National Aquarium - Baltimore

We took the kids to the National Aquarium up in Baltimore, Maryland today.  It was the perfect outing during the cold weather.  

 We had to check in our stroller at the door for a carrier... which actually worked out much better for Tyler.  He could see EVERYTHING from behind Daddy! So we started our day in the underwater pavillion where we saw lots of fish, and turtles, and other aquatic creatures...

 

This little sea turtle was missing one of his front appendages.

It was pretty dark in this area so I didn't get many pictures taken... I think one of the kids' favorite things were the sharks.  We walked down these ramps along a giant coral reef and saw tons of different sharks floating right past us... it was kind of freaky.

Our next stop was the Dolphin Show! Nick decided that we should sit in the front row, a.k.a. THE SPLASH ZONE. 

 They had the dolphins do a couple 'drive bys' and splash the audience with their fins... we only got hit the second time around. Thank goodness we kept our coats with us, because they were the perfect shield to keep us dry!

The kids had a blast watching the show...

(my favorite pic of the day)

 (Kenzie was feeling a bit under the weather, but came along and had a great time... and avoided the camera)

Once we left the dolphin show, we headed to the Jelly Invasion exhibit.  We saw all kinds of different jellyfish... which most didn't photograph well, or maybe it was just the photographer....

 McKenzie took pics of them on her phone too...

And our last stop was the Australian Pavillion:

 This one made me nervous because of all the free flying (and free pooping) birds. I was just waiting to see who would get bombed first... but we all escaped without being hit! (Not too many pictures here either because I was on bird dropping patrol)

The kids were exhausted by the end of the day and half of them slept on the one and a half hour drive home.  I highly recommend this aquarium to anyone who is thinking about going! It's huge and they have lots of different things to see! We all had a great time!