Aquarium Fun

 Grammy had offered to take Klenda and Zorg on an outing and wanted to know where they wanted to go. 

The Aquarium!

The kids had so much fun that she decided to spring for a family membership - wow!

Off we went in early September.  My plan was to miss both the summer tourists and the school groups, and it worked - it was the least crowded I've ever seen the Aquarium.

A kind docent took a picture of all of us in the Australia exhibit. 

We spent quite a lot of time, virtually by ourselves in this exhibit.  Leena has always been fascinated by Australia, and they have an amazing collection of birds and fish.

We really liked the archer fish, the crocodiles, and the giant freshwater rays.  Klenda was particularly interested in a blue cray fish looking animal since we had just dissected a crayfish.  My favorite were the large triops.  Zorg and Choclo liked the collection of lizards.

 In the rest of the aquarium there were sea horses, sharks, and coral reefs - all favorite animals!

We also got to see the trainers working with the dolphins.  They've stopped doing "shows," but I rather preferred seeing the dolphins and trainers working together.

 There's something beautiful and peaceful about the aquarium.

I find I always come away refreshed and filled with wonder.

This time they had a new centerpiece exhibit featuring black tip reef sharks, and my shark loving kids were over the moon!


You can see them from the top and the bottom.

There are about 20 sharks as well as any number of other interesting fish.

They had a docent showing the different shark teeth- very exciting for us since we know the shapes from all the fossil teeth we collect!

Certainly to my eye, I could not see the difference between my 30 million year old fossil sand tiger tooth and the modern ones the docent had.  Well, mine are fossilized and dark, and his were still white and clearly tooth material!

Another very fun day!