Under the Sea...

Teag and I have been trying to create opportunities for our family to spend quality time together.  Sometimes it's just stuff we do at home, like having a "picnic" in front of the fireplace, but other times we go out for adventures.  A few weeks ago, we decided to go to the Living Planet Aquarium to let the girls see some sea creatures they'd never been able to see in real life before.

I don't think either Teag or I realized that the aquarium is just a "preview" right now.  As such, it didn't take us nearly as long to go through it as we thought it would, and there wasn't as much to see as we'd been hoping.  Still, it was pretty cool to see what was there.

 

The girls really like to see the jelly fish and the seahorses, but were quite fearful of the octopus, even though Teag and I thought it was pretty amazing.  One of the things they really liked was seeing "Nemo", or a clown fish.

 

And there's another one off to the left of the pic.

 

The aquarium has a few places where you can touch things, but it took some real convincing for our girls to agree to touch anything.  Finally Maisie touched the smaller, immobile things in the small tanks.

 

After she did, Dany decided she would touch the starfish too, at least.

 

But they both let Dad touch the other things instead.

 

Neither one of them wanted to get anywhere near the stingrays, even though you could pet them too.  Both kids kept a very safe distance.  Teag and I, however, wanted to make the most of this adventure, and both stuck our arms in to pet them.

Seriously weird.  It wasn't what I expected it to feel like at all.  It was pretty fun, and I think it was awesome to be able to see these things up close. 

I'd expected bigger animals truthfully, but I guess that's supposedly down the road.  All in all, the girls really seemed to like it, and have a good time.  An interesting way to fill a few hours.