on his own.
IMG_4801 IMG_4804 IMG_4806 IMG_4813
So far we haven’t made it to our big, local aquarium – the Adventure Aquarium in Camden New Jersey.  Maybe next year.

No comments:

Post a Comment