Our Labor Day trip, Pt 2

(Pt 1 being San Juan Capistrano.)

We also hit up the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Because, well, it's me.. and an aquarium... so of course we had to stop by :)

I really liked it - a very good aquarium. The Aquarium of the Pacific is like the Monterrey Aquarium or the Virginia Marine Science Museum (now the VA Aquarium). It's a very good learning aquarium, not just big tanks of fish. Lots of good fun facts, descriptions of the fish and their habits and habitats, good interactive exhibits. That was my biggest frustration with the GA Aquarium in Atlanta - not enough interactiveness, not enough to read. Beautiful tanks, lots of good animals there, but not as much to read or do. But the Aquarium of the Pacific is very good about that. It's been around 10 years this year, too, so I think that helps - more time to get those interactive displays going.

There were a lot of touch tanks, too, which is always fun. I love sting ray tanks. The cownose rays are just so cute! Those are east coast rays though, I think, because I didn't see any in the touch tanks here. There was a tank that had sharks to pet, too. Something very unusual! It's neat feeling sharkskin, though, because it's so much rougher than you expect. They don't have scales, but small cartilage pieces called denticles. And now you know :)

One of the points we really enjoyed was the lorikeet forest. The lorikeets LOVED Zach! At one point he had 3 of them perched on his arm! He enjoyed feeling like a pirate for a moment there :) The lorikeets are very fearless when it comes to getting their nectar, though. Will land right on you and settle in to lap up that sweet stuff. It's really fun to watch, because you can see their tongues busily sipping away!

The Aquarium of the Pacific is definitely worth a stop. However, don't make our mistake and go on a holiday. Or mid-afternoon. Or both. It gets busy. That's a good sign in a way - because it's such a good stop, people want to go see it. For us, it meant that our last several exhibits were zipped through rather quickly. They were getting a touch overcrowded with families of small children. Like I said, it's popular - you just have to plan for it. No biggie. :)