Finding Nemo (and a few dolphins and seahorses along the way)

Yesterday we all went to Baltimore and spent the day with the fishies. We had a lot of fun looking in all of the tanks and finding all of the colorful and bright fishes. One note though, for you all to keep in mind - the National Aquarium in Baltimore does not allow strollers. There is a stroller check and they will also provide you with a handy backpack carrier. Let me note, this is not a high end carrier and does not keep the full (if any) weight of a wiggling 23 pound Jeffrey off your shoulders. Neither does it provide earplugs for the unfortunate soul to carry Jeffrey while he screamed "DAAAHHHHN" (down) for what felt like hours on end. Just keep all that in mind :)

We arrived at the aquarium early enough to beat much of the daily crowd. Got inside, checked the stroller and diaper bag and picked up the pack for Jeffrey. Got him situated and moved upstairs to look at the ray tank. Erin was fascinated with the ray tank for approximately 10.3 seconds until a larger ray swam near the top and startled her. That was the end of the ray tank for her. Jeffrey was rather amused by it and pointed out all the rays he saw. We also found a tortoise and few sharks in the ray tank. Since our Dolphin Show was at 11:30 we decided to pass the time looking around the exhibits on the first floor before heading up into the main exhibit area. Erin enjoyed looking at the seahorses and also at a "jungle" of big tubes filled with water and bubbles that she could hide among.

We walked across to the dolphin area and the kids pointed out every seagull and duck in the harbor. Since we were still early for the dolphin show we thought Erin would like the exploratory area (the touch tank). WRONG. The first thing she saw was a horseshoe crab and that was the end of that. We tried showing her a few other things but she just screamed in terror. Note - don't show Erin the horseshoe crabs first. We continued to wander around, Erin with her Uncle Jonathan, Noni, Oma and I taking turns wrestling with Jeffrey who at this point had found himself freedom from the backpack.

One they started letting people in for the show we found some seats in the last row of the "splash zone" on the far side of the area. Jeffrey wiggled and wiggled, but I finally got him calm. Erin sat with Uncle Jonathan and used up most of an entire roll of film from her camera taking pictures of the dolphins (or possibly of the back of the head of the man who was sitting in front of her - we'll see soon). Erin LOVED the dolphin show and there was enough music and action to keep Jeff's interest as well. We managed to escape getting splashed much (Erin got a little wet on the leg) and left the dolphin show energized, ready to eat lunch and tackle the rest of the aquarium.

20 minutes, 4 orders of chicken fingers, 1 hot dog and $40 later we were done with lunch (next time I'll remember to pack PB&J). We headed over to the main exhibit building and moved upstairs to the tanks. Jeffrey - again restrained to the backpack - gave in to the fight for a while and enjoyed the scenery. The first level of exhibits had primarily fresh water and local fish so Erin flew through that rather quickly. The next level had all the tropical fish. And this is where Erin got really excited. She ran up to the tank screaming - Nemo Nemo Nemo. And sure enough, there was a clown fish swimming in an anemone right at the front of the tank. We stood and watched that tank for quite a while. Until Jeffrey again declared his dislike for the backpack and I gave in to having to carry him for the rest of the afternoon. On that floor we also found Dory and a couple of Nemo's other friends.

The rest of the exhibits were relatively un-interesting to Erin - although I found the octopus quite cool and could watch the coral reef tank for hours. We made a quick trip up to the Amazon Rainforest exhibit (and no, there were no monkeys to be seen). Erin found a few brightly colored birds to snap photos of and liked the mist coming down from the ceiling. Jeffrey wiggled.

We started the descent down through the Atlantic reef tank and subsequently the shark tank. Erin will tell you she loved the sharks, but really I think she was terrified by them. She certainly didn't want to slow down to look at them. At this point Jeffrey had been sitting on my left hip/arm for about 45 minutes and I was starting to go numb so I moved a little more quickly downstairs, turned in the backpack and got the stroller and diaper bag. Changed a very wet Jeffrey and met up with the rest of the troops.

As we walked out of the aquarium we all heaved a big sigh - it was really a lot of fun but every single one of us was completely and totally exhausted. It's going to be a while before we return to the Aquarium I think.