Fishy, Fishy In the Brook

In order to get our money's worth out of our National Aquarium in Baltimore membership pass, I've tried to sneak in some extra trips here and there. So the other day after lunch when I was feeling a little bored, I decided to pack up the kiddies and saunter over to the Harbor for a little fish watching.

What a fab time we had! Ellie planned our itinerary: first we had to see the sloth (in the rainforest for those of you who haven't been there), then sharks and finally the dolphin show. Jonah was content to just hang out on my shoulders in the Aquarium approved backpack. Unfortunately, it's a stroller free zone.

Up we trekked to the rainforest. I did however force her stop and look at some of the fish along the way. She did watch a gigantic sea turtle swim around in the enormous open ray/skate tank for a couple minutes before she tugged on me to keep going. Once we made it to the rainforest, we bee-lined for the tree the sloth is always in. Bonus today—the sloth was low enough to see and its face was turned toward us! I don't think I've ever seen anything but its furry little back before. By the way, in case your interested, Ellie is now obsessed with sloths thanks to catching an eppy of It's A Big Big World. Oh, that kid!

After the sloth, it was down to the shark tank. We breezed through that (I think Ellie was a little scared) and ran over to the other pavilion just in time for the dolphin show. Personally, there was too much talking during the dolphin show for J man and me. He was squirming so I gave him Ellie's sunglasses to chew on to make it through the show. Ellie, of course was mesmerized.

I did sneak in a trip to the Australia exhibit before we left. It was better then I had remembered. Of course this time we saw the grey-headed flying fox. I don't know how we missed them before. Guess we never looked up because there they were just hanging out on the ceiling above our heads (well, way up there since the ceiling is so high). We watched them spread their wings and shimmy around. It was pretty cool!

Then off to home we went. Of course, both kids fell asleep in the car within minutes. Ah, the golden sound of snoozing children.

Hey, if you're planning your own trip make sure you check out the new frog exhibit. It was (as Ellie would say) a-MAY-zing!