On Thursday, July 5, we woke up in our hotel room after a restless night's sleep. We took off walking to find some breakfast before going to the Aquarium. We discovered that the mall area was closed, but a janitor told us of a great place right across the street overlooking the harbor. It was FANTASTIC! I can't remember the name of it, but the prices were better than we were expecting and the food was great. We also enjoyed the view. It was somewhat cafeteria style, which was great for a family. Once our bellies were filled, we walked over to the Aquarium and purchased our tickets to go in. We didn't realize that in our kid stuff coupon book there was a $3 off coupon. DOH! We saw it after we got home. Oh well! If anyone reading this is doing the Aquarium yet this year, you may have the coupons!
The first thing we saw on the way in was this fish exhibit. We saw the signs there that strollers weren't allowed. YIKES! So, our next stop was to check the stroller. That made for an interesting day with Shawn & I switching back and forth between holding Ryan, who would rather be down crawling around on the floor than held. It also meant I couldn't take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked to because I had my hands full. But, it worked out okay. Here's Ryan enjoying one of the exhibits of jelly fish.
We found out later that they offer baby backpacks (where the parents wear the kiddo) for free, but you have to request them. I didn't see anything advertising that fact, so we held Ryan 99% of the time we were there. If we were to go again with a baby, we'd know. I don't think we'll have that problem! Here's Caleb checking out a big turtle!
As we walked around the Aquarium we realized that strollers wouldn't be great with all the escalators, stairs and various levels, though. Here's Daddy and the boys at the outdoor rainforest. Joshua LOVED the Aquarium. Caleb wasn't as thrilled as I would have hoped, but he was also tired from the day before. He had fun, but he's more of a "let's keep moving" than a "let's check these out" kind of kid. You'll notice his shark shirt, which everyone pointed out and told him how much they liked it and how appropriate it was a the aquarium, etc.
Speaking of sharks, this was by far the entire family's most favorite exhibit of the day. At the lower level in one section (I'm terrible with direction, but Shawn could get you anywhere fast!), these sharks would swim in a circle looping around us as we watched all the windows. There were a ton of them, and on the walls around the tank were the various types of sharks along with their names. The kids stood in front of the windows and watched in awe. A lady had a piece of a saw-fish (another type of shark) that she let the kids touch, and it literally looks like the front of it is a saw. That was Joshua's favorite thing of the day - the saw-fish. I didn't get a picture, though. But, here's one of another shark.
They had a few hands-on displays where workers would tell us about some of the different types of species. I found it fascinating that the octopus LOVES to play with Mr. Potato Head. The gal noted that the octopus would take all the attachments off and play with it, etc. He is intrigued with it. We all giggled - the boys love Mr. Potato Head as well! I thought seeing the octopus up close was neat, but there were signs there asking for no pictures - the sign read "Please don't flash the Octopus!"
We paid extra to see a 3D show of Happy Feet. It wasn't worth the extra price, I thought, at least for the ages of our kids. Ryan got squirmy so I took him out, and I dropped the camera by my seat. I was PANICKED! I didn't realize that's where I dropped it, but luckily Shawn found it. Whew! We missed our stroller. But, at least Ryan got to see some of the different fish, etc.
Here are some tiny seahorses we saw:
As the kids were leaving the 3D show, I saw that the workers were in the tanks feeding some of the larger species that lived in there. I got a quick picture of the diver feeding this ginormous turtle! The entire Aquarium was pretty dark, so our pictures didn't turn out great, but we enjoyed seeing all the different things there were to see.
Can you imagine catching this fish?
We headed to the dolphin show, and got there for the last 10 minutes. It looked great - the crowd who had good seats got splashed by the dolphins as they did their tricks, etc. I said we should try to go back for it. Then we headed to the hands-on kiddo play area. But, the boys were pretty tired at this point. We decided to head out for a very late lunch and nap. On the way back to our hotel, we saw the Cheesecake Factory and decided to splurge on lunch there. The food was good, but not necessarily worth the price when we had kiddos along. They did fine, but they were beat and not in the mood to eat. We took a good bit of food back to the hotel room to enjoy for dinner later.
Here's a picture of the "lion fish" - can you see it's mane?
After nap time, I suggested we head back the Aquarium. After all, they had given us a hand stamp, and we paid enough money to get in that we wanted to feel like we had seen everything and gotten our day's worth. Turns out, we would have been fine to leave wanting more. But, now we know!
This time, since a nice gentleman in the kiddo area told us about the backpacks, we opted to pick one up when we checked the stroller. This meant my hands were free, but Daddy's back was weighed down. I offered to wear it and Shawn said no. He's a good Dad!
We headed back to the children's area, which we hadn't seen that much of before. The kids got to pet a cockroach. YUCK!
They looked in this fake log to discover some animals in their natural habitats.
They matched up colors on the wall, and they dug through sand to find some different shells and shapes.
They posed for a few pictures (for the mama!).
They put on their own play with the stuffed animals on the sea star stage.
There was also some things on the floor that you could count and step and play some games, but the boys weren't that interested. I forget why Caleb dressed up here, but I thought he looked cute. Eventually, the kids were done with this area and we moved on.
Love the happy little man on the back of Daddy!
The kids wanted to see the sharks again, and we didn't disagree. This was the coolest area in the entire place! This time I captured a picture of the saw-fish.
Here's Caleb looking at the shark.
And here's a random picture of us - I'm thinking maybe Caleb took it, but I don't remember...
After the sharks, we went to the very last dolphin show, arriving early enough to get a good seat this time. We had to wait for awhile for the show to start then, so we passed time with taking pictures. Here's Joshua and me waiting for the show!
Daddy decided to sit up a row and back so that he could get out quickly if Ryan got fussy. There weren't enough seats there for the whole family, so we sat apart with the boys. Caleb took the camera and had a blast from there. The rest of the pictures are ones he took by himself. Here's the many faces of Caleb Luke:
I seriously cracked up at all of them! He is such a ham! Then he started getting ones of his "twin" Daddy:
He even got one of baby Ryan:
When the show finally started, it wasn't anything like the one we had seen earlier in the day. No real tricks, no splashing, not much of anything except a woman talking. Note to self: never see the last dolphin show. Ever. It was terrible, and not worth the wait. Joshua & I also sat next to some 8-year-old kid who talked incessantly about nothing to us the entire time. My nerves were shot - it was time to go!
We headed out to eat our leftovers from lunch and swim at the indoor pool at the hotel. It was well over 100 degrees that day and HUMID! We were hot. We walked more around the Inner Harbor later that evening and even went to the mall to get some ice cream for the kids and do a little window shopping. It had been a fun day over all!
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