Adventure Aquarium

As an early birthday present Tim and I surprised Xavier with a trip to our local aquarium. Xavier's love of the ocean and everything in it, most importantly sharks, makes this an exciting event. We had a blast gazing at all the amazing and intriguing ocean life Adventure Aquarium had to offer.

Here is our little octopus!

Oh no! It's a shark! AaaaH!

The jellyfish exhibits were some of my favorite. They are made of mostly water...I find that so interesting and the way that they glow, you can't help but stare.

Xavier likes the jellyfish a lot too.

There were several exhibits that allowed you to touch the sea life. We got to touch sea stars (they are no longer called starfish because they aren't fish at all). We also touched sea anemones, sea cucumbers, small sharks, and rays.

Isn't this awesome. The chandelier type fish hanging rotated in a circle. Gavin kept staring and staring as it went around and around.

They had two different shark tanks- this one had sand tiger sharks, hammerhead sharks, eels, huge sea turtles, black tip reef sharks, and a couple others.

In the words of Xavier, "We have to take care of our oceans (and sharks)". The movies portray sharks as these man-eaters, when really they are natural predators with a commanding presence in our oceans. They are beautiful creatures and we had a blast seeing so many different kinds up close, well as close as we'll ever get.

Open your mouth big and wide! It's a Megaladon's mouth! Xavier knew exactly what this was as soon as he walked up to it, I couldn't believe it.

I could have just sat in front of this tank and gazed at the ocean life for hours. Xavier was most excited to see the scuba diver in the tank. I think Xavier would have jumped in if he could have. They actually offer opportunities to swim with the sharks. Not sure I'd be brave enough to do that. But if I could do anything and go back to school again I think I would become a marine biologist. I have learned so much because of Xavier's interest in the ocean and there is so much more to learn.

Some of the creepier things we saw were gigantic eels and barracudas- boy they are ferocious and U-G-L-Y.

After we explored every corner of the aquarium the kiddos took a nice nap in the car. My two sleeping princes. I could watch them like this for hours. What is it about a sleeping child that just brings peace to my heart?

That completes our adventures at the aquarium for one day. Xavier has already asked to go again. Maybe one day we can go whale watching. That would be an even grander adventure eh?