Kentucky!! the newport aquarium.

We've been meaning to check out the Newport aquarium for ages now- and with Kent having an afternoon off- yesterday was the perfect day for it!  Around lunchtime we drove down to Kentucky (right on the Cincinnati border) and spent the day running after sea creatures.

Metta LOVED every second of the day.  She had the most fun of us all- and we didn't even have to buy her a ticket!!  Kent had her chasing sharks through the giant tunnels and she giggled and laughed so much she kept falling over.

She was far more keen on touching all of the crabs and starfish and other tide pool animals than the boys were.  They obliged but weren't very enthusiastic.  Metta wanted to get in the water with the sea urchins.

giant snake of some sort.

Zeb loved reading about each exhibit.  These giant crabs were his favorite. He taught us a lot about his readings.

they were HUMONGOUS.  in the wild they can be 13 feet in length. and they can live up to 100 years.

I loved the big shark tanks.  they've got the world's biggest collections of shark rays.  Standing up against the glass was pretty crazy.  You feel like you are with the sharks!!

The 'faces' on the bottom of the rays are pretty creepy. and cute all at the same time.


  And speaking of rays- did anybody see that terrible "Tampa Rays" baseball sign joke?!  it's awful.  too soon.  although I did have to stifle a laugh.  only because it was so inappropriate.

 we totally lucked out with an empty museum (minus the giant school group that arrived at the same time as us!- but we let them go ahead of us and sat and waited for a few minutes until they left) for the day and got the displays all to ourselves.

They had an entire enclosure dedicated to these birds.  I kept thinking I'd seen these birds somewhere else before- and then we read a sign that said they were "australia's bird".  Check out this post- about our Australia adventures.  You'll see the very same birds- only in the wild.  As I was rereading my Australia posts- I realized I really need another vacation!!!

We bought a little cup of nectar to feed them and the kiddos loved it.

Metta was so enthralled by all of the fun animals!!  She grabbed the cup of nectar from my hand and took a sip.  She's fine today- so I'm assuming she didn't contract bird flu or any other strange ailment.

It really is so fun to see the world with a child's perspective.  So exciting.

such a cute smile.  rather unruly hair.

 

 There was an entire jellyfish room at the aquarium.  I love jellyfish.

the tunnels were my favorite part of the day.  we walked through them over and over and over again.  Metta ran through them.

she could have spent all day chasing the sharks.

the only thing the boys refused to do was pet the sharks.  they had a full tank of 20 or so different sharks to pet but zeb and Ike wanted nothing to do with them.

the penguins were my least favorite part of the day- but only because compared to everything else they seemed so far away.  You could pet a penguin for 25 dollars- but that wasn't in the budget :)

the aquarium is on the levee along the Ohio River.  There's a river walk and a mall of sorts to walk around.

and a candy store with delicious fudge and nerds :)

for dinner we ate at Tom + Chee's on the levee.  A fabulous eatery based around grilled cheese and tomato soup!!! yum. I got swiss and turkey with pickles on wheat with tomato basil soup.  It was PURE HEAVEN.  I love grilled cheese.

Metta is a holy terror at restaurants.  We can get her to sit still for about 7 minutes if we put a pile of ice in front of her.  

our day was splendid and made me again grateful for the opportunity to live in new places and explore new things.  Even though it's still a year away- it makes me excited for our next adventure!!