Mini-Vacation: Big D

We've got a week off from school - YAY - and we started it off right with a mini-vacation to the Big D! It's only a few hours away and makes for a nice break from small, village-like living. We enjoyed copious amounts of yummy American food and loved hanging with our friends. It was a wonderful 3 days - gosh, I wish it could have been longer!

One of the highlights from the trip is that we went to an aquarium and underwater zoo. It was FABULOUS! With our ticket, we got to walk through this tunnel that goes through the middle of the gigantic aquarium. Here's the first picture I took, right as we walked in:

My favorite part of the aquarium was the first 15 or so feet of the tunnel. We loved it so much we went back through it again, just to see it! And what was IT? 

SHARKS!

 Look how close we are! I mean, these pictures are from my iPhone. I'm not zoomed in at all! It's just that in this first part of the tunnel, the aquarium folks have surrounded it with a cave-like atmosphere, and it's quite dark and I guess the sharks like it a lot and well... it makes for amazing pictures!

Nothing but 6 or so inches of glass/plexiglass/some kind of glass between us and all those teeth!

 Brad started counting and got up to 20. But who knows exactly how many there were!

Just so you can see proof of just how close we were!

 It's a dark picture, but I think this one turned out really cool - 4 layers of sharks!

We finally walked out into the light from the dark shark part.

 I'm not sure what this is, but it was resting right on the top of the tunnel so we got to see it's underbelly.

 My attempts at getting a picture of both girlies...

 Lucy was jumping when she finally turned around. She was super excited to be there!

 But that makes for blurry pictures...

 At least Brad would stand still! 

 And the typical Brad/Alison picture

 Then with a squished Lucy in between

 Then we went back to the shark part because, well, we paid for it and it was SUPER cool!

 Looking back down the tunnel

 There were 2 divers trying to feed the sharks. A few of the aquarium workers were in the tunnel with us watching the divers try to feed the sharks, so I naturally approached them and started asking questions. (Blatant lack of signage in the aquarium was my only complaint!) So, apparently the sharks were being fed squid that had some vitamin/nutrient tablets shoved inside them. The sharks were NOT fans of this new food. Plus, we were told this wasn't their usual feeding time and they are quite clever, so they probably could sense something was different, if not smell the difference when the squid was held up to their mouths. The two divers had long poles that they stuck the squid to and then swam up close to the mouth of the cave/shark part and then stuck the poles in. 

The worker adamantly told me that they never go inside the shark cave/part. I completely understand. 

 After the very cool tunnel, we went upstairs to the Underwater Zoo. All the animals they have there live in environments with or directly in water. 

These are called Water Rats. Yep. RATS. They are huge! They are native to South America. Gross.

 Pretty fish!

Oh, there was a tank that had all the different kinds of fish from the movie Finding Nemo. I didn't get a picture, but it was pretty cool to have them in there all together. 

 This is a Giant Puffer Fish. Looks like a Pig Fish to me!

 This is a glass floor over the 10 Million gallons of water in the huge aquarium below. The girls were nervous to step on it. 

 Lucy loved this part! You could climb underneath and then stick your head up in this bubble that went inside the tank. She thought it was her tent. We had a hard time getting her to come out! (We all went in!)

 BIG Ole Boa!

 Spider Crabs. Creepy and BIG!

Penguins! This was my first time to see penguins. They are fun to watch and very active!

 And just as hard as getting a penguin to stay still for a picture, you can see that Lucy wasn't too into stopping for one, either!

 Seahorse

 I can't remember what these are called, but they were cool worm-like things that are half buried in the sand and they float there waiting for food. And when a predator comes by, they just sink back down into the sand. 

You know, as much as I've always loved animals, this was my first aquarium experience! Hard to believe, actually. And I'm certain that when we're in the US this year, we'll head to the TN Aquarium. I've heard amazing things about it! Anyone wanna go with us?