Friday, November 16, 2007

Show & Tell {Baltimore Aquarium}

How convenient for me that we went on a school trip this week - now I have some pictures for Show & Tell, hosted by CanadaGirl.  Check out her blog for other Show & Tells this week.

Wednesday was our trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  I should start out by saying that I didn't expect to get many pictures - there's probably a setting or something on my camera that would make it easier to get pictures of something other than a flash against the glass wall of an aquarium tank or the surface of the water, but I didn't find what it was.  So my pictures are mostly of land animals, which is rather ironic.  Visit to the aquarium = pictures of birds and monkeys. Weird.

We decided to take the metro, which may or may not have been a good idea.  It might have been a better idea if: 1) I had found the information telling us which station to get off at; and/or 2) the "tourist help" signs in Baltimore were consistent and accurate.  At any rate, we walked more than was strictly necessary and I think I have shin splints now.  But we did arrive safely in time to meet our group (barely!)  and the fun began.  Our first stop was for a quick picture with the shark jaws at the top of the stairs:



These are Megaladon jaws.  If you go round the back of it you can see all the rows of teeth too.  Naturally the sign indicates that it is from a "prehistoric" Megaladon.  Whatever.

The main attraction was the dolphin show.  Kennady was really looking forward to this.  We chose seats near the center, one row above the "splash zone" which worked out pretty well.  We had a good view and didn't get wet.  I tried grabbing a few pictures here and there during the show, but they aren't very clear.  I actually snapped and hoped for the best most of the time, and then deleted all the pictures of just a splash.  LOL





(in the above photo, the dolphin is swimming on its back with a little toy dolphin on its chest)







After the show, we went back down to the Aquarium Cafe for lunch.  Does anyone else besides me think it is just a little disturbing that fish sandwiches are on the menu at the aquarium???  I just kept thinking of Bruce from "Finding Nemo" - "Fish are friends, not food."



We shared a pizza and I grabbed a couple of candid shots of the kids at the table.  (And Kennady took one of me.)



Spencer wound up as just a silhouette:









Here's the view from the top of the waterfall:



I got lucky enough later on get a pretty good shot of a red lion tamarin:



I didn't even have to zoom in much for that picture.  These little guys are rarely still for long enough to get them into your viewfinder, never mind close enough to get a good picture! This one found something to eat and decided to sit for a minute.

The feature exhibit this season is "Frogs!"  and it was really interesting.  Of course the frogs were all behind glass, so once again - no pictures.  Harrison and Kennady did pose in front of this picture of a tree frog and I thought this was a cute photo. 



We really had a lot of fun and even Harrison admitted he'd had a good time (to the LORD during bedtime prayers, he would not say that directly to me).  So we don't have a lot of pictures - oh well!

Time to go!

13 comments:

naturalpaths said...

Looks like a fantastic place for a field trip and sounds like all of you had a great time!

blessedwith2angels said...

Looks like you had a lot of fun. My kids love to ride the metro. We don't have one in our area.

Pam

Kinley said...

Looks like a ton of fun!!!


Kristy

SuzyScribbles said...

I love the zoo and aquarium. We have a set of jaws just like this at our zoo! It is a giant shark's jaws!

Brings back memories. I MUST take the grandkids to the zoo!

blessinghill said...

Does look like you guys had a great time. I love the picture with everyone in the sharks mouth.

bakerswife said...

Beautiful photos! We were there many years ago and enjoyed it immensley. Fish sandwiches....hmmmmm?

Blessings to you my friend,

Mama Karen

Canadagirl said...

What a GREAT day for family fun AND learning. Hitting two birds with one stone ( well three b/c you had S&T material [ 0;) is a BIG success. I loved ALL your pics. I can't wait till we visit Nana near Seattle Wa. in June and we can go to the aquarium and zoo. [ 0=


Blessings and ((hugs)) my SSiC

In Him<><

-Mary

smokeybutter said...

That sounds like a great field trip. I loved the pictures of the dolphin show, and the pic of the kids in the sharks mouth was funny. Reminded me of Finding Nemo. I think my kids would love to see a dolphin show, but we don't live near the coast, and all of the aquariums any distance from us don't have dolphins. Someday perhaps we'll make it to the coast and catch a dolphin show. Sea World sounds good to me.


Blessings,

Missy

BChsMamaof3 said...

What a great field trip! I love the photo of the kids in Bruce's mouth *grin* Great show and tell :)

Blessings to you and your family,

BChsMamaof3

CrossView said...

Ooh! I'm jealous! It would be a three hour trip, one way, for me to take mine to anything like that. One of the reasons I miss living in the city. =D


LOL @ "Visit to the aquarium = pictures of birds and monkeys."


I love dolphins!

ReviewsbyHeidi said...

....a few months ago. You definitely got much better pictures of the dolphin show than we did. We were up pretty high and off to the right. We drove right into the city and parked in a garage~ didn't have far to walk at all.

Heidi

Haflingerhorses said...

What a great field trip!

Antoinette

DanielleW said...

Great pictures!!! I love the one of all the kids in the shark's mouth! I even think they are all smiling. ;o)

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