We started with penguins. The best part about the penguin exhibit was not the penguins, obviously. It was the climbing! Our little climber had to be torn away from the steps in front of the penguins' window.
He may have noticed a few penguins, the jury's still out.
The big one, on the other hand, he was in the know. The steps sang a siren song to him as well, but he got a kick out of watching the pinguinos. He even got to stand right up next to one and pose with it! It was of the statue variety, so wasn't overly animated, but a three year old with ants in his pants is plenty of animation for a photograph. (and no, I'm sorry, the photograph is not included here. It's probably still on Daddy's iphone or something. These things happen. I'll try to get my act together.)
We moved on to a few other outdoor friends. Such as this little fellow..
He could never compare to THIS:
It's almost like the people at the Aquarium of the Pacific had Tiny People in mind when they designed this space.. so cool! And so fun! Even for Less Tiny People! (That's a look into the penguins' pool again, in case you were wondering.)
There were many wonders to discover inside as well. And, there were many reasons we were thankful that we weren't literally swimming with the fishes, but one of them was THIS:
This giant fish (it was definitely bigger than it looks in this picture) seemed very intent on getting to know our biggest Tiny Person. He STARED. He stared long time. Aed thought it was super awesome. And he was right. But I couldn't help wondering if the giant fish thought he looked like a tasty yellow morsel. :)
Also, very fun for the tactilely-driven among us, we got to touch sea urchins! And starfish! And they were weird and prickly and slightly in danger of being mangled by a one-year-old! The water was freezing, but it was so fun.
Aed's favorite part, to this day, was the jellyfish. I think we could have watched the jellyfish for a very long time. He is very intrigued by sea-dwellers of all sorts (especially giant squids), but man, those jellyfish are extra special.
Sweet, sweet.
We got to play on some boats and touch stingrays and sharks. And I'm pretty sure the usual fits were thrown when it was time to leave. But, we made up for it with a shrimpy dinner..
Mmm, mmm, good!
