Showing posts with label Aquarium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aquarium. Show all posts

Saturday, May 4, 2013

National Zoo

We had such a great day at the National Zoo! The animals could not have been more entertaining! The weather was awesome for the end of November/beginning of December too which always helps with any zoo experience. :) The pandas are obviously at the top of the agenda for any visit to the National Zoo. This particular day they were extremely active and especially fun to watch.
 This was the first time we visited the bird house at the National Zoo, but all the kids enjoyed it especially since we saw/participated in a feeding. Having said that, Jackson is my bird and fish guy. The girls really don't care but he has always been much more interested them. And as you can see this Rhea was interested in Jackson too! :) 
 The cheetahs were also very active and walking around and chirping
The National Zoo has been working on a new elephant enclosure since before we left DC. They have completed one section, which we were able to enjoy, but are continuing their improvements. Since Reagan had a very loose first tooth we learned all about the elephants teeth as well as the care of them from one of the zookeepers.
 We also learned all about elephant poop which is part of the new exhibit. Here Reagan and Jackson are checking out an example of elephant dung and what zookeppers and scientists can learn from it.
Carousel rides appear to have become a part of all our zoo visits :) 


The orangutans at the National Zoo have the freedom to travel to a couple different enclosures by working their way across ropes overhead. We were lucky enough to see a couple of them doing this. They are a lot of fun to watch! It was especially neat since we had just seen the 3-D IMAX film "Born To Be Wild" which included oraguntans the day before. 
 We ran across this little snake on our way out of the zoo. Jackson was by far the most excited about it as the girls aren't quite sure they're snake fans. :)

As you can see we had a great day at the National Zoo! :)


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Gatlinburg Aquarium

On July 5th, we headed to the Gatlinburg Aquarium. This was our first trip to this aquarium. Jackson enjoys/ed the fish but I have to say the girls are still not real impressed. I guess they're just mammal type of gals. :) Here's my "happy" crew at the penguin exhibit. We had to work pretty hard to get this picture of all three of them. lol :)
 Once the other two left Missy K decided to cooperate...
 Both girls loved scooting under the tunnels to pop up surrounded by the penguins
 Grand-Dad captured this picture, apparently the penguins were feeling more cooperative than my children
 Everyone enjoyed getting the real fish experience


 The girls pretending to be deep sea divers

 You could open this barrel and things would pop up. Jackson thought this was hilarious! :)
 Daddy and Jackson checking out the sharks


 Reagan watching the fish in a large tank near the entrance/exit
 These jellyfish were so pretty and interesting to watch

 I don't know that any of the kids were ever brave enough to actually touch the horseshoe crabs, but they did like having the opportunity to stick their hands in the water.
 The highlight of the day for the girls was seeing and meeting a couple of mermaids. They caught the end of one show and we actually had to stay an extra hour just to see the entire mermaid show.
 Reagan and Kennedy with one of the mermaids