Julia was very excited about this trip. We all ate lunch at Chili's on 16th Street, although Stacey and I had to eat separately since Jonathan was extremely fussy. While one ate with Julia the other entertained Jonathan in the parking garage, the bar (TVs), etc. After lunch we found our way to the aquarium via the same road as the REI flagship store (Denver and Seattle are the two flagship locations).
The aquarium is pretty expensive - it would run a family of four about $50 in admission. I'm sure it costs a lot of money to run the aquarium. For a once a year or every other year adventure it's worth it. Earlier that morning I had shown Julia a picture of a shark, so that's all she was interested in seeing from the moment we got there. Eventually we just decided to walk through the exhibits until we could show her a shark so that she'd stop asking about it. We also spent a lot of time watching the tiger. Jules was pressed up against the glass to see the tiger at one point and it walked straight at her. He walked straight at her and got so close that their noses were almost touching. That was a little too close for comfort and caused Julia to jump back from the glass. The tiger really did look like it was coming straight for her.
I won't list everything we saw there (or post tons of pictures of the sea life)...lots of fish, a huge snapping turtle, sea otters, sharks, jellyfish, sea turtles, a small "Finding Nemo" tank, rays, etc. There were 2 or 3 very large tanks with huge viewing areas that contained the large sea life and countless little tanks for everything else. At the end of the exhibit all of the kids were crowded around a shallow pool filled with rays that you could touch. Julia wanted to touch one but was too timid to actually do it herself. I "helped" her touch the top of one as it swam by and she let out a laugh-cry mix when she felt it. The ray was a little slimy and probably not like anything she had ever felt before (not too mention it was a weird creature she'd never seen before). She was happy that she got to touch it.
A trip to aquarium isn't complete without an overpriced souvenir. When we walked through the gift shop on the way out Julia headed straight for the sippy cup section. She is now the proud new owner of a "sharkie" sippy cup...as evidenced by a few of her "fake cheeseball" smiles in the pictures below.
