Aquarium of the Pacific

One of my good friends from Vegas, Kat, got married last summer and moved to Seal Beach. Well, she just had a baby last month and they are now moving to Seattle so, we decided to take the day and go down to see them before they left. However, I forgot to take my camera inside so I forgot to get pictures of her and her family....

Since we were already there, we decided to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. It was so cool!! Plus, they have a deal where you can get a ticket to the aquarium and the LA Zoo for only $26 (the aquarium is usually $23 just by itself) and you have up to a year to use the other ticket! Don't worry, I'll post pictures of the zoo when we go.


First we hit some of the touch pools. Emma was a little freaked out and wouldn't put her hand in the water. But she loved watching all the "sharks" swimming around.


Then we went over to a play area where Lucas showed off his new skill....WALKING!!! That's right....I SAID WALKING!!! He started about a week ago and is getting pretty good at maneuvering himself around.

Emma got to be the "Queen of the world!" (Get it...from Titanic??)



Next we saw the sea lions and the seals. Emma and I went right up to the the plexi glass and watched them swim around. She got such a kick out of the seal (or is it a sea lion? I can't tell a difference) that got into the tub to "take a bath".

We also went to a tide pool touch pond where Emma got brave and actually felt some of the starfish and anemones that they had. I think it was because none of them were actually moving.


Then we went inside where we saw LOTS AND LOTS of fish....

A seahorse or two...


And some really pretty coral...

And some weird little girl sitting by the glass...

And this really hot, almost bald guy who was watching all the fish....oh wait, that's MY HOT ALMOST BALD GUY!! Back off ladies, he's taken!!


If you can't tell, Emma was fascinated with all the fish and stingrays and sharks and turtles and eels.

How did Lucas like it? Well, at first he was pretty excited to see all the things but....
after a while, it got to be too much and he crashed for the rest of the time we were there.



The most colorful fish were the ones that can change their sex depending on how many males or females are present. They were so bright. These pictures don't do them any justice.




Right before we left, they had some divers in a huge aquarium that were feeding the fish. Those fish swarmed the divers and ate it all up. We absolutely loved the aquarium (Emma keeps asking when we can go back) and I highly recommend it to anyone! However, may I suggest going on a weekday in the winter??? It was a little crowded on a Saturday in the summer.

On the way down, our car rolled over 100,000 miles!! We have had it for 5 years now and she is still going strong (despite the deer incident in November).