Ripley's Aquarium-DayOne of Dad Fun

We have been wanting to visit Ripley's Aquarium since it opened. And seeing as how we just finished an Ocean unit and M had the day off ..... we couldn't resist.

Having visited and loved the Baltimore Aquarium many, many times our expectations were high.
We agreed afterwards that this is now our favourite aquarium.
There were lots of opportunities to get active and see things from a different perspective.

We all touched the horseshoe crabs in the Discovery Area. And the boys worked on a locks system.
Did I mention we also got to pet the manta rays?
As many times as we wanted to, the tank is just open and the rays are swimming by.

  
Speaking of different perspectives .... some of the tanks had hollow spaces so you could climb inside them to see the tanks from the inside out.

There were areas with a more traditional presentation to them.

 

And then .... there was the underground tunnel with the moving sidewalk.

Very cool. So cool in fact that when we were all done seeing the whole building ..... we went back and did this part again!

 

The tunnel is where you can see the sharks. I don't know if I've ever heard A say, "Mom look over here", so many times in such a short period of time.

 

Super funny to look up and see this guy hanging out on the top of the tunnel.

The tank bubbles made for some great picture taking too.

 

There were a few places like the kelp forest and the manta ray tank where we just had to sit and absorb the moment.

 

Worth the trip.