Aquarium Day

Pretty much every day this summer, my kids woke up asking what adventures I had planned for the day. And to be honest, I rarely had an adventure in mind. I hope they'll look back on this summer fondly, remembering they spent nearly every day at the pool. But compared to previous years, it's been quiet. With that in mind, when they asked for adventures this week, I told them we could go to the aquarium on Thursday, my rest day. It's a frequent request from them, and seemed easier than something like Eliches or the zoo.

I didn't want to go until after lunch so they spent the morning with Ariel watching The Secret of NIMH (that's the latest in our books made into movies quest). I think they enjoyed the movie, though they were a bit confused on why so much of it was different than the book. And speaking of movies, they watched The Dark Crystal yesterday. That was one of my favorite movies as a kid but holy cow did it look dated.

After lunch, we drove down to the aquarium. It was a pretty typical visit. Ariel is still terrified of the flash flood cave. Not only did I have to carry her through that section, but she whimpered the rest of the trip about having to go through again, despite my reassurances that it was a one time thing.

The tiger was out and about:



I've always wondered why he doesn't eat the fish in his lagoon:



And the aquarium has added another attraction - a mermaid show! We missed the underwater show in the tank, but got to do the meet and greet after wards. Ariel greeted with, "Hi, my name is Ariel, that's a mermaid too!"



And outside the aquarium there was a bouncy tent that was actually free. We did that until each kid cried in different bumping accidents. Then we caught the end of a street show performance. Adam and Ariel stuck around at the end and learned how to juggle a Chinese yo-yo (B, notice he is wearing 26.2 socks):



Adam wanted Dairy Queen at the end but I talked them down to much cheaper drumsticks at Target (where we also unsuccessfully looked for a last minute birthday present). Judging by Ariel's general crankiness at pick up time, we had a successful adventure today.