Baltimore Aquarium

Last Saturday, we drove to Baltimore to visit the National Aquarium. Ryan and I had been here once before, but for a short time on a Friday evening because we were in town for work. Both of us remembered the amazing pool of sting rays, sharks and turtles with the escalator that went back and forth to the levels above the pool.
Still as fun as we remembered, too bad the entire DC metro area decided to come see it as well. At least the Aquarium bans strollers, so instead of getting bashed in the ankles by people not paying attention, we laughed at the escaping toddlers running free. You could tell the parents who were prepared - backpacks for the infants and leashes for the toddlers.

The tropical rainforest was bright, probably still reflecting off the piles of snow outside. Here a sloth sleeps in a tree.

These parrots were alert as they followed a worker around who was holding a food dish.

There was an interesting new exhibit on jellyfish and how the changing currents and ocean temperature has brought them to new habitats with no predators.

More jellyfish.

These jellyfish were kind of strange. They just sit on the bottom and pretend to be anemones.

Too bad I forgot to write down the names of the different kinds.

We decided to go to the dolphin show. The pools in the back held the dolphins not in the show who were getting fed fish. The dolphins who were in the show started doing their tricks on their own in hopes of getting fed as well, but they had to wait.

Posing for the crowd.

The grand finale - a gigantic leap in the air.

As we walked back to the car, we had a visual reminder of how cold and how much snow Baltimore has received - since they had up to twice what parts of DC had received. These ducks are walking on ice in the Baltimore Harbor.

After we made it back close to home, we decided to go out to dinner. Wasn't until we had ordered, that I realized we had stuck with the theme. First we saw fish, and then we got to eat them!