We got up early and were on the road by 7:15AM. I packed some drinks and snacks for the 2 1/2 hour drive, along with a couple of magazines and my book -- did we eat, drink, or read either way? Nope, not one bit lol. Ended up talking the whole way, and I napped for a little bit in the morning.
We got to the aquarium at about 9:45, but really 10:45 since we switched time zones, and got our tickets -- only $59 for two all day passes to the aquarium AND a IMAX showing of the movie 'Oceans'!!! I thought it was a great deal! For a bit more we could have gone on a 2 hour river cruise, but that would limit our time the rest of the day and it was either the cruise or the art museum, so we chose the art museum, and we'll be sure to go back and do the cruise on another adventure.
The aquarium was awesome! They had two different sections: Ocean Journey, and River Journey each featuring the sea life that you'd find in each area.I liked Ocean Journey much better, you just can't complete with sharks and divers and all of the big fish etc that you find in the ocean!!!
This is the sting ray touch tank! You could reach your hand in the tank, and, with two fingers, run your fingers down the back of the sting rays. Right when I walked up to the tank on of the rays swam right over and and flapped his little fin, or whatever it is called, along the side of the tank! However I did not give him a pet, kinda freaks me out and they feel slimy and just ....ewwww :)
They also had a butterfly garden, that was beautiful! It was enclosed but the ceiling was glass so the sun was streaming in and there were butterflies EVERYWHERE! So pretty fluttering around! Some of them would even land on your finger and just stay there for a while, slowly flapping their wings open and closed. J and I got lucky and one settled on a leaf and let us take a TON of pictures of him. He was so calm and just sitting on his leaf, slowly opening and closing his wings, letting us see and take pictures of his beautiful colors! I like to think it was a certain someone from up above stopping in to say hi :) It was very peaceful.
Then we stopped in the penguins exhibit, which we LOVED! There was a sign on the exhibit saying 'baby on board' and we learned that two of the penguins were new parents! They were protecting the baby penguin under their feet (like in 'March of the Penguins' movie if you've seen it). We didn't see the baby but we saw the parents. And the penguins all had names and were assigned little colored bracelets on their wings.
They were eating and swimming and puttering around on the rocks and seemingly very happy!
And THEN, (this is my favorite part), we went to the BIG tank, I think it was like 68,000 gallons or something, and they had a diving show!!! Two divers went down and the one was hooked up with a mic so he was talking to us all about the fish in the tank, while the other diver floated around with a pipe-like thing to keep the fish away (or something like that).
After we went through the Ocean Journey section, we went over to the IMAX theater down the street and watched 'Oceans', a 45 minute movie all about the Wild Coast in Africa and all of the sea life that live there. It was pretty wild! I've not seen a 3D movie in a looong time and it was like sensory overload on my eyes! Learned all about bait balls and the dolphins and other fish in the oceans. It was really cool! J had to put his 3D glasses on over his regular glasses and it cracked me up - wish I had gotten a pic!
After the movie we walked a few blocks over and got some lunch at a little coffee shop. I had a 'stuffed focaccia' which was focaccia stuffed with onions, smoked gouda (mmmm cheeessee), roasted red peppers and portabella mushrooms. And J had a 3 cheese pannini (mmm cheeessee) and some sweet tea that was to-die-for! If it had come in decaf I would have been alllll over it! It was infused with some sort of fruit and it tasted so refreshing! I had a few sips and then went back to my water to keep hydrated.
Mom- you would have LOVED this little area of town!
Sidebar: congrats if you're still reading this - I know it is the longest post ever! You're a trooper :) Not too much more hehe.
After lunch we walked over to the art museum, which shockingly, I enjoyed! There were some artists that I knew, and it was a combination of paintings and installation art which I find pretty cool! I asked J a ton of questions as we walked through (art is totally his bag and he has a multitude of books about the subject) :) So I learned a lot and got some culture in! Yaay!
Then we went back to the aquarium to explore the River Journey. And, I got SO excited because I saw this:
Oh yeah and there was a sculpture of a dog in the downtown area, so I couldn't resist a lil high five! (it was J's idea, because he said we were the same height -- ha.ha.ha. - lol :) )
After the River Journey, we went to dinner at a regional chain barbecue joint, followed by a lil Ben&Jerry's ice cream before we headed home.
Shew! It was a busy and wonderful daycation - certainly needed on our part! Looking forward to our next trip, a real vacation, for our anniversary!!!
I was so tired that I think I fell asleep in about 5 minutes flat after we watched some fireworks on tv! That's the sign of a good day :)
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That looks like where we used to live in SoCal! We want to go to the aquarium here too, Bella is obsessed with fish.
ReplyDeleteHow fun! I love daycations! Too bad there's not too many options for us to go around here, glad you had fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yeah we had a blast! And congrats for reading the entire post! It was a long one so glad I didn't lose ya lol :) Today is back down to business with laundry and grocery shopping, booo real life haha!
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