National Aquarium in Baltimore

The forecast for Friday was not very good, so we chose to drive to the Inner Harbor of Baltimore and check out the National Aquarium.  The weather ended up being beautiful, but the aquarium was great and the kids loved it!  It was very dark inside most of the aquarium, so we didn't end up with too many pictures.  Thanks, Dad, for using your camera so I didn't have to lug mine around!  I obviously didn't take the picture above...just thought you all should see how beautiful it is in the harbor!

Lucy and Ella standing by the jaws of a megalodon shark.

Here we are at the Dolphin Show, which the girls LOVED!

The main exhibit area sends you from floor to floor by moving walkways.  Each floor has tanks on the outer walls and has open areas in the center where you can look all the way down to the bottom floor into a huge stingray pool.
The very top floor is a Tropical Rain Forest, complete with waterfalls.  To get back down to the first floor, you walk down a zig-zag ramp that is completely surrounded by a four story coral reef tank.  Lucy started off the walk wanting to stop at every single window of the tank!  At the bottom there is an unbelievable shark tank and underwater viewing of the stingray pool.  Our timing could not have been better...just as we got off the ramp, we saw a scuba diver swimming to the window.  He started feeding the rays and put on an amazing show with them...the girls were mesmerized!

After a stop at the gift shop, we left the aquarium and had a late lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe right in the harbor.  If you look at the picture at the top of the post, you'll see the huge guitar to the left of the aquarium.  Mom, dad, and I all had burgers and the girls inhaled their macaroni and hot dogs--we were starving!  We thought for sure the girls would sleep on the drive home, but they stayed wide awake and managed to talk the entire drive through rush hour traffic...another day without a nap!

By the time we got home we were all exhausted...we gave the girls baths and watched Sleeping Beauty!  Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa, for another fun day!