aquarium

Our zoo membership expires at the beginning of February, so we decided to take Liam for one last trip. It also served as a special trip for just the three of us before the baby arrives. Because it was cold, we just walked straight to the aquarium. We started in the underwater viewing tunnels, where the sharks are the first exhibit. Although Liam was impressed by the sharks, he was also slightly afraid of them! He was content in his stroller, rather than getting too close to the sharks, and within minutes he was saying "Bye-bye, sharks!". We then moved on to the sea otters which were really fun to watch! They love to play with people through the glass and kept diving down to see Bo. Bo would pretend to kiss them each time they swam up to him, which Liam found hilarious.

The last underwater tunnel is where you can sometimes see the polar bears swimming, but they weren't swimming when we walked through.

You have to walk outside from the underwater tanks to get to the main aquarium building. We saw the polar bear hanging out on the rocks as we passed (you can see him behind Liam).

Inside the main building, Liam loved walking past all the fish tanks, and he found the penguins especially funny to watch. After we left the main building, we walked back outside to see the polar bear. He was in the water getting fed from above, so we raced back down to the tunnels to see him. We got really lucky - some specialists in the tunnels were working on a training program with the polar bear. One person would use a signaling wand to get the bear's attention, make him stand underwater for a little, then motion for him to go back up to the surface, where he would be rewarded with fish. It was so much fun to watch!

We had to get Liam home for a nap, but as we were leaving he was requesting all kinds of animals. It was sad that we didn't get to see all of them, but we did pass the tigers, whose babies were running in the snow, wrestling with each other, and attacking trees.