Tag Archives: Aquarium

July 2, 2012 · 3:10 pm

National Aquarium, Downtown Baltimore

Today we decided to take the kids to Baltimore to go to the National Aquarium. The aquarium is rated one of the top 10 in the country and we knew that they would love it. One of their biggest exhibits is the shark exhibit called “Open Ocean”, and with three of the 5 boys loving sharks we knew that this would be a big hit. Some of the other exhibits that we saw were: Jellies Invasion, Dolphin Discovery, Atlantic Coral Reef, Upland Tropical Rain Forest, Australia, Wings in the Water…

The National Aquarium

Great White Jaws

Puffins

Oh Matty!!! Look at that big Bruce!!!

We went to the Dolphin Show…

The kids put on a puppet show for us…

The penny machine…

Each one of them earned two items at the gift shop. The three older boys all got a stuffed blue dolphin, Matty got a smaller gray dolphin, Emma got a pink sting ray, and Jack didn’t pick one out. Davy also got a sharks tooth and Matty got a plastic speed boat.

Outside of the museum there were dragon boat rentals. We wandered over to check out the price and it was $18 to rent them. Each boat held four people so this was perfect! However, I took the three little ones while Kelly had the three older ones and Colin was able to help her pedal….lucky her!

After the boat ride, we went to Phillips for some sangria and crab cakes. The service was terrible but the food was good!

By the time we got home it was almost 9:30, we were all tired and super excited about our awesome day!!! 🙂

Mote Aquarium

August 4: Thursday

To break up our day trips to the beach, we decided to take the kids down to the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota. It was our first time visiting this aquarium and surprisingly it was bigger than I expected. What I didn’t expect was how much of it was going to be outside! Late morning in August… in Florida… and then there was the long walk from one building to the next. Ugh… However, the kids really enjoyed it and the Manatees were adorable. For lunch we crossed the street to go to the Salty Dog and to wrap up the day we found it fitting to have ‘Movie Night’ with the movie Oceans.

Baby Ryla looking at the fish…

Pacific Moon Jellyfish.

LOOK!!! There’s Bruce!!!!

While the kids were watching their movie…us grown-ups went out for date night. We took the golf cart over to the Beach House and enjoyed the company, ambiance, and cocktails. :O)

The Florida Aquarium

A last minute decision today landed us at the Florida Aquarium. Andy went to Chicago for the weekend to see his friends and family, so this gave the boys and me a lot of time to play together. Kelly had planned on taking her kids, so when she asked us if we wanted to come along… of course we said yes.

When we lived in south Tampa we used to go to the Aquarium often, but lately not so much. So, I renewed our annual passes and am excited about the adventures that we will have this next year.

Some of our favorite parts of the Aquarium are: the coral reefs, the sharks, the penguins, the sting rays, the touch tanks, and Explore a Shore. Explore a Shore is an outdoor play are that is filled with water jets, climb-on animals, a pirate ship with water cannons, a water slide, a sand box, and a place just for toddlers. Also, should the parents need to cool off…they have a large Tiki bar.