Annabel has been begging to go back to the beach so she can “meet all of the fish.” I knew that wasn’t going to happen (at least, not the way she wanted) so instead my parents and I surprised her by taking her and James to the aquarium.
Annie ran up to the first tank, all excited, and a big fish swam right up to the glass where she was standing.
She was like, “MOM! IT’S GOING TO GET ME!” But as soon as she realized the fish were behind the glass, she was in love with the aquarium.
“Look Mommy! I have a fish face, too!”
I can’t remember the last time I went to an aquarium, and I really enjoyed seeing all the beautiful jellyfish and other sea creatures.
Annie kept asking over and over to see the sharks. “The sharks, Mama! I wanna see the sharks! Where are the sharrrrrrrrks?!” I looked on the map and found their habitat (or as I called it, Lake Sharknado), knowing that as soon as we got there Annabel would be scared. And she surprised me. She wasn’t scared…at first.
She did well with the sharks until it was feeding time. When the husbandry workers started feeding the sharks, Annabel wanted out of there. Too bad, because I thought that was the most interesting part!
As a palate cleanser, we went to a penguin meet-and-greet.
They were freaking adorable, and of course Annie wanted to touch them (it wasn’t allowed). I kind of wanted to touch them, too. We had to be satisfied with the fake penguins.
Cute but not as cuddly.
I really liked that there were other interactive things. She was able to touch these plants:
And she loooooved this display that had a moveable magnifying glass.
She kept yelling, “Mama, look at the sad worms!” So I looked closer, and there were worms coming up out of the sand, like the movie Tremors but scarier because this is real life. No. Thank. You.
When we were ready to leave, I braced myself because (of course) the gift shop is right next to the exit. Luckily, Annabel spotted one of these bad boys and begged me to let her make one.
Hell yeah you can have a pressed penny! You can have alllllll the pressed pennies.
On the way home I asked Annie if she enjoyed meeting the fish and she said, “Yes! I loved it so much! Mama, next time can the fish go to the beach with me?”
Heather says:
Pressed pennies are the cat’s meow as far as I’m concerned. Our last two trips to Disney these machines saved us a tonne of money. I explained to our two that they could have just as many pressed pennies as their hearts desired. We were there for two weeks and I think the total spent came to $30 per kid for a load of souvenirs.
I wish we had a decent aquarium near us.
arlene cloud says:
Pressed pennies! Love them! We took our grandson to NYC this past summer and I wanted a souvenir that would be more than something we threw in a drawer. I let him press pennies everywhere we went, cheap fun! I then make a necklace with them (thanks Pinterest). He loves it when I wear it and will look at a particular penny and talk about what we did at that place. I plan on adding some from where ever we travel together. We are headed to LA next month, where is that aquarium?
Check out the necklace here if you are interested. http://little-altars.blogspot.com/2013/07/maybe-one-more-post.html
Heather says:
This is the Aquarium of the Pacific, in Long Beach. It’s really an amazing aquarium, so if you have the time you should definitely check it out. I am going to bookmark that necklace, thanks for the tip!
Maris says:
Cute pics
Megan says:
Gorgeous photos! I used to love the souvenir pennies too. I’m surprised the price hasn’t gone up to 76 cents by now.
Annie looks so cute, and I love her ruffly sweater! I could almost believe she’s here in Virginia, where it’s 50 degrees and rainy.
Heather says:
It was 50 degrees and rainy that day, too! California is weird in the fall – two days before that it was 92 degrees!
Lisa says:
Hey that is awesome. We love aquariums (my daughter is 7). We are north of you and go mostly to the Monterey Bay. Which one did you guys go to? Just asking because it looks fun and i would love to take my daughter there.
Thanks,
Lisa
Heather says:
Oh the Monterey Bay aquarium is AMAZING. This was the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, so that would be a hike for you!
Kerri says:
So adorable. She’s your little Lilo. Make sure you take peanut butter sandwiches with you to the beach…turns out they don’t like tuna.
Melissa says:
Sea World in Orlando has a behind the scenes tour where you do get to pet a penguin. You might check to see if the one in San Diego offers this as well.
Heather says:
Oh really?! That would be awesome, I will totally check it out!
Annalisa says:
The anemone tank was a big hit with our daughter too. So big, in fact, that she didn’t care to watch the seals being fed, or the sea otters swimming, but instead sulked all the way until we got back to it on the way out.
Leah says:
Wow, gorgeous, gorgeous pictures.
Kind of sad to see the penguins standing around in a bunch of ice cubes. That’s no substitute for Antarctica.
Heather says:
Actually, they are Magellanic Penguins from South America (like Argentina, Chile, Brazil), so they are from warm climates. They are standing on ice because penguins release their body temperature in their feet, and they are currently molting, which raises their body temperatures significantly, so the handlers give them ice to stand on.
Apparently I retained a lot of information from the presentation! I am basically a penguin handler now, right?
Leah says:
Impressive recall! Glad to hear they are not pining for colder climates.
Cheryll says:
Thanks for sharing the aquarium trip (and all of your daily doings!) But the “plants”? are actually anemones, but I’m sure you knew that or maybe that was what Annie called them. Which would have been so cute!
Rebecca says:
What Cheryll said. As a scuba diver who just returned from a dive vacation, I was delighted by Annie’s delight! Tell her when she gets big, she can go visit all those critters where they live in the wild – it’s like swimming in a giant aquarium, but even better!