A Day at the Aquarium

Charlotte and Max have become fans of Disney's Octonauts, a show about an intrepid band of cute critters who explore the Earth's oceans, seas and major river basins, coming to the rescue of whatever aquatic life is in need of assistance.  Of course, it was just a matter of time before this prompted another trip down to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.

Charlotte puts on a "two-finger touch" clinic at the tide pool touching exhibit, where one can actually touch starfish, sea urchins, anemones and other assorted creatures you might find in a shallow tide pool.

3 May 2014

The two-finger touch is, of course, the best way to touch animals in an aquarium ... provided it's OK to touch them.  That's also how we touched the moon jellies in another exhibit.

 Charlotte tried her own hand at photography.

3 May 2014

3 May 2014

What I saw is on the left; what Charlotte saw is on the right.  Her photograph was, of course, that of the giant Japanese spider crab.  (And I can't be the only one who thinks these creatures were almost certainly the inspiration for those nasty, little "face suckers" in the Alien movies.)

 Charlotte also took several pictures of the tropical reef exhibit.

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3 May 2014

At the right is one of the nearly 200 examples of her work!  (Hey, Daddy's iPhone is easy to use!)


Near the shark lagoon (featuring small sharks and sting rays one can pet) there is a play area that has some water features where one can splash and play.  Max and Charlotte really like this part of the aquarium.  Max really, really likes it!

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3 May 2014

And this has to be one of my favorites among all of the photos I've ever taken of Max. 

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But he's a pretty photographic kid; so I've got a lot of favorites.

And not only is he photographic, but, as anyone who's spent at least 1.68 seconds with the child knows, he's very outgoing.

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And he seems to find friends just about everywhere he goes!


After playing in the water, Charlotte and Max played in some water containing some bat rays (and flounders and shovelnose guitarfish).

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The bat rays are not at all shy.  Charlotte and Max got to touch them, putting their hands not much deeper than Charlotte is doing in the picture above.

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A large grouper puts on a show for Charlotte (picture by Charlotte).


Below are two creatures seen in two of the Octonauts episodes that motivated our trip.

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3 May 2014

There's a poisonous lionfish on the left and a leafy sea dragon on the right (picture by Charlotte).

We plan to visit the world-renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium next month.  I wonder what animals featured on Octonauts we'll get to see!


--- Shawn (for Jenn and Charlotte and Max and Lucy and Rufus)