101 Places to See Before You're 12 - An Aquarium

An Aquarium

Back in 2006 for Fall Break we took the boys to visit Cincinnati.  We had a wonderful time visiting the museums at the Cincinnati Museum Center in Union Terminal.  The kids loved the Natural History museum there. 

While visiting, we also went to the Newport Aquarium.

Brennan asked me the other day why we hadn't crossed off "Aquarium" on our list of 101 Places and it's because I knew we'd go to another one someday (I love Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, and I would love to see the new Georgia Aquarium...), and I'd get better photos!  But, really, he has a point.  We crossed it off, put a sticker on the page, and I'm sharing it with you below.

Brennan was actually thinking of our trip to San Antonio for Fall break 2007 when we visited our friends Tom and Lorie and went to Sea World.

Oh they were so cute and little

Sea World isn't exactly an aquarium so I didn't really count it by itself, but let's toss it in with our weakly-photographed trip to Newport Aquarium and we'll call it seen!

Brennan really, really wanted to sit in the splash zone so I joined him.  The rest of our wimpy smart party sat safely away from the splash zone.

And here we are in Cincinnati.

Brennan's on the right.  So little!  I miss those little swirls in the back of his hair!

Petting the baby sharks

Stingrays

And here are the boys outside the Aquarium which is right on the Ohio River at the Kentucky/Ohio state line. 

They're just so little!

From the Book:

#21 - An Aquarium

It's really exciting to see a shark up close, but it's also nice to have a few feet of reinforced glass between you when you do.  Aquariums let you observe all kinds of coll underwater creatures that usually speed away when humans come near, or, in the case of sharks, that make humans speed away!  You can see rare tropical fish and sea anemones that only scuba divers usually get to see, and some aquariums even have adorable sea mammals such as dolphins, sea otters, seals, or manatees.  Watching all the creatures dive, float, flit, and flock through clear blue water in graceful motions almost puts you into a trance until:  snap!  It's feeding time and the shark opens up those big jaws for a bite to eat, reminding you that under the sea everybody is somebody else's lunch!